Meet Your Writing Goals in 2020
Meet Your Writing Goals in 2020
Some questions and tips to guide your planning
The Story Writer’s Path
Some questions and tips to guide your planning
I love planning. Love making elaborate plans for my writing goals and how I’m going to achieve them. I can get absorbed in this at any time of year, but when the old year is fast fading is of course my favorite.
Because with the new year comes the chance for a fresh start. We can begin again! We can look at our goals with new eyes and new enthusiasm. And this year end is particularly potent because in 2020 we are embarking on a new decade.
I know, I know. You may have been disappointed in previous years when you set New Year’s resolutions and didn’t follow through on them. And every year you can be certain there will be a spate of articles telling how New Year’s resolutions don’t work.
A discouraging failure rate
According to U.S. News and World Report, 80% of resolutions have failed or been abandoned by mid-February. It’s no wonder people give up or start believing that they just suck at goal setting.
But let me ask you this: what if you were one of the 20% of people for whom New Year’s resolutions worked? What if you chose to believe that the goal you set can indeed come true and proceeded to act on making that happen? What if you, say, had a good start on your novel by mid-February, or had already penned a few essays to submit by the beginning of March?
The research is clear
According to Psychology Today, in a 2015 study by psychologist Gail Matthews, people who wrote down their goals were 33% more successful than those who didn’t.
And a Harvard Business Review study found that 83% of the population has no goals, 14% have goals floating around in their head, and a measly 3% have them written down.
It gets really interesting when you look at the success rates related to the above statistics. The 14% who had goals in their head were ten times more successful than those with none. And the 3% who had them written down were three times more successful than the 14%!
Okay, clearly, writers, we need to write our goals down. And hey — we’re writers, it should be easy, right?
It is, you just have to take the time to do it. (Yes, you will probably need to take time out of one or several of your precious writing sessions, but it will be worth it.)
Two kinds of planning
Since I love planning and goal setting so much, it will come as no surprise to you that I am familiar with a lot of different systems. Or maybe they aren’t systems, per se, but guides (sort of like this article). Any guide worth its salt starts with reviewing the previous year, because if you don’t know where you’ve been, how will you ever figure out where you are going?
And in my research (I refuse to call it procrastination), I’ve learned there are two kinds of reviewing and planning: that which focuses on the emotional side with questions like describe your favorite day of the past year and how it felt, or the most fascinating thing I learned about myself in the previous year was…, or questions aligning with a more practical side, such as what goals did you accomplish last year?
It’s easy to go down a rabbit hole and focus solely on either type of goals. The first are softer, more concerned with quality of life, and the second are, for lack of a better word, harder. More concerned with productivity and success.
Writers need both
I believe that we writers need both kind of planning and goal setting. Because for me, and so many others, writing is intimately connected with every other aspect of life. As our writing goes, so the rest of our life goes. We can’t afford to focus on one at the expense of the other.
We need the soft stuff, to clarify our feelings about our writing. To understand what made us feel good (committing to writing five days in a row, maybe?) and not so good (that long stretch in the summer when it was so hot you couldn’t concentrate on writing). Through these kinds of explorations, we access the emotions that keep us connected to our work. After all, it’s not hate for writing that drives you to return to the page over and over again.
And we need the practical side as well. We need to set realistic goals so that when we get to the page, we’re not just floundering. Instead, we know that in order to finish our novel by the end of the month, we need to get this chapter completed this week, and so on.
SMART goals
And yes, here, I have to mention them — you probably already know you need SMART goals, right? I’ll be honest, this is the kind of dictum I usually chafe under, but as long as you are setting goal you might as well design the so they work. A SMART goal will save you from creating a vague goal like finish my novel. In case you have never read an article on productivity before, here’s what they entail:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Time bound
And now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s move on to the actual reviewing and planning.
Let’s do it
First, we’ll do a brief look at 2019 and then head on into the future. By the way, in my travels around the internet indulging in astrology and other such sites I’m hearing cheery mutterings that 2020 is going to be a good year. But I digress.
2019
First, some “soft” questions to set the mood:
What was your favorite writing experience? Maybe you attended a conference and met some new friends, or had a huge epiphany as you wrote in your journal one morning, or got your novel published. How did it make you feel? Write it all out.
What is one word that describes your writing in 2019? Perhaps it was energized, or slow, or exciting, or stalled. How does that word — and your writing accomplishments for the year — make you feel?
Now take that word and free write about it and your writing in 2019.
What did you learn about your writing this year? Maybe you realized that you really do need to outline before jumping in, or that you truly are a pantser. Everybody approaches their work differently and figuring out a process that works for you is golden. Really stop and think about this question.
What did you learn about getting yourself to the page this year? Perhaps you figured out that you really do like writing first thing in the morning, or maybe that you hate it. That writing once a week on Sundays works great for you, or not.
And now, let’s focus on some more pragmatic things:
Did you have a regular writing practice? If so, what did it consist of? If not, how did you accomplish your work? If you didn’t get any writing done, why not?
What did you write? List everything you can think of, like, 5 novels, 10 essays, and 100 blog posts. (We should all be so lucky.)
Were you satisfied with your output?
What were you writing goals at the beginning of the year?
Did you accomplish them? (Be gentle with yourself.)
What were your publishing goals at the beginning of the year? (This can include things like submitting to agents, etc.)
Did you accomplish them? (Be gentle.)
What projects do you want to carry forward into 2020?
What projects do you want to leave behind? Be honest here. If the memoir you’ve been working on forward is dragging you down, let it go for now. You can always return to it later.
What writing-related events or activities did you attend?
And looking to 2020
The soft stuff:
It’s December 2020. You’re looking back over your writing year and you are freaking thrilled because you accomplished so much. You wrote novels! They got published! You wrote amazing social media posts that went viral! The New York Times published your essays! The sky’s the limit here. Write down what would absolutely thrill you to the bottom of your toes.
A fun corollary: write a description of your favorite writing-related day in 2020. Maybe you sat by a stream on a hot summer day and wrote in your journal. Or perhaps you went on a ski trip and sat inside by a warm fire, working on a chapter of your novel with spiked hot cocoa at hand while your friends skied. What would be a favorite writing day for you?
What primary word would you like to be able to say described 2020 for you? Success? Happiness? Devotion? Excitement? Adventure?
So, what do you want to write in 2020? What would make your heart sing every time you sit down to the page? (Okay, maybe not every time. Not every writing session is rainbows and light. But most of the time.)
Now let’s come down to earth and get a little real. I know, boo, no fun, but necessary.
What can you realistically write in 2020? (Be honest here. I tend to go way overboard on creating goals, making up so many I could never finish them all.
What do you want to publish (or submit)?
Write out the steps needed to accomplish the above.
What writing-related events or activities do you want to attend?
And now, most important — how are you going to make this happen? Do you have a consistent writing practice that will enable you to complete these goals?
If not, start planning now! Where can you better fit your writing into your life? How can you begin a regular writing practice? Pro tip: start small. Commit to 15 minutes to start, if need be.
These questions are not really so complicated and they won’t take that much time. But I guarantee you if you complete them you’ll have a much better chance of succeeding at your writing than if you don’t.
And it’s a lot of fun, too.