Today’s post is written by Sarah Callender, a semi-finalist in the Write It Sideways regular contributor search. Unfortunately, Sarah must pull out of the search for personal reasons, but we can look forward to the occasional guest post from her in the future. Wishing you all the best, Sarah!
We writers are a funny bunch. And when I say ‘funny,’ I mean ‘a little crazy.’
Let’s face it: we willingly hole up by ourselves, for months (or years) on end, putting words and stories on the page, believing that someone will enjoy those very words and stories enough to publish us…perhaps even pay us.
If we are lucky enough to find someone who does indeed want to pay us, and if we are nutters enough to calculate the hour-to-dollar ratio, we realize we have earned roughly $.37/hour writing that novel. That’s 37 cents an hour.
See? That’s a little crazy. And when I say ‘a little crazy,’ I mean ‘totally insane.’
Yet we press on, partly because we are genetically compelled to do so. We feel crabby and itchy and constipated if we go too long without putting words on the page. Most of us can’t not write for more than a few days or weeks without feeling prickly and irritable.
But many of us also write because we are dreamers. We dream of publication. We dream of sharing our words and stories with someone other than our mothers and our cats. We dream of getting published in The Paris Review, of winning Pen-Faulkners and Man Bookers and Pulitzers.
Some of us even dream of getting rich. Can you believe it? we imagine others saying. She got paid a million dollars for that novel.
Of course there are plenty of writers who care nothing about publication or awards or wealth. I just don’t know any of them. They must live in North Dakota or Russia or some island off the coast of Lilliput.
Are You a Dreamer or a Goaler?
All the writers I know write because they dream of sharing their stories, their discoveries, their truths with the world. Or at least with several thousand people. Certainly more than their mothers and their cats.
And gosh, it is good to dream. If we are to be writers, especially if we are to be fiction writers, we must be Dreamers. It’s part of the job description. There is no fiction without a willingness to dream.
Yet we must also be Setters of Goals. Goalers. Yes, I know. It’s not nearly as sexy to be a Goaler as it is to be a Dreamer. Take Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. Had he shared an ‘I Have a Goal’ speech, I don’t think it would be considered one of the finest pieces of American rhetoric today.
Goal setting is right up there with reorganizing the linen closet or cleaning grout. Perhaps vacuuming out the minivan.
But sometimes it’s the least sexy things that keep us in the game. And don’t you desperately want to stay in the game? Don’t you want to be much more than a bench warmer or a water boy?
If so, then here’s a bit of advice, some of the best I have ever received about staying in the game of writing: writers must constantly be setting goals. However, these goals must be the right kind of goals. Specifically, SMART goals.
Setting SMART Writing Goals
SMART is an acronym that stands for:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Action-Oriented
- Realistic/Relevant
- Time-Specific
For example, let’s say you set this goal: Get published in The New Yorker.
Sorry, but that’s totally unhelpful. It’s Specific, and it’s Measurable, but there’s nothing Time-Specific about such an open-ended desire. Plus, unless you happen to be the guy who puts the Yes! stamp on submissions to The New Yorker, you don’t have a say about what goes into an issue. Therefore it doesn’t meet the Realistic/Relevant qualification.
So please move Get published in The New Yorker over to the Dreams column. Where it belongs.
A dream is shiny and pretty and probably quite heavy. Like a coconut cream pie. Or an ocean at sunset. Dreams sit on our shoulder and whisper things like, But what about me? Don’t forget about me!. Dreams are essential so please, don’t stop dreaming.
But if you dream of getting published in a prestigious publication, in any publication at all, then create a SMART goal, something over which you have total control.
Perhaps this: Submit one short story to five publications (two top-tier and three others) during the month of December.
If you are someone who cares about publication, then it is your job, nutty writer-friend, to get your writing into the hands of readers or editors or agents. And you can do that. You can’t control whether those folks like it, certainly not whether they accept it for publication, but you can get it into their hands.
Here’s another. Take Get an agent (that’s a dream), and create this goal: Find twenty agents who represent work similar to mine. Organize this list from most to least appealing, then query the seven most appealing by February 28, 2012.
If all goes well, by February 28, you will have sent your query to seven agents. Your goal cannot hinge on the approval or acceptance of others, but it can (and should) hinge on getting it into the hands of others.
Here’s another: Get a grant. Hmm, that smells like a dream.
But create this goal: Apply for five grant opportunities in 2012, and you’re in great shape.
Dreams are often beyond our control. Goals, the right kind of goals, are totally doable. And I, for one, feel a little better about my day when I have accomplished at least one writing goal, which is sometimes as simple as this goal: Write Every Day.
A friend of mine taught me that one. It doesn’t matter if what I write is good or brilliant or worthy of Pulitzers. If I have written, then I have accomplished my goal, which inches me closer to my dream.
Your turn now! Are you naturally a Dreamer or a Goaler in your writing life? Are there ways you can shift your dreams into SMART goals? Please, be brave and share.
In fact, how about setting this SMART goal: Comment on at least one Write It Sideways post this month. Now that’s a SMART goal.
Editor’s note: I couldn’t agree more with that goal, Sarah!
Sarah Callender is represented by Rebecca Oliver at William Morris Endeavor, and her novel is currently undergoing a round of revisions. She received a 2010 King County Arts Commission grant for an interdisciplinary art/poetry project in the Seattle Public Schools, and the first chapter of her novel, BETWEEN THE SUN AND THE ORANGES, received Honorable Mention in the 2010 Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition. Sarah blogs regularly at Inside-Out Underpants. She lives with her husband and two children in Seattle where she is hard at work on her second novel.
Hi,
I like reading the mails from Write it Sideways….
I’ve been a career journalist, and now am a freelance writer.
Having been a sub-editor in a daily newspaper, I think has had both pluses and minuses for me. To just mention one plus, able to write with more clarity, and the minus, not being able to write freely without the editor in me interfering.
A couple of years ago, I started what I call free verse which comes close to the sort of chiselled writing that satisfies me.
As far as my daily routine these days go, I am working on different pieces for papers and magazines, and feel I have a long way to go.
–Srinivas
Love these comments. Srinivas, you are clearly finding a comfy place in both the world of the daily grind and the world of the creative writer. Ashley, I love the image of one leg in the Goal pool. I’m pretty sure that’s all you need. More than a few toes, but certainly less than your whole bod! Thanks for these comments.
This is such a great post. I definitely think I lie mostly in the Dreamer categories, with maybe just my leg in the Goalers.
I am bookmarking this post and will refer to it often. Really great job!
This has been the most helpful post on your blog since you started posting from your semi-finalists! As a “reprised senior writer”, I am already aware of the difference between dreams and goals. I am also aware how easy it is to allow goals to place a writer on an assembly line that cranks away in the sem-dark far below the light of one’s dreams! We writers truly do need a good balance here!
Thank you, Rose. I’m so glad it was helpful!
This is my favorite post so far from your semi-finalists! Goals and dreams must indeed be kept in balance in a writer’s life. However, as a reprised senior writer, I am only too aware of how easy it is to allow one’s goals to stick one onto an assembly line in the dark, far below the light of one’s dreams.
I am definitely in the the dreamer category: Write five hours every evening after a long exhausting day teaching. Often when I feel overwhelmed by such unrealistic goals for writing- “dreamy” goals which unfortunately I become wedded to- I end up throwing up my hands and moving away from goals to spontaneous writing with no output or time goal in mind. It relieves some of the pressure and I can get to writing again. But oh is it wonderful, goal directed or not, when I can actually sit down for a substantial period of time and bang out narrative.
Such a great post. I’m about 70% dreamer and 30% goaler some days. So, I love the clear-cut examples you give here and the tips on turning those dreams into goals, without leaving the dreams behind. thus us definitely a post to bookmark!
Thanks, Christi! (And the sad thing about my brain this morning? I didn’t even notice your autocorrected type-os. My brain must have auto-autocorrected them. Or maybe the coffee just hasn’t kicked in.) Thanks for taking the time to comment!
🙂
PS. Don’t you just love autocorrect?…
THIS IS a post to bookmark….
Lordy.
Goals are the tough part; it’s so easy to talk about them, but do actually sit down and work towards them is where the challenge lies. SMART seems like an excellent – and simple – way to conquer that. Thanks for the tip.
This post comes at the perfect time for New Year’s Resolution season. (I’m bookmarking it!) So instead of making my NYR “get an agent,” I’ll be making it something more like “send out queries to 5 dream agents (and 5 not-dream-but-still-awesome agents) by May.”
Yes! Perfect. That way, you are in control of your own success . . . brilliant!
Loved this post. I am a little bit of a dreamer as far as it lets me think big enough to set my goals. Perfect timing too as I just set a couple of goals. Forget waiting until January – my goals and dreams are too big to wait for the new year.
Thanks!
Terrific post– I realized after reading that a) I’m too much of a dreamer and b) it’s easy for dreams, wonderful as they are, to stand in the way of action. I dream, but then I decide the dream is unrealistic, so then I don’t do anything. This is probably why I have so many pieces of writing that I’ve done absolutely nothing with…they’re still frozen in a Documents folder on my laptop. 🙂 Thanks for providing such concrete advice!
Thank you for this! Making SMART goals is something that I struggle with, and this gave me a lot of clarity. I especially have trouble dealing with the part about not being able to control whether or not someone will like what you submit. This gentle reminder that this is out of my control, but getting my work in front of publishers and editors is in my control was right on time.
What a great post! Inspirational and practical. Thanks for the end-of-year kick in the butt. 🙂
Thanks for all of the comments, friends. I, too, found this helpful . . . it was always so discouraging to feel like my success was at the mercy of fancy agents and contest curators.
I’ll be curious to hear about the side-effects (getting agents, completing works-in-progress, seeing your writing in print) of your goals. I’d love to hear your SMART goals for 2012!
Great post and very nice food for thought. I am currently trying to be a goaler working towards my dream (the dreamer sometimes does take over) 🙂
This is such an excellent post. I am going to revisit my list of 12 writing goals for 2012 and measure them by Sarah’s SMART goals test before I post them. Thank you!
Love the goal-oriented/dreamer-oriented writer . . . It really is a combination of both that helps a writer to fulfill her goals or re-imagine them and try something else, etc etc etc!
First time here – because of Writer Unboxed newsletter . . . will subscribe!
Wonderful article!! Because I am a Social Worker in my first career I am a “goaler.” I actually break down my goals in the ways you described above. I have journals where I mark off each step as I come closer to achieving that goal. It helps me stay focused.