GOALS REQUIRE COURAGE

"It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else.
- Erma Bombeck

Did you make resolutions this year? Not the same old lose weight one, I hope. What I really had in mind are the ones geared toward our writing--setting goals for ourselves. So many times when we attend writer conferences or lectures we hear authors expound on reaching their goals of so many words or pages each day. We hear that we must treat writing as a business, shut the door against family interruptions, and never take a vacation until we have completed the first draft of our novel or sold four awe-inspiring articles for publication.

This may be the correct way to become famous. Who am I to say? I never had the "leisure" to set such goals. Yes, I use the word leisure as Webster meant: free time. Roget's Thesaurus says leisure is: ease, rest, recess, vacation, holiday, liberty, pause or interlude. Sounds good, huh, but I don't seem to have much of that so-called leisure time. Life seems to have a firm grip on a great deal of my time so I must grab snatches of time here and there in order to write.

I keep an on-going to-do list so I will have some idea of what I would like to accomplish. If I have a definite deadline (a paying gig), that of course goes to the top of my list. Otherwise, I attempt to work on what I "think" is most important. Is it working on a book I've almost completed, revising for the umpteenth time, or doing research for a new project?

Is there a middle to my story hanging out there somewhere seeming to have no place to go? If so, I print off my work, sit down with pen or red pencil, and read it aloud. Try it. The problems will be more noticable when you hear the words. If this is not for you, find a good critique group or a partner who can help. As Erma Bombeck said, it does take courage to share your dreams with others but their input might make another dream come true--the publishing goal.

Sometimes we need to catch up on our reading--either in our genre, or reseach info or merely for pleasure. Since I have a romantic suspense novel hanging in that nasty middle, I tend to read that type of novel. Some writers say that reading in the genre you are writing should never be done; they say it is too easy to filll their thoughts with someone else's voice, plot or characters. To me, this reading drives me enthusiastically back to my own writing, teaches me lessons as I read, and challenges me to write what I enjoy reading.

As I said, I have an on-going list of goals. However, I never set myself up for failure by listing the unattainable. I set goals that please me as a writer. I want to enjoy each moment I find to write, not be driven by what I hope will sell to a certain market. Maybe that feeling comes from those thirty-years of working, and writing, at an employers direction, for his plan, saying what he thought would sell. Today I feel the need to be "leisurely" independent.

That's what I wish for you: goal setting that helps you attain the main goal of becoming a better writer. Make the goals that fit your schedule and give you a sense of pleasure when you sit down to write.

TIP: If ;you don't have a lot of time to write, use the little notebook all writer's should carry. Capture those fleeting ideas, character sketches, or scenes before they disappear.

PROMPT: Open a book in the middle; find a sentence that grabs your attention. Start a story or article with that line.