Hello all! Welcome back to this blog… Let’s talk about writing and goals for 2024.
Does anyone knows how to set proper writing goals? I, sure as hell, never feel like I do.
To make it just numbers-as-achievements doesn’t work for me, because I’m a too slow writer for it. There’s no way I can find my flow in the constant run of writing whatever to accomplish a quota.
To make it project-related, always feel like I’m letting things fly away from me. Again, as I am a slow writer, I get myself into struggling with stuff, and then I pause the project until I figure it out.
So about my writing goals… I just know that I have these projects that I have been working on, and I need to get back to them.
Moving forward is always so hard, specially when I know I need to have some sense of a finish line. But I don’t know how to make that commitment. I’m certain it will come to me whenever it’s time.
Also, for me at this point, to plan some writing routine seems quite impossible. Life is happening here and it’s not warm and fuzzy. So, I know I’ll be writing. I know in which projects I’ll be writing. But I don’t know how I’ll manage the time to do it.
Still, pushing forward it is.
First, I know I need some new habits. Or, at least a return to my most productive habits. Things have been getting complicated on the domestic front, and my writing time has been absorbed by a lack of sleep discipline and tantrums. Not mine, though… Not that I don’t feel like throwing some… at this point.
I’m hoping 2024 will bring some new habits and, with them, nights made for actual sleep. And, with more sleep, I’ll finally be able to insert my morning writing routine on a proper hour… right around 6AM. But maybe this is just some wishful thinking.
So, about setting writing goals…
SMART GOALS
SPECIFIC: What do I want to achieve?
There are three Writing Projects, on different stages of production and I want to get each to its next step.
MEASURABLE: How do I know I have achieved it?
To get to the end of the current stage of production on each project: To write the zero draft. To finalize the final read. To edit the 40 poems.
ACHIEVABLE: How to make it true?
There are no impossibles to achieve on my three ongoing writing projects. Everything’s achievable about these.
RELEVANT: Is it worth it? Is it relevant?
To write, in a writing life, is relevant. To get these ready to be read is very worth it.
TIME BOUND: When will I achieve it?
In 2024?! No. Being more specific about this. I’m setting the first trimestre of 2024 to have the #2 project zero draft done. Then, I’ll reread the final version of the #1 project. On the first six months #3 project will come to the forefront in specific times. Second half-of 2024, will see the needed update on these goals.
SO…
These three projects have been in the oven for a while now. Each have their particularities and personal involvement issues. 2024 will see them tackled and accomplished.
Still, I’ll be scarce on the actual numbers. After all, I’m not too good in keeping numbers running smooth, and I don’t want to discourage myself.
On the other(s) writing projects…
In the writing forward department — because they are the most immediate way to reach out to readers — I’m keeping focused on the blogs.
Writing forward is important to me just because I feel more connected to the people that visit my blogs.
These are the virtual places where I might make more difference. Where I get to motivate, and try to inspire others, to see their life as pure creativity, and to pursue their arts and crafts, specially the writing craft. This has become a big part of my efforts on the writing it forward front.
When I struggle, I’ll take you with me to learn from my mistakes… like I’m doing now, with the setting up goals from which I’m scared of. And when I accomplish some milestone, you are right there with me.
So you can watch the view and jump in your own pursues as soon as you are ready… or just, jump in now. Subscribe to this blog and never miss a beat on this Writing Life Log: WLOG?! 😀 I know! Enough with the weird acronyms.
Focusing on…
This has been what I have been focusing on: to write about things I love.
Might it be in my fiction, in my writerly blogs, and even in my poetry, and in my Vlook YouTube videos.
I just want to write about things I love. Books, trips, stories, challenges, love… things that speak closely to my heart.
New endeavours…
In 2024, and you are reading this here first!, I would like to come back to the short story format, but I do not have a settled plan for it. Still, I have been entertaining the idea for a while. We will see if it goes somewhere.
Above all, I plan to find some satisfaction in the ongoing projects. Because this is more important than to bound myself to some metrics in a plan.
Not that I don’t find numbers important, because I do. But, sometimes I get a weird feeling that, if I put up too many boundaries, to myself and to the completion of my work, I end up unable to create anything.
It’s like I get bound by the lack of willpower to comply to the set numbers on the goal page. I get overwhelmed by all of it and shut down.
So, I don’t do that anymore. No strict numbers for me. Not in this.
I am no child, I can carry my own projects to good term. — and this is my Emma Woodhouse talking.
I need to feel that I’m open to change and magical creation, not under a whip, pressed into forced labor. Which, not being the most desirable discipline, it’s the one I need, to keep myself working on my creative plans and goals.
I hope you’ve been working on your creative projects. Hope the first days of this new year have been kind to you. Hope you are positive into the upcoming year and your creative contribution to the world.
See you next week! And, meanwhile you may checkout my social media and subscribe to this blog.
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Bye and Keep Writing! ✍🏼
