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Goal For It!
Author: Cheryl Martin
Original Publication Date in Love Notes: May 2007
All I wanted to do was curl up in the corner of
the couch and watch television. Nine o’clock and the kid was in bed.
For a change I didn’t have any work waiting for me in my briefcase.
Only one catch. It was April 30. No, that doesn’t mean I was
about to turn into a toad or that I’d found our taxes stuck down in
the couch cushions.
No, it was a day of reckoning for me. If you don’t know this
about journalists, we have a problem with deadlines. It may extend
to all writers, but it's a truth I’ve seen at every newspaper I’ve
ever worked.
Journalists grumble about deadlines. Without deadlines, we don’t
work at all and just sit around watching television or playing
solitaire on the computer.
Since Nationals, I’ve been setting monthly goals for my fiction
writing. With all the writing I do for my day job, it had gotten too
easy to come home and crash instead of moving ahead with my novel.
For April, I’d set a number of pages I wanted to have written.
Only one problem. I hadn’t had time to sit at my computer at home
and write. I’d been working on my Neo at my allergist’s office, on
the couch while Caroline watched “Cinderella” for the twentieth time
and while I traveled to Nashville for the Music City Romance Writers
meeting. I’d been writing, but I didn’t know if I had met my page
count. I started the download from my Neo and went to do laundry.
When I checked back on my computer, I felt like I’d run a
marathon and was still breathing. Five pages over. I celebrated with
a friend via e-mail and set another goal for May. The new book will
get written, one page and one goal at a time.
Tips
♥ Start today. There’s no time like the present. Procrastination
is not your friend.
♥ Make the goal realistic but challenging. If you struggle to
find time to write a page a day, setting a goal of twenty pages a
day might be a bit much -- unless you’ve taken a leave of absence
from your job, sent your family away and hired someone to carry in
Starbucks three times a day.
♥ Be accountable to someone who’s willing to bug you about it.
Someone who will hold your feet to the fire.
♥ Celebrate every goal you reach. Chocolate is a good way. A
bubble bath, a new pair of shoes, a slice of chocolate cheesecake, a
manicure, an afternoon nap. All that matters is recognizing the
accomplishment.
♥ As soon as one goal is met, it’s time to set another. And it
might be time to make this one a little more challenging. If you’ve
met your page count for the last couple of months, add five pages to
your goal, or ten pages.
♥ If you miss a goal one month, don’t beat up on yourself. Just
set another goal and start writing and keep writing.
Love Notes, the official monthly newsletter of Music City Romance
Writers, is provided to paying members free of charge. If you are an MCRW member and would like to submit an article to
Love
Notes, visit the main newsletter page
for more information. If you would like to reprint one of these articles in your
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