Writing Goals: 2012 — The Herald’s Call!
Earlier this week, I posted this:
We are approaching the end of the year, a good time for each of us to ponder what our goals are as writers for the next year.
What? You don’t set goals and write them down? You should probably rethink that because the fact is those who set goals accomplish significantly more than those who do not set them.
For your information I do what I preach: In December, I take stock of where I am as a writer and project into the next year what I want to accomplish.
It occurred to me the other day, why don’t I share my process with you? Indeed why don’t we all share our process together? And here comes the kicker:
Once we have our writing goals in mind for 2012, why don’t we share them publicly?
That’s right, a public declaration of our writing goals for the upcoming year. Me. You. Any of us who have the courage to make that type of commitment.
After all, I’m the guy who posted this Dumb Little Writing Trick That Works:
If you can orchestrate events so that the fear of being humiliated by not writing is greater than the fear of having people read what you do write, then you will be well on your way to getting your ass in chair and plowing ahead to FADE OUT.
So how to ensure this threat of humiliation?
Set a deadline.
Not just any deadline.
A public deadline!
Prepare an email in which you state your goal — “I am going to finish a draft of my long cherished screenplay ‘Leopard Lips’” — and most importantly, you select and include a due date. To up the stakes, you can add something like, “And if I don’t produce a draft of ‘Leopard Lips’ by [due date], I hereby proclaim you have the right to belittle my manhood / womanhood however you see fit by any electronic means including email, Twitter, Facebook, IM, SMS, BBM, or even archaic conveyances such as smoke signals or semaphores.”
There is nothing like making a public commitment to spur a person on to pursue that goal. No excuses, you have put it out there to the entire damn universe!
So consider this a Herald’s Call! And every Monday through Friday for the next two weeks at Noon Eastern / 9AM Pacific, I will be calling out each and every member of the GITS community: To sit down, contemplate where you are creatively, think about your various stories, imagine where you want to be as a writer, and commit to specific writing goals for 2012. And if you’ve got the heart of a lion, join me in sharing them with others and publicly commit to achieving those goals
[Note: By ‘goal,’ I do not mean, “I’m going to sell a spec script next year.” We can not control that. What I’m referring to are things we can control. “I will write two spec scripts next year.” “I will study poetry next year.” “I will finish that damn novel next year.”]
This weekend, I will do like I always do in December: I will sequester myself in a room, shut myself away from all electric conveyances, take a yellow pad of writing paper, my favorite pen, and I will sit. In silence. Just me and my writerly self. I will look back on what I have accomplished as a writer in 2011. And I will ask myself a bunch of questions including the following:
* What do I want to write?
* What am I feeling passionate about writing?
* What can I write that will help my career?
* Spec script? Novel? Non-fiction?
* Do I want to keep teaching?
* Do I want to keep hosting this blog?
I will ask those questions, I will ponder them, I will scratch down notes, I will become quiet and sit with myself, I will attempt to go down toward the foundation of who I am as a writer, as a creative person, and see what’s there.
For all I know, I may not show up here on Monday.
This is the type of self-reflection we absolutely need to do at least annually. We get so caught up in the buzz of everyday life — and I confess I can be horrible at this — that we lose sight of why we are here on this Earth as creative people.
Each of us has one shot at this crazy thing called life.
One. Shot.
How do we want to spend our time as creative souls?
How should we spend our time as writers?
What do we want to write?
What stories are calling out to us to write them?
I invite you to join me this weekend in a time of self-reflection. And if you come out of that time alone convinced you still want to write, indeed you want to take your writing to the next level, consider some meaningful and appropriate writing goals.
Then starting next Monday — assuming I come back — I hope we can share our goals with each other. Not only that, ways we can go about making sure we reach those goals.
It’s the Herald’s Call! Will you answer?
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