Tag: writing dreams

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The Intentional Writer

How to Turn Writing Dreams into Writing Goals

The intentional writer

As the year draws to a close, it’s a good idea to prepare for the year ahead. This post will help you turn fuzzy ideas and wishful dreams into a more actionable writing strategy for the year ahead.

To create next year’s writing strategy, begin by answering this simple question—Why do you write?

Step One: Know your why

Open your journal or get a blank piece of paper and free write about why you write. Just write anything that comes into your head. Don’t stop to think or correct. No editing. No wordsmithing. Keep your pen or pencil moving until you fill the whole page (or more than one page if you’re on a roll).

When you’re finished, read through what you wrote and highlight the key concepts that capture your most honest answer. On a fresh page, summarize the most important reasons you write. This motivation will inform the rest of your writing strategy.

Step Two: Clarify your vision

Considering your writing motivations from step one, answer the question, “What is my vision for this time next year?” If you could look back at the end of next year and see that you’ve been successful at furthering your writing dreams, what are the key areas of growth or achievement that you would have accomplished?

Or, to look at it another way, imagine what you would love to accomplish by the end of next year. Describe the main things you’d like to finish, master, or figure out.  

Defining your vision will give you something to shoot for. If you lack a concrete vision, it’s much more difficult to make progress or prioritize your goals.

Step Three: Where are you now?

Before creating writing goals for the coming year, you need to know where you’re starting from. So, where are you now in your writing journey?

Reflect on what you’ve accomplished this past year.

  • What important skills or lessons have you learned?
  • Have you taken a scary step forward?
  • What writing goals have you achieved?
  • What projects are still a work in progress (but progressing)?
  • How have you held firm to your key writing motivations?

Take a minute to congratulate yourself on the progress you have made. It’s important to pay attention to the milestones along the way if we want to stay motivated to accomplish our big writing dreams.

Next reflect on the main disappointments of the past year.

  • What hasn’t progressed like you’d hoped?
  • What didn’t work so well?
  • How can you pivot from that disappointment?
  • How have you strayed from your key writing motivations?

Step Four: Make intentional and realistic writing goals

Finally, it’s time to craft your writing goals. Use the information in the first three steps to create goals that will help you get from where you are now to where you’d love to be by the end of next year.

When crafting your writing goals, consider these factors.

  • They should stretch you or challenge you.
  • But they must also be realistic, not so far from where you are now that you’ll never meet them.
  • Goals are based on outcomes you can control (and there’s an awful lot you can’t control). They should be focused on your efforts, not the hoped-for results of those efforts.
  • They should specific enough and clear enough that you can tell when you’ve achieved them.
  • Finally, they should include a deadline.

Examples of writing goals

Example 1: I want to make the New Your Times Bestseller list. This is not a good goal. Why? This statement doesn’t include a date and it’s probably not realistic. The primary problem, however, is that you cannot control the outcome. Even if your book sells really well, it may not be selected for the list.

Example 2: I want my new book to hit the top ten bestseller status in an Amazon category by June 30. This goal is better. It includes a date, it’s easy to see whether you succeed or not, and it’s potentially within the realm of possibility. You still can’t fully control this outcome, but you can hire experts or follow their proven strategies to make it a potentially achievable goal.

Example 3: I will finish a revised version of my next book manuscript by May 1. This goal is specific and is based on an outcome you can control. It has a deadline, and success is reasonably clear. (Finish is a little vague, but if you aren’t prone to fussing over a manuscript forever, it might suffice.)    

May you have success meeting your writing goals for 2023!

I hope you will take some time in the next few weeks to think through these steps and come up with some specific writing goals that will help you achieve your writing dreams.

Lisa E Betz

Lisa E. Betz is an engineer-turned-mystery-writer, entertaining speaker, and unconventional soul. She inspires others to become their best selves, living with authenticity, and purpose, and she infuses her novels with unconventional characters who thrive on solving tricky problems. Her Livia Aemilia Mysteries, set in first-century Rome, have won several awards, including the Golden Scroll Novel of the Year (2021).

She and her husband reside outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with Scallywag, their rambunctious cat—the inspiration for Nemesis, resident mischief maker in her novels. Lisa directs church dramas, hikes the beautiful Pennsylvania woods, eats too much chocolate, and experiments with ancient Roman recipes. Visit www.lisaebetz.com.

Categories
A Lighter Look at the Writer's Life

Dream Fulfilled . . . Now What?

lighter look at a writer's life

Several years ago, God placed a dream in my heart to write. I have always considered myself a good writer, dating back to eighth grade when my English teacher noticed my talent and asked me to be a reporter for the high school newspaper.

Do you know what an ego boost it was for a chubby, awkward 13-year-old being asked to join the “big leagues” of the Jenkins High School Review? HUGE.

From that point, the ink was in my blood. I became editor of that paper as a sophomore, continued through high school, and majored in journalism in college. I then took my first detour.

With no major market newspapers or tv stations lining up at my door after my college graduation, I went to graduate school and began the path to becoming a college professor. I don’t regret that decision, and the massive volumes of research writing certainly sharpened my skills.

In my teaching career, I have been a newspaper adviser, mentoring young writers. When I moved to a new college in the early 90s, I even resurrected my own writing and became a newspaper columnist. That lasted for a while, until life happened–another detour.

Several years later, after I became a Christian, God called me to write and planted that aforementioned dream—specifically, a dream to have my own book published. At times, it seemed like a pipe dream, but, after many false starts and rejection letters, I finally got an agent and had a book traditionally published, with my co-author Holland Webb.

After years of anticipation of seeing my name on the cover of the book, it was a surreal experience to hold that book in my hands. IT FINALLY HAPPENED!

Then the pandemic hit, with quarantines and lockdowns one-month before the release date. My co-author and I faced many challenges, but we adjusted and learned the ins and outs of marketing a book during a once-in-a-lifetime national medical emergency.

It’s been nearly a year since the dream came true, so now what? What is one to do once the dream is fulfilled and the book is in hand? Continue writing, of course.

Is it really that easy? Yes.

I love watching basketball and following my favorite teams. It’s such a thrill when one of my teams wins a big game, such a great feeling. But then the coach has to bring the players back down to earth to get ready for the next game. It’s the same in writing. The thrill of seeing a book published is an awesome feeling, but then it’s time to get back to work on the next project.

So, it’s time for to gear up for the next game, to get back on the horse, jump back in the ring.

Hmm . . . maybe my next book can be about cliches . . . stay tuned.

Carlton Hughes, represented by Cyle Young of Hartline Literary, wears many hats. By day, he is a professor of communication. On Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings, he serves as a children’s pastor. In his “spare time,” he is a freelance writer. Carlton is an empty-nesting dad and devoted husband who likes long walks on the beach, old sitcoms, and chocolate—all the chocolate. His work has been featured in Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Dating Game, The Wonders of Nature, Let the Earth Rejoice, Just Breathe, So God Made a Dog, and Everyday Grace for Men. His latest book is Adventures in Fatherhood, co-authored with Holland Webb.

Categories
Fantasy-Sci-Fi

How to Defeat the Dream-Stealers

I hadn’t been careful enough, and the creature had my scent. Fight or flight, but there’s nowhere to run. With my dream exposed, I came face to face with the very real beast known as the dream stealer.

All writers face dream stealers in their lives, but the scent of the speculative fiction writer draws them more powerfully than any other. They might look like your mom, or your dad. They could be your husband, or wife. Maybe they wear a face of a good friend. But if you aren’t ready to fight, they will kill your dream, and you’ll push away from your manuscript, never to return.

Why do they attack,?

Sun Tzu famously said, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.” Dream Stealers, like any good antagonist, are the hero of their own story, gallantly trying to save you from yourself. They have your best interests at heart.

They know, from their own painful experiences, how much it hurts when a dream is left unfulfilled. They will rescue you from heartbreak and ruin before it’s too late. It’s not just you they want to save, but also themselves. It’s hard to watch someone you care about walk through a painful experience. Better to steer them off the path before they get hurt.

They want you to take the path more traveled. The safer path. They are the voice of the future. There will be time to pursue your dream of publication later, they say. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. After college. After you get married. After the kids are gone. To the last syllable of recorded time.

How can you fight them? How do you hold on to your dream of being a published author when they tempt you to take the easier path?

Know your odds, know your definition of success, know your season, and know your why.

Know your odds

The Dream Stealer will quote the odds to you. Whether you opt for traditional publishing or go the route of Independent publishing, the odds are stacked against you. Many will enter, few will win. For every publishing contract awarded, or agent signed, they reject hundreds of other writers. Knowing the odds before the Dream Stealer throws them at you neutralizes their power. This isn’t a once and done battle, it’s one you have to fight repeatedly. Look your Dream Stealer in the eyes, channel your best Harrison Ford, and say, “Never tell me odds.”

Know your definition of success

Dream Stealers take a narrow view of success when they talk of the odds. It’s not enough to have finished a manuscript, or even gotten an agent. No, their only criteria is if you become a Best Seller. They never look at the smaller accomplishments. You must celebrate the small wins: the finished draft, the compliment from your critique partner, a contest victory. Those are the oxygen your dream needs to stay alive.

A struggle with a deep, philosophical issue gave birth to my current work-in-progress manuscript. If the story helps even one other person navigate those waters, the book will have been a resounding success.

You are not a failure just because you didn’t achieve someone else’s definition of success.

Know your season

My kids tire of me saying ‘a time and a place’, but it’s true. There’s a time and a place for everything. It’s important to understand your current season of life. Pursuing a career as a professional writer takes a serious commitment of time, passion and resources. Not every season lends itself to making that commitment. Perhaps today you’re in a growing season which will provide a fertile ground of emotions and conflict to fuel your future novels. Don’t let anyone define the timetable for you.

Know your why

Like our characters, we need deep motivations to maintain our quest for publication over the long haul. You need to connect your dream to something bigger than yourself. From my experience, fantasizing about a huge advance check won’t do it. There are easier ways to make money.

Whatever your reason is, write it down and read it every time it’s time to write. That why will motivate you to put the butt in the chair when you’re tired, or aren’t feeling it. Your why will get you to grind out words that won’t come.

Gird yourself for battle

The moment you pursued the dream of being a published writer, you put a target on your back. Your scent wafts in the breeze and every Dream Stealer in your life picks it up. They mean well and they sincerely have your best interest at heart. But they give voice to the fears and doubts every writer harbors in their heart. We have to be careful to choose the voices we listen to. Those will be the ones that influence us.

“Life’s full of lots of dream-stealers always telling you you need to do something more sensible. I think it doesn’t matter what your dream is, just fight the dream-stealers and hold on to it.”

Bear Grylls.

Ted Atchley is a freelance writer and professional computer programmer. Whether it’s words or code, he’s always writing.  
Ted’s love for speculative fiction started early on with Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, and the Star Wars movies. This led to reading Marvel comics and eventually losing himself in Asimov’s Apprentice Adept and the world of Krynn (Dragonlance Chronicles). 
After blogging on his own for several years, Blizzard Watch (blizzardwatch.com) hired Ted to be a regular columnist in 2016. When the site dropped many of its columns two years later, they retained Ted as a staff writer. 
He lives in beautiful Charleston, SC with his wife and children. When not writing, you’ll find him spending time with his family, and cheering on his beloved Carolina Panthers.
He’s currently revising his work-in-progress portal fantasy novel before preparing to query. 

  • Twitter: @tedatchley3,
  • Twitter: @honorshammer (gaming / Blizzard Watch)

Categories
Dear Young Scribes

Re-Evaluate Your Writing Career by Returning to Your Author Dream

Almost every aspiring author dreams of what their life as a published author will look like some day: Multiple best-selling novels. Lines that stretch out the door at book signings. A cabin in the mountains. Books made into movies. Fat advances. And, of course, spending every waking hour either typing up the next Great American Novel or responding to fan mail.

Obviously that picture is far from the reality of what the life of today’s average novelist looks like. In order to make a living in today’s writing industry, most authors don’t just write books. They also teach. Speak. Blog. Write freelance articles. Offer coaching, consulting, or freelance editing services to other writers.

Yet with all of the possibilities for today’s writer, how are we supposed to know which paths to pursue and what kind of business model to create? After all, being an author is equivalent to being an owner of a small business. Sometimes I can become distracted by all the ideas floating around in my head that I forget to remind myself of the Big Picture of my writing career—the reason I’m pursuing this dream in the first place.

So, for the new year, I’ve decided to re-evaluate my business model and where I currently stand along my writing path. How am I doing this?

By returning to my Ultimate Dream as an Author.

Of course, your career as a writer might not look the way you originally thought it would. But I believe that, if God has given you the desire and dream of being an author, then it must’ve been for a reason. He has a plan and a purpose for this gift of yours. What is it that He’s planted inside of you? Why do you feel like you’ve been called into this profession? Is it to reach the lost? To provide lighthearted and clean entertainment?

    

With all of the possibilities for today’s writer, it can often be tempting to get carried away in all of these money-making avenues. As you begin a new year in your writing journey, it might be wise to re-evaluate where you currently stand by going back to the start, to the very moment when you first felt that tug on your heart to pursue writing.

I advise doing this by getting alone with God and your journal. In your journal, write the answers to these questions…

  1. What did I originally envision when I first felt called to pursue writing?
  2. Is that the same vision I have in mind for my writing career today?
  3. Are the steps I’m taking today leading me toward reaching this Dream Author Career?
  4. Are the decisions I’m making supporting my mission statement as an author?
  5. What do I believe God wants to accomplish through my writing career?

 

By answering these questions, hopefully you’ll be able to see your writing career from a big-picture perspective—beginning from the time you first dreamt of being an author, to where you stand today, and finally, where you’re headed. As you journal, spend time in prayer and ask God to give you the vision He wants you to have for your writing career. If you’d like to take it a step further, you could even summarize this vision down to 1 – 3 sentences, write it on a post-it note, and stick it on your computer or at your desk. That way, any time you come across a career-altering decision this year, you can see if it supports this vision.

Sure, that crazy dream you first had when you dreamt of becoming an author might be a stretch. But what if there’s some truth in that? What if God gave you those desires for a reason?

Every new year brings with it an exhilarating rush of possibility. Another chance to reach higher, try harder, and pursue new goals. But before we rush toward planning the path before us, let’s not forget to first be still and seek our Guide, the giver of this gift. Tune your heart to His. Is the path you’re headed one that’s been mapped out by Him?

With every step, let’s seek His direction and guidance. If we do that, then we’ll remain in His will. And who knows? The vision He has in mind for our writing careers might actually exceed anything we could ever imagine…

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