New Year Planning Part I – What Are Your Writing Goals?

I know, right about now, you’re probably like, can I just finish this year and then worry about next year? And you can – of course you can. You can (and should) do your planning throughout the year, in fact, recalibrating your goals as needed. What you think will work next year right now, may need some tweaks as you go.  

But now is the perfect time to take stock, assess what you did this year, and plan for next.  

Set aside some time for this, at least a half hour, preferably an hour. Grab a pen and a journal (yes, writing by hand works best for this type of exercise). You might want to set the mood: music, a candle or incense, a few minutes of meditation to settle in.  

First, go over this year’s goals: How did you do? Did you meet them? Go beyond them? Fall behind and never got caught up? Did they change as the year went on? Be honest with yourself here.  

Congratulate yourself on whatever you managed to accomplish. What supported your writing? What would you like more of next year?  

If you didn’t accomplish all your goals, why not? What held you back? How can you eliminate, circumvent, or change these factors for next year? If there are things you cannot change, how can you prioritize your writing? Because that is what it comes down to in the end.  

If you’re not happy with the progress you are making, only you can decide to do something about it.  Often we say, for example, that we have “no time” to write. And yet somehow, we manage to squeeze in ten other things that seem to be a priority. Where does your writing fall on your list of priorities?   

Jennifer Louden, in her book Why Bother? talks about “shadow comforts” and “time monsters.” Shadow comforts are the things you do that give you short-term pleasure but aren’t really moving you toward your deepest desires (napping, shopping, eating junk food). Time monsters are the time-wasters that can suck you in, and before you know it, an hour has flown by (tv, email, web surfing/scrolling, social media, etc.). Time monsters can also be things like feeing expected to be constantly at the beck and call of other people, or dealing with endless household tasks like laundry and dishes.  

She’s clear to point out that you don’t need to fully eliminate them (it would be impossible anyway) but to be aware of when you are doing them and why. We all need comforts, and we all have stuff to do that isn’t necessarily our deepest desire but still needs to get done. But if you are using these activities to avoid doing the hard work of creating, you need to pay attention in the moment. Maybe ask yourself, Is this what I truly need or want right now? Is this what I truly have to do right now?  

Which brings us back to: Where is writing on your list of priorities? I mean, where is it really? Again, be honest. Acknowledging where you are is the first step to deciding if you need to, or want to, change. The important thing is to find something you can work with, because I will tell you right now that setting yourself up for a constant fight with yourself will be a major demotivator. Writing is hard work. If the battle to get yourself do it is exhausting, you’ll wear yourself out before you even begin.  

Also, what other areas of your life do you have goals or intentions for? Where do they sit on the priority list? How much time and energy will they take? Writing doesn’t exist in a vacuum, although sometimes we pretend it does.  

Finally, consider: Did you have a plan? How detailed was it? Did it help or hinder you? Did you make an intention and then forget it? Did you start strong and then peter out? Again, look at what worked, what didn’t, and think about what you’d like to change or keep the same for next year.  

Once you’ve dealt with this year, you can turn to the next.  

Think about two things: What you can control, and what you can’t.  

Be sure you focus on things you can control. For example, one goal might be “get an agent by the end of the year.” That’s awesome, but there is no way to guarantee an agent will take you on. What you can control are things like:  

I will learn how to write a kick-ass query letter 

I will finally conquer the dreaded synopsis 

I will learn what a pitch is and how to write one (or use it to talk about my book) 

I will spend two hours per week researching agents 

I will aim to write and send 2-3 query letters per week 

I will look up the dates for Twitter pitch contests and plan to enter them 

And so on... 

You can see how one goal may be made up of many smaller pieces. Do this breakdown for each of your goals: 

First, write down your Big-Ass Scary Goal. 

Then, write down the actionable steps you can take to make it happen (you can do this as a list or a mind map). 

Once you have a full list, you might not decide to tackle all of them after all. That’s okay! If you have them all out on the page you will be able to see them much more clearly, and what they actually entail. What you want to aim for is a balance between Big-Ass Scary Goals that will take some effort to accomplish, and overwhelming yourself to the point where you’re paralyzed and don’t do anything.  

When you have your list, look at it and ask yourself: 

Are my goals actionable?  

Are my goals realistic, based on the time I have and where I’m at in my process? 

What plan do I have to keep myself on track, or to get back on when (not if) I fall off? 

Then, figure out a timeline. It might help to break it down into quarterly goals, then monthly. Then, when you’re planning your weeks during the year, you can look at your monthly goals and see what you need to do that week to move toward them. It makes it easier to assess throughout the year where you are, and what you need to do or change.  

Obviously, in the case above, if you get an agent six months into the process, your goals will change. You’ll have new goals, such as “revising my book by X date so my agent can send it out on sub.” 

Do all your goals have to be year-long? No! Maybe your goal is to write the first draft of your novel in six months, then spend the next six revising.  

Maybe your goal is to take a screenwriting class, which starts in January and goes for eight weeks. You might not know exactly what you will do after that – take the advanced screenwriting class? Work on a screenplay on your own for a while? You can pencil in some ideas, and come back to it when you have a clearer notion of what will work for you.  

Do you need to set goals for the year? Do they need to be that detailed? It’s up to you. What has worked (or not) in the past? For some, setting goals and deadlines for their creative work sounds like a straitjacket. They set a general intention for a project or projects they want to accomplish in the near future, and maybe figure out how many hours per week they will devote to it, and that is enough.  

For others, though, vague intentions lead to vague plans and to putting it off until the time is right, or they feel ready, or... you know what happens. If you’re not already fully committed to prioritizing your creative work, it slides to the bottom of the pile and you end the year having done hardly anything.  

Only you know how you work best, but you have to be honest about it. It’s easy to over-commit or assume the positive in the first flush of enthusiasm. (It’s called future discounting, for those interested in the neuroscience behind it – our tendency to assume that we will feel as fired up in the future as we think we will right now, and to discount the idea of our future tiredness or lack of enthusiasm. If you put off writing today and promise yourself you’ll do it tomorrow, and firmly believe that you will feel more like doing it then, you’re future-discounting).  

Try working on your goals this week, and feel free to share in the comments! Next week we’ll talk more about concrete ways to prepare yourself for success in 2022.