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Working Words

Setting and Achieving Your Writing Goals
by Sharon Waldrop

"Another day, another dollar," or is it "another day, another fifty cents?" You decide.

You can double your current writing income with a low dose of time management skills and a high dose of commitment. I know this for a fact because I did it and you can too.

Perhaps you are not looking to double your income, but just need to set some writing goals for yourself to keep your career on track. You may want to commit to finding a new market each week, or sending out two queries a day. Whatever your goals are, you can achieve them with some serious self-earned dedication. Don't get discouraged if it takes months to achieve your goals or if you achieve your goals one month and not the next. Life happens, and sometimes life gets in the way.

Organize your priorities

Assuming that your family is the first priority in your life, your writing career should be your second priority if your life if you are seeking success at it. If you have a job outside the home other than writing, you may need to focus on writing as number three on your list. As long as writing stays in the top percentage range of your priority list, you'll do fine. Don't put it on the back burner.

Let your friends and family members know that you are giving your writing career the serious commitment it deserves. You may need to assign extra chores to your spouse or children, as any working parent would. If you do not work outside the home, you may feel guilty asking someone else in the family to do the ironing, but don't. You can't possibly achieve your writing goals if you are taking care of the household 24/7. As a writer, you have a career and you need to make room for it in your life. Treat it as seriously as you would a job outside the home. As a human being, you are limited at what you can do in one day.

To make room for your goals, make a list of your extracurricular activities. These include volunteer jobs at school or church, projects for clubs or organizations and perhaps even a weekly breakfast potluck. After looking at your list, consider all the time you spend cooking, doing laundry, grocery shopping and nurturing your family. Is there time left to achieve your writing goals? Probably not. It's time to cross some things off your list (please don't cross off nurturing your family). Organize yourself

You know what goals you want to achieve, but how do you make them happen?

A weekly planner is a great way to keep your goals organized and unforgotten. However, a planner will not work unless you use it faithfully every day and read it every day. I have found that writing down my daily chores, assignments and goals is a wonderful stress reliever. Instead of overfilling my brain capacity with "things to do," I store my tasks on paper. Also, there is no need to spend the day wondering if I've forgotten something because when that "something" is written down in front of me, it's stored in a safe place.

I will admit that I have taken the planner thing a bit too far, and always have. Hey, whatever works, right? As a stay-at-home mother, I use the same planner I used when I worked as an upper-level manager outside the home. On occasion, I will find myself doing something that wasn't written down on my "to-do" list. When this happens, I write down the task afterwards, then cross it off. Sad, I know, but it keeps me organized.

Help Wanted - Qualified Baby-sitter Inquire Within

If you are having a hard time organizing yourself and your writing time because you are the parent of a young child or children, consider the benefits of a part-time baby-sitter. When I decided to take my writing seriously, I hired a baby-sitter to come to my home two mornings a week to entertain my toddler while my son attends preschool. While I write in a secluded room downstairs, the caregiver I employ pours juice, reads books and sings songs to a little girl who I adore.

Sometimes it takes money to make money, which is why I can justify the added expense of a sitter. However, you may want to consider a baby-sitting trade-out option with a friend you trust to save money.

Night person or morning person

If you can write at night, whether it's after work or after the children are in bed, I salute you! I simply cannot do that because my brain cells do not function after 8:00 p.m. There is no creativity nor ingenious words popping up into my head. My "nonfiction writer" name tag is removed from my chocolate-stained T-shirt and put away until morning. I am insanely jealous of writers who do their best work in the wee hours of the morning. I have visions of myself writing from 9:00 p.m. until 2:00 a.m. in a peaceful home, but that scenario remains just that -- a vision.

What works well for me is to get out of bed before my children and spend that time writing in peace. I wake up refreshed, energized and full of ideas. This is a natural response for me towards the new day and not fueled by caffeine. If my daily planner indicates that I've scheduled myself to send out two queries today, it's wonderful to have those two queries done before the house wakes up.

Achieving goals early in the day gives me a sense of accomplishment and the freedom to enjoy the rest of the day. I can thoroughly enjoy time at the park with my children sans the guilt of wondering if I will complete the day's goals.

Respect the boss

As a writer, you are your own boss and the goals you set for yourself are assignments given to you by your boss. If you've scheduled time from 1:00 - 3:00 to write an essay and a friend calls and invites you to the matinee, think of what you would do if you were at a job outside the home and in the same situation. Would you go to your boss at work and ask for time off to go to the movies? Of course not. As your own boss, it would be necessary in this situation to tell your friend that you can see a movie with her after work.

Take your self-scheduled work time seriously or you will not accomplish your goals. I'm sure that most of the successful writers out there have missed many movies because they refused to push their goals aside.

Tease Yourself

One way to encourage yourself to achieve your goals is to put a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Is there a family vacation you have been dreaming about but unable to afford? As I prepare the agenda for my day, thoughts of "Maui Writers Conference, Maui Writers Conference" fill my head as I experience mental images of my family splashing in the waves of Maui. My goal is to make enough money within the next seven months to treat my family to a vacation to Maui. Many of my vacation expenses will qualify as a tax write-off as an attendee of the conference this upcoming Labor Day weekend.

Maybe you need new kitchen floor, or your child wants to go to soccer camp this summer. Wants and desires such as these may help kickstart a goal-setting agenda for the new millennium.

Remember, as a Momwriter, you are a Mom first and a writer second. For some of you, a dad or grandparent first and a writer second. Your family is number one and your writing must be number two if you want to succeed. If you push your writing career outside the ranks, you will push away your goals too.

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