#IWSG: Lessons from 10 Years of Goal Setting

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting!

Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.

The awesome co-hosts for the December 6th posting of the IWSG are Julie Flanders, Shannon Lawrence, Fundy Blue, and Heather Gardner!

Click here to view everyone in the Blog Hop.

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Thank you for dropping in for this month's Insecure Writer's Support Group post from an honorary member of the Pee Dee Writers! Today, we will hear from Vikki Perry, NaNoWriMo ML for the Columbia, SC, region and Pee Dee area native!

The optional question for December: As you look back on 2017, with all its successes/failures, if you could backtrack, what would you do differently?

Vikki is going to address this question from the point of view of ten years goal-setting. Let's see what she has to say...

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Lessons from 10 Years of Goal Setting

You probably think that you know what I’m about to say. You can find about a million posts about goal setting for writers online and you may think this is just one more. And in that, you’re kind of right. I am writing for other writers, and I am writing about setting goals

My name is Vikki. I have spent ten years setting goals and failing to meet them. I would read about the SMART system. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-limited. I would set goals. And inevitably, I would fail to reach them.

It isn’t all bad. I have definitely done better than I would have, had I not set a goal at all. But I would beat myself up when I couldn’t figure out how to meet them.

Something was going wrong. What was it? How could I fix it?

In the end, I determined that I was having trouble with the realistic aspect of things. I could turn off my life for the month of National Novel Writing Month, but I couldn’t turn it off for the rest of the time. I had a job and family and outside commitments. Those demands were real and I couldn’t say “But, but, I have to write.” As I also had to pay bills, deal with my family, and meet my other obligations.

Here are some suggested mitigations for those of us that are goal oriented, but struggle with setting and keeping up with realistic goals with regards to writing.

1. Determine the kind of writer you are. Can you find large chunks of time to just pound out a draft? Do you need to leave your house and write among people to be productive? Are you a night person or a morning person? Can you write in small chunks of time and be productive?

2. Once you’ve figured out your writing style, figure out how to optimize that. Can you find that big chunk of time on weekends? Can you get up early or stay up late?

3. Find an accountability partner. Tell them what you’re doing and ask them to hold you accountable. If this partner is a family member or friend, have them run interference for you.

4. Now set your realistic goals. They need to be realistic. If you’re working a 60 hour a week job and volunteering twice a week to read books to puppies or the elderly, you are not going to be able to pound out six drafts a year. That is just not going to work. There are only 24 hours in a day and you should be sleeping for at least 7-8 of those hours. Set a goal that factors in your life.

5. You are not married to your goals. I strongly advise adjusting your goals when they are not working or when your life changes. Constant assessment of what you are doing is a good thing provided that you are not beating yourself up over the fact that you are not meeting your goal.

I hope it won’t take you guys ten years to realize that you are not SUPERWRITER able to write books in single bounds. You are a creative human living on earth with a messy life that is entangled with other messy lives. And that is okay.

So what is your REALISTIC goal for 2018?

I plan to complete a solid, readable second draft of my YA romance by January 1st. If I think it is solid enough, I will submit it to a friend’s publishing company. During the months of January and February, I will write a rough draft of a contemporary romance set in a fictional small town in South Carolina. After that, 2018 is still up in the air.

Vikki currently lives in Columbia, SC with her cat Gypsy and about 5 million hula hoops. She is a prolific writer of first drafts most being romances of some kind. Her secret dream is to own a house in the mountains and live there as some sort of Oracle on the hill for friends seeking wisdom.

#IWSG #writer #goals #VikkiPerry #writing