Okay, it’s January 6th already. You’ve had time to sober up and think hard about those mad, daring, fiction writing goals you set yourself for 2009.
Like…a new novel, roughed out by April Fool’s, revised by September 1 – sitting on an agent’s desk by Thanksgiving?
Or…an ironclad 4-hour/day, 7-day/week writing schedule, your own personal Nanowrimo on steroids, family and job be damned.
Or…hell, shoot big: a Pulizer Prize. You deserve it.
What are your personal achievement goals for this year? I’d like to know because I’m trying to come up with some good ones for myself. If you’ve got a plan, a nurturing vision, or an image with enough personal numinosity to power you through the lonely swamp ahead, let’s hear about it.
Drop down to “Comments” (below, just underneath the words “Stumble It”), click, and fire away.
At the end of the week I’ll compile a composite picture of novelists in full-throated “I pledge” mode. Maybe this time next year I’ll bring them out of mothballs for a reality check.
Or…maybe not. Stay tuned.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I love the graphic for this entry. I too am a woman saluting, committing to finishing a rough draft, not by April 1st, by September 1st. I will work five days a week, two hours a day, from 5AM to 7AM–before the children get up in the morning. It’s amazing how much you can get done if you just sit down and do it, regularly. I start tomorrow and am hopeful. Will check in later. Many thanks.
I want to be able to create and honor my own deadlines.
Also, I want writing to usurp “just messin’ around” as my go-to down-time habit.
My writing goals are definitely on steroids: one novel idea a day, one pitch paragraph a week, one proposal a month. (Just to get my brain rolling in a new genre. These can all suck.)
I have 7 50K novellas for pseudonym lined up, and I want to write 4 novels “for fun.” HAH! But if I write 3K a day, this is actually doable. Since I don’t have kids or much of a life beyond teaching, I have no excuse.
Bill, this blog is a great motivator that will hopefully help me finish this memoir. It’s full of observations about my son’s first year of life (Faris is almost 11 months). My goal is to craft something poetic enough (and, at times, zany enough) that he’ll be interested in reading it when he’s 16 years old.
My goal is to write one chapter a week: on Saturday or Sunday, after I’ve had the time to reflect on the past week. So far I’ve only got 12 pages and I started pre-Christmas.
Guess I need to make a pledge,
Marc