5 Steps to Getting Your Writing Goals Back on Track

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It seems like only yesterday that we kicked off our Seekerville Rockin’ New Year’s Eve Party and many eagerly committed to follow the Face Your Fears “path” during the coming year.

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A glance at the calendar, however, confirms those promising twelve months are winding down. Falling leaves, crisp days and downright nippy nights corroborate a nagging feeling that if we intend to meet our writing goals, we’d better make the most of the coming weeks and get ourselves back on track.

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So how did you do the first three quarters of the year? On New Year’s Eve you were likely acutely aware of the fears you needed to face in order to write with purpose and productivity and you were determined to move confidently ahead. Are you still following the route you mapped out early in the year? Or have you been knocked off the path into the thick foliage of what life has unexpectedly thrown at you or wandered off and gotten lost in knee-high weeds of poor choices you’ve made? Maybe you’re even thinking “What’s the use? The year is almost over. I’ll start again next year.”

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Sure, that’s an option, but hold on just a minute!  Why not start fresh now? Today? Build up a momentum for leaping into a new year? Just because best intentions may have flagged—or flopped—that doesn’t mean you’re forced to resign yourself to crawling into bed, pulling the covers over your head, and hibernating until January 1. If you’re not quite where you wanted to be or maybe your good intentions barely got off the ground, there are still two and a half months remaining to prepare yourself to roll into another fresh year full steam ahead.

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So what do you think? Are you willing--compass and machete in hand--to fight your way back to the path you’d like to be on? Or do you plan to slink off, whimpering, into the shadows?
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If you decide to give it a go, here are a few steps that might help get you rolling again.

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#1: Revisit your goals. You wrote them down, didn’t you? Studies show that people who write down their goals are mega-times more likely to meet them than those who don’t. Are those original goals for the year still your goals? Would you like to make headway on them before the end of the year?

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#2: Pinpoint exactly where you fell short…and why. It’s okay to have changed goals midstream—or to take a “time out”—but did you really choose to or did you allow yourself to drift off the path in whatever direction seemed easiest or most distracting at a given moment? This isn’t the time for excuses or self-justification—nor time to beat yourself up. What life dishes out can sidetrack us—uncontrollables like illness, relocation, natural disasters, child and eldercare, lost jobs or excessive overtime. The list is endless.

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No, now is the time to be honest with ourselves about the controllables. It’s a time to objectively identify and evaluate specifics, not generalities. Not just “I didn’t have time to write” but “I didn’t have time to write because I watched hours of TV every night.” Not “I didn’t enter the contest” but “I didn’t enter the contest because I feared the feedback I might get.” Not “I didn’t start that next book” but “I didn’t start that next book because I’d lost confidence after my dream agent rejected my first one.”

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Awareness of the impact of choices is critical when journeying toward your writing goal.

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#3 How might you have done things differently? Looking back, could you have chosen to stay on the path this year? Could you have gotten up a little earlier each morning to write or set a timer for 30 minutes each evening before crashing in front of the tube? Could facing your fears and entering that contest have garnered helpful feedback--even gotten your entry on an editor or agent judge’s desk?
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Perhaps you could have objectively evaluated whether the agent’s reason for rejection held any merit or asked another writer for a second opinion—then either tweaked the manuscript and submitted it elsewhere or moved on to the next book. History is filled with bestselling authors who were rejected dozens and dozens of times.

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Although you can’t have a “do over” of the past year, right now you can brainstorm alternate ways that you could have prevented yourself from wandering off the path—ideas that may possibly keep you heading in the right direction in future weeks. Ways to apply “lessons learned.”

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#4 Map out a realistic plan. If you haven’t started the book you were going to write this year, it might be a bit too much to tell yourself you’ll finish it by year’s end—although I do know several writers who wouldn’t blink twice at that time limitation. But for us Average Joe’s, let’s make it realistic. Look at your calendar. Figuring in the upcoming holidays, family, friend, work, church and community commitments, are there days you could carve out 30 minutes? 60? 90?

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Don’t let the fact that you don’t have all day to write intimidate you. The twelve books I’ve written have been composed in 60-90 minute snatches before work, with some weekend time and occasional vacation days as well. Figure how many words you can realistically write for the next few months during those set-aside hours—then add them up for a year-end total to establish your goal.

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Or perhaps you told yourself you’d enter contests or submit a story to an editor or agent. If you get right on it now, you can still get it done well before the holidays. Or perhaps you wanted to take an on-line writing class or write a short story or novella. There’s still time if you pull yourself out of the overgrown weeds, take a deep breath, and make a realistic plan to get back on the path.

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#5 Commit to moving ahead intentionally for the remainder of the year. Make a choice, a decision not to give up now. No, maybe you won’t reach every goal you so optimistically committed to on New Year’s Eve. But wouldn’t you much rather go into the new year knowing you’re back on track even in some small way rather than limping toward December 31, your confidence lost and eyeing the coming year with fears of a repeat performance of this one?

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It’s a choice to continue on the path—or not. With the year winding down, which choice will you make?

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Share with us today where you are on your writing goals for the year. Are you still sticking to the path or have you wandered off? Are there dark pockets of fear you need to dig out and expose to the light?

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If you’d like to be entered in a drawing for a copy of my November Love Inspired release, “The Pastor’s Christmas Courtship,” mention it in the comment section, then check the Weekend Edition to see if you’re a winner!

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Glynna

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GLYNNA KAYE treasures memories of growing up in small Midwestern towns--and vacations spent with the Texan side of the family. She traces her love of storytelling to the times a houseful of great-aunts and great-uncles gathered with her grandma to share candid, heartwarming, poignant and often humorous tales of their youth and young adulthood. Her Love Inspired books--Pine Country Cowboy and High Country Holiday--won first and second place, respectively, in the 2015 RWA Faith, Hope & Love Inspirational Reader’s Choice Awards. Her November 2016 release, The Pastor’s Christmas Courtship, is available now (click here)!

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Jodi Thorpe’s childhood vacation cabin seems the perfect place for her to heal her broken heart…and avoid Christmas cheer. After twelve years, nothing in Hunter Ridge has changed--except Garrett McCrae. The bad boy who was once her secret crush is now the town minister. And Garrett won’t let her miss out on all the hope and joy the holiday brings.  With every day he’s drawn to the vulnerable woman Jodi’s become, even as he’s about to leave for a mission halfway around the world.  But as they grow closer, their plans begin to change. Can Garrett make it a season to remember, with a love they can’t forget?