Setting Goals (when it’s only you)

In preparation of the upcoming NaNoWriMo season, I’ve been doing my best to start to get some of my ducks in a row. At the beginning of the year, I committed myself to writing more, but the last few months that has been next to impossible to achieve. However, if there’s one thing a writers’ conference can inspire, it’s renewing the need to write.

I’ll admit, I’m still on the fence when it comes to what exactly I’ll be writing this November. Either I’m going to be doing a fresh wave of editing (the horror! the horror!), or I’ll be attempting to venture into a realm I’ve only started to develop that is going to be massive. Think Frank Herbert’s Dune sort of massive (though I hope not six books worth plus bonus books after my death). Either is a bit daunting, but that brings me back to the idea of what goals I have to set.

I think, as a would-be writer, one of the hardest goals to adhere to is editing. I can’t think of anyone who really enjoys editing. I can be good at it, when I need to, I can be downright brutal to a work that needs it, but that doesn’t mean I’m really enjoying that. What I do enjoy is coming back when all is said and done and appreciating all of my efforts. I had initially set a goal for myself of having my edits done by the end of June, but then life interceded, and here we are.

Another goal had been to roll out a renewed version of my book The Other Side of the Looking Glass. Initially the roll out date had been set for June as well. Well…yeah. So now that goal is November 1st. It was, after all, one of the first books I published courtesy of NaNoWriMo goodies. The goals have to remain flexible when everything is dependent on time found around a full time job and moving and still dealing with long covid. But I think that’s part of the positive and the negative of setting them.

As a self-publisher, I need to keep to goals. Otherwise I won’t get anywhere (see the last five plus years as proof). But as a self-publisher and would-be writer, I also need to accept that sometimes things won’t go according to plan, and sometimes that is okay too. The one thing that must stay in sight is to have the goals, and to stay true to my own mission. And that mission is currently taking about six months longer than initially planned, but that’s okay too. As long as I don’t give up, then I’ll have something to show.

So for fellow would-be writers, please remember to be kind to yourself. Sometimes we just can’t write, even though we want to. And sometimes even our best laid plans aren’t going to go as smoothly as we might like. The important thing is that we remember that we are writers and why we write. And if we can remember that, then we can remember why we made those plans in the first place.

Until next time –

L.E.

P.S. In preparation of NaNoWriMo, I’m having to really work on getting everything wrapped up and all characters in line, so this was fitting.