Author Liesel K. Hill's Musings on Fantasia...
Showing posts with label New Years Goals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Years Goals. Show all posts
Monday, January 30, 2017
January is Ending: The Number One Way to Keep Accomplishing Your Goals
I actually haven't, and I'm proud of myself for that. But did I accomplish everything I wanted to in January.
Another no. I wanted to finish the draft of my WIP by the end of January, and while I've made good progress, I'm only roughly half way done.
I also wanted to write one short story this month on top of my other writing. Yeah, kinda choked on that one. It took me most of the month to even come up with a viable idea. I think I have one now, but the fact remains I didn't get it written in the 30 day period I was aiming for.
The same is true of some of my other personal goals. I definitely made progress, but not quite as much as I was hoping.
And do I say this to be negative or feel sorry for myself? Of course not. Quite the opposite. The fact of the matter is, I've done more writing this month than I did in the last six months of 2016 combined. Even if I don't manage 12 short stories, if I manage like...3, it'll still be more short stories than I written in the past 3 years. (That's about how long it's been since I wrote my last one.) And while I didn't make as much progress as I would have liked, the fact is, I still made progress.
And I think this is the main problem most people experience who give up so quickly on their resolutions--be they physical, productive, financial, or anything else. They assume that if they can't do 200% of their goals immediately, it means they'll never be able to, and they'll never reach them, so they give up.
But the thing is, you have to train your brain to work toward any goal. I'm still re-training my brain to get used to this amount of writing. As much as I accomplished on each of my goals this month, I'll probably do time and a half or twice that next month. As you train yourself to do more, you'll be able to do your tasks more quickly and efficiently. But as with anything, you have to build up to it.
So what's the number one way to keep accomplishing your goals?
Just keep on keeping on.
Even if you only did 50%, 10%, 1% of what you would have liked, just keep pressing forward. Decide you'll do that much again this month. No! Decide you'll do more. If you only did 1% this month, do 2% next month. Or 5%. Or more. Then press on from there. The brain is an amazing organ and it adapts more quickly than most people realize. You'll improve at an amazing rate, if you just keep trying. Bottom line?
Just don't give up. If you're still pursing your goals, you're already a head of 3/4 of the population. And you'll be J.K. Rowling before you know it. ;D
Happy Monday!
Wednesday, January 4, 2017
IWSG for 2017: Writing Rules and New Years Resolutions
Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!
Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day.
Details HERE and as always thanks to our wonderful host, Alex J. Cavanaugh
Being the first month of a new year, I'm sure this will get said a lot, but I think the thing I'm most insecure about right now is sticking to my New Years Resolutions. Suffice it to say, the past few years I've made goals but attained almost none of them. Of course that's because I let things get in the way of working toward them.
I'm in a better position and mindset to accomplish my goals than I have been in previous years, so I'm more optimistic than ever, but of course there's always the fear of failure, especially because we all tend to put some much pressure on ourselves in January.
But one thing I've learned this past year is just never to throw in the towel. Even if you don't achieve your goals, working steadily on them will yield better results than we can generally conceive of. So that's what I plan to do. And maybe, just maybe, I'll achieve one or two of my lofty writing resolutions.
January Question: What writing rule do you wish you'd never heard of?
Hm. This is a tough one for me. I don't generally take a negative attitude toward any writing "rule," whether I employ it or not. I suppose my only response is that I don't treat any writing "rule" like a hard and fast rule. If I tried to stay within such a rigid structure, I'd go crazy. So I guess all writing rules are ones I wish I'd never heard of, but it's not a problem for me because I never go out of my way to adhere to them.
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What are you insecure about this month?
Tuesday, January 3, 2017
Welcome 2017!
How were everyone's holidays? Mine were fantabulous! Lots of family, fun, giftgiving. LOTS of food. Still working our way through it.
So it's been a while since I wrote a blog post. I thought ushering in 2017 would be a good time to write one. I'm actually super excited for this coming year.
The past few years, I haven't been nearly as productive with my writing as I would like. I'm hoping to change that this year, both in terms of production and in terms of marketing.
I have a list of goals for this year, and they're typical things you've seen from me before: read x amount of books, write x amount of books, sell x amount of books. Some personal things, etc. I'll list the bookish goals below.
But the main thing that I'm doing differently this year is that I'm going to use my blog to help keep me accountable to my reading and writing goals. Each Friday, my blog post will contain a Week in Review section, in which I'll list progress toward all goals. That way I'm keeping track of what I'm getting done and my audience can keep me accountable.
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So here are my bookish goals:
1. Write 9 books. I know, I know, that sounds like a ton. And honestly, I'm aiming high here no matter how you slice it. But I have one project ready to publish that I'm dealing with some legal issues about, and two more that are nearly finished, and two more that are at least partially finished or at least outlined and I just have to get the words on the page. So it's really not 9 projects started from scratch. Most are things I want to finally finish and release.
2. Write 12 (or more) short stories, which obviously works out to one a month. This goal serves two purposes: 1) I'm extremely long-winded, not great at short stories. I'm hoping to teach myself to get a better handle on this format. 2) If I do one or more a month (and I intend to do some holiday stories) then I'll have a handy collection (hopefully) by the time the holidays roll around next year. I've always wanted to do holiday collections, but of course when you don't think about it until October or November, well...you know how it is. ;D
3. Sell a million copies. Again, this is a very vague goal and I'm not going to go into details about how I'll accomplish this. However, I have been working on a marketing plan for the past six months or so, but haven't fully implemented it yet. I will be writing posts about what I'm doing and how well it's working out. But in terms of numbers, I figure I might as well shoot for the stars, right?
4. Read 24 books. That's considerably smaller than my reading goals for the year generally are, but I read a lot fewer books than that in 2016 (11 to be exact) and with all this writing I have to do, I'll be lucky to get two books read a month. I'm hoping to read one fiction and one non-fiction each month.
5. Run a Triathalon. I've been trying to get into better physical shape and I still have a LONG way to go, so this probably won't happen until summer or fall, but I'm training now and gearing up. ;D
I have a few other personal goals, but I'm not going to mention them on this blog. These are the biggest, most relevant ones.
So that's pretty much it. Come back tomorrow for Insecure Writers Support Group. And everyone have a fabulous first week of 2017!
What are your New Years Resolutions?
Monday, January 4, 2016
2016 Has Arrived!!!
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And I will!
I said last year that I wanted to focus this blog more on writing, and I still intend to do that, but it's hard to come up with tons of stuff about writing constantly.
So what I've decided to do is try to do at least two posts a week:
- one on the craft of writing, and
- one on current issues in the publishing industry.
I'm sure there will be plenty of weeks that those will be the only two posts I get written. Of course if I have review, just-for-fun posts, or news about my own books, I'll publish those as well, but that will be mostly filler for when I have extra time.
Goals for 2016:
1. Publish 6 books. I know that's a lot, but I'd like to put one out every other month. I don't know if it's very realistic for me, but I only get four or five out in the year, well, that's more than I managed in 2015. Shooting for the stars over here!
2. Sell 100,000 copies of my books. I've had that goal before but was unsure how to actually reach it (and so I haven't, if we're being honest. I haven't even come close). But I'm working through a training program that focuses on building your email list and it's geared specifically toward authors. I'm actually really excited about it (building my email list is one area I've had tons of trouble in) and the numbers it boasts are very promising. So I'll blog about my efforts and experiments and how it goes. But overall I'm very optimistic that my book sales will be up this year.
3. Read more. Last year I made a goal to read more than 2014, and I think I did, but only by a smidge. I love me my books. I need to make them a high (not highest but still high) priority. So my goal is to read 100 books this year. Doesn't matter what kind--fiction, nonfiction,etc. I just want to get some more knowledge under my belt.
4. More Author Events. I've been slacking this past couple of years and only doing one or two events annually. Part of the problem is the time and expense it takes to make these things happen, but again, if I can just plan and budget a little more strictly, I'm sure I had hit at least half a dozen a year. :D
5. I've focused on followers and page view goals in the past, but I've become less worried about that now. I prefer genuine interaction to electronic analytics. I've learned that from starting my Instagram accounts (yes plural) and meeting some truly extraordinary people that way.
6. Have more fun. I genuinely just want to find more enjoyment both in my writing and my online networking. When life gets busy, these things can start to feel like chores, and none of us write when it's no fun, do we?
Well, that's pretty much it for me for goals. Pretty general, but don't worry. I have very detailed plans to make them all happen. :D
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