December is well and truly here.
Seems like only yesterday I was writing a post about the most important thing you’ll write this year—that is, a list of your writing goals.
In June, we also checked in and redefined some of our goals which were unrealistic.
Have you given any thought to the fact that there are less than four weeks left in 2010? If you set writing goals at the beginning of the year, will you be able to complete them by December 31st?
My 2010 writing goals
In January, I decided to complete a novel this year. I’d just had a baby and had little idea of what I was actually committing to. Come June, I’d written around 50,000 words of my novel, which was awesome.
But, then I went overseas to visit my family for six weeks, which—with packing, unpacking, and jet lag—really took closer to two months out of my writing time.
In the middle of the year, I decided to re-evaluate my writing goals and change my aim from completing a novel to completing a first draft.
I’m happy to say that as of right now, I have a first draft of my novel which weighs-in at about 70,000 words.
There’s a whole lot of fleshing-out that needs to be done, and I suspect the finished novel will be between 85,000 and 90,000 words long.
Although I didn’t reach my initial writing goals, I’m very pleased with my progress this year considering the circumstances.
Also, I managed to write at least two blog posts per week for Write It Sideways, release a free eBook (Read Better, Write Better Novel Study Workbook), become a semi-regular contributor at Writer Unboxed, as well as contribute articles to several other blogs.
Will you reach your goals this year?
If you’ve already completed your writing goals for 2010, or if you’ll likely be finished before the end of the month, congratulations!
Did you set your sights high enough, or were your goals too easily obtained? If you didn’t struggle at all to meet them, consider giving yourself an extra challenge next year.
If, like me, you were unable to stick to the original goals you made, are you close to achieving your revised goals?
Race to the Finish Line
Planning to hunker down and complete that one unfinished project before the 31st of December?
Here are some articles that might help:
- Three Words to Help You Finish Any Writing Project
- How to Finish a Stalled Writing Project
- The #1 Reason You’ll Never Finish Writing Your Novel
Damage control for unreached goals
Let’s be honest. A lot of the goals made in January of any year are forgotten within a matter of months, if not weeks.
If you didn’t meet your goals this year:
- Take into account everything you have accomplished. I could focus on the fact that I didn’t complete my novel, but that doesn’t do justice to all I have written this year. Instead, I choose to focus on the smaller victories: I wrote 70,000 words of a novel, maintained a blog, wrote an eBook, contributed to other blogs, all while raising two children—one a baby!
- Set more realistic writing goals for 2011. My goal would have been absolutely attainable if it weren’t for having a newborn in the house. So, although the goal wasn’t unrealistic in itself, it was unrealistic for me in 2010. Next year I’ll spend more time considering my circumstances and choosing more attainable goals.
- Take the FREE 31-Day Better Writing Habits challenge in January 2011. Over the past six months, Jennifer Blanchard of Procrastinating Writers and I have been collaborating on a project which will help you take your current writing habits to the next level: Better Writing Habits: Make Over Your Writing in 31 Days. Learning better writing habits early in the new year will help you reach your goals. You can learn more about the challenge here.
Did you, or will you meet the writing goals you set out for yourself in 2010? What helped spur you on? What caused detours along the way?