goals

Thinking: First Backward and Then Forward

Published on by Kristi Holl

Soon my writing friend and I will Skype for a few hours about our 2013 goals.

We’ll discuss what we’ve accomplished, what we’ve given up on, and what is still challenging (and defeating) us.

Current State of Affairs

In past years at these goal check-ups, I’ve been both pleasantly surprised and chagrined at my progress. This year I’m happy finally with the amount of writing I’m getting accomplished (thanks to running four challenge accountability groups this year) and how I’m taking stronger steps in the marketing arena.

Another “plus” is how my writing life is flowing. For years my friend and I brainstormed more effective ways to draw boundaries at work, at home, with friends, and (most importantly) with ourselves. This whole boundary thing seems to be an ongoing challenge with us, but we’ve grown this year! We’re better at setting boundaries around our time and not backing down. (Several years of work on this issue resulted in my 2013 e-book Boundaries for Writers.)

Don’t wait until New Year’s Day to think about your progress in 2013. Begin to review it now. Think about it. Celebrate your successes. Be honest about how much work you’ve put into your writing career this year. If you got derailed, take time to think deeply and figure out why.

Thinking Ahead

Then begin to visualize and dream. Where would you like to be a year from now? What changes will you need to make?

For me, I intend to read what’s currently being published in my field a lot more. I’ve read a lot of middle grade books, but I need to do more. My granddaughter and I have hit several excellent book sales recently, and I’m stocked up! I’m also wondering if this is the year I try to find an agent.

Everywhere I turned this year, I got the same message (from writing friends, books, and conference speakers): If you want a rich writing life, cut out time wasters and replace them with reading—and reading a lot. Otherwise our creative wells run dry. Also socialize with a purpose more often (SCBWI conferences, critique groups, book discussion groups, book store readings, lunch with writers.)

I also want to market a bit better, but mostly I’d like to consistently do the marketing things I’ve started. If I could ask Santa for one thing this year, it would be consistency.

So think now about your goals for 2014. Journal about them. Think about how you’re going to hit them. Give yourself these six weeks before the New Year starts to ponder these questions–and then decide on a direction.

Memorize This

If you want a writing life that you’ve never had, you’ll have to do things that you’ve never done—and do them consistently. (Copy the preceding sentence and tape it to your computer.)

Weekend Gems

Published on by Kristi Holl

For your weekend reading pleasure, here are four articles I think you’ll find inspiring and practical. (We need both!)

Bookmark them all, or save them to Evernote, and each time you need a break from your writing, read one of these articles. 

You’ll be glad you did!

  • Here’s one of the best quick reference guides for plotting your conflict that I’ve seen in a long time: 9 Ways To Undermine Your Characters’ Best Laid Plans. It’s a list worth printing off and keeping next to your keyboard.
  • Renowned editor Patti Lee Gauch’s thoughts from a Highlights workshop: Have Your Own Standard of Excellence
  • 5 Things Super Successful People Do Before 8 AM describes what successful people (not just writers) do each morning to make sure they use their day in a powerful way. Simple, but profound–and we could all take a lesson here!
  • Books change lives. We say it all the time. Here’s an inspirational article about a new YA author and this very thing: Sometimes The ‘Tough Teen’ Is Quietly Writing Stories

 

Chop! Chop! Writing in 20-Minute Slices

Published on by Kristi Holl

Thirty years ago I read an article that said writing was like eating a salami. You’d choke if you tried to swallow the whole thing at once. Slice by slice, though, it was easy.

Life has been hectic lately, with few large chunks of time to work. So I went back to creating 20-minute tasks for my “slices of salami.”

The Challenge of Chopping

Chop, chop! How do you break writing tasks into those 20 minute slices? At the beginning of the summer, I made a three-page single-spaced list of such tasks, covering several project areas (a novel revision, a possible nonfiction e-book, some work-for-hire educational writing, and marketing).

The beauty of the list to me is that I don’t have trouble getting started. I pick a task–not necessarily in the order listed–set my timer, and get going! Since getting started has always been my biggest hurdle, the list goes a long way toward getting me over that hump.

Examples of Short Writing Tasks

If your main project is fiction, and you only have 20-30 minutes to write, pre-thinking is critical before you sit down at the keyboard. Otherwise you’ll waste your time getting started and focusing. I became skilled at pre-thinking when I was first taking the ICL course because I had a preschooler, a toddler and a newborn. I wrote in 10-minute slices back then.

I made long lists of tasks for the short stories I wanted to write. The tasks covered such things as outlining steps, “creative steps” like thinking of character and setting names, mechanical steps (e.g. write opening paragraph), revision steps, and marketing steps.

The list of short fiction “slices” would include things like:

  • Think of three titles
  • Revise titles to be more suspenseful
  • Decide on main character’s name
  • Decide on ending
  • Write physical character description of mother
  • Look up street names and weather in XXX town

Nonfiction “slices” might include:

  • Fact check xxxxx
  • Organize sources into alphabetical bibliography list
  • Revise (or tighten) opening

Examples for marketing might be:

  • Find three agent blogs to read
  • Find three publishers’ blogs to read
  • Read one blog post and leave a comment
  • Set up a Twitter account
  • Get domain name at GoDaddy.com

I was going to list some of my own 20-minute tasks for you, but I realized they wouldn’t mean anything to anyone but me. (e.g. search/replace name change, check epiphanies re: p. 194 MAC, make “sense” lists for each scene in last chapter) But I think the examples above give you a better idea of breaking things down into small slices.

Estimating Time Needed

Realize that it’s difficult to estimate times correctly. Sometimes I gave myself twenty minutes to do a certain task, and it only actually took me five minutes. Other times, the task took me three 20-minute periods to finish.

For example, in the past, one of my 20-minute tasks was to set up my author page on Amazon.com. (I had needed to do this for more than fifteen years!) My friend did hers in 20 minutes, but even though we were adding the same amount of info, I took three 20-minute times to finish mine. It took me the first twenty minutes just to read and understand the directions, another twenty to write the bio, and another twenty to add the book jackets and video trailer. (Actually there was another twenty minutes spent later because some of the dust jackets wouldn’t load, which I gave up on.)

Fight Overwhelming To-Do Lists with Slices

Life is too busy and overwhelming at times. Yet we need to keep writing so we don’t lose the flow and continuity.

I hope these examples have given you ideas for breaking down your own writing projects into do-able slices. You won’t choke if you take one tiny slice at a time. Now…go eat that salami!

Warning: Do You Know Where You Are?

Published on by Kristi Holl

lostWhen trying to get from where we are as writers to where we’d like to be, we will need to follow a path to that publishing destination.

As mentioned a few weeks ago, I’ve been re-reading Andy Stanley’s The Principle of the Path which states that it’s direction–not intention–that determines our destination.

We are travelers, and we look for maps to guide us. We read books and articles on how to get started, get published, and market ourselves.

This guidance becomes our road map, our GPS system for success. Despite hundreds of maps (i.e. books of advice), few writers are as successfully published as they’d like to be.

What’s The Problem?

Is it because we can’t read a map? Usually not. Is it because we don’t really know where we want to end up? Usually not. Then what’s missing?

The starting point.

No matter what type of map you use (Google map, MapQuest, GPS or the old-fashioned paper kind), you first have to know where you are right now. Knowing your destination won’t help one iota if you don’t know your present location.

And why don’t we writers know where we are at this moment? Are we lost? Not really. More like deluded. We deceive ourselves about our true locations at the present time. (I do it too. We all do it.) And that’s one big reason why our “maps” don’t work and don’t get us to our destinations.

Wearing Blinders

Not long ago, I asked a teacher-writer about this. (He’s taught writing at the university level for twenty years.) His classes focus on both writing and publishing your writing. He said one of the biggest problems he ran into was that his students who hoped to publish had no grasp of their current skill level. Most of them believed they were better writers than they were.

They’d been told all through high school that their writing was fabulous, but now they were competing with the cream of the cream in college. They did surface revisions, unwilling to start over or dig deeper. They were used to posting to their blogs (instant gratification in publishing.) After only one rejection by a print publisher, they often hurried to self-publish instead. Many of them felt ready for Carnegie Hall, but they’d only mastered Chopsticks.

Delusions

Whatever their reasons–whatever our reasons–many writers do not have a clear grasp of where they are right now. They see the golden crowns of success in the future: bestseller lists, big royalty checks, crowded book signings. They’re studying several maps: MFA programs, online programs, quitting their day jobs to write for a year.

But they’re deceiving themselves about their starting point.

  • Some of us need basic courses in grammar and punctuation more than an MFA program.
  • Some of us need to keep our day jobs while writing furiously every lunch hour and all day Saturday for a year.
  • Some of us need to study other successful writers’ published books more than we need to meet an agent at the next expensive writer’s conference.
  • Some of us need to lose 50 pounds and deal with our back problems so we can sit for longer periods of time at a keyboard.

If you want to reach your writing dreams, you do need to know your hoped-for destination. If you don’t want to waste years and years re-inventing the wheel, you’ll need to find out how other writers were successful and check out their “maps.”

But if you don’t know your starting point–if you’re not willing to be very honest with yourself about where you are today–those maps and goals won’t do you any good.

Where Am I Today?

So take some time this weekend and, with pen and paper, ask yourself the tough questions.

  • Where are you in the skill areas you need?
  • Where are you an expert, but where are you still a beginner?
  • What parts of the writing life stymie you?
  • How much time per day/week do you really have–or can you carve out–for a writing life?
  • How’s your health, your stamina?

Answers to these questions–honest answers instead of “I wish” answers–are what will be valuable to you. It will be your true starting point. Knowing this will help you choose a map that will actually take you from where you are and point you to your destination: your writing dreams.

Ask About the Numbers

Published on by Kristi Holl

While discussing goals with several writer friends, I found myself becoming depressed. We were analyzing how 2012 had gone. Each person shared their goals for the past year and how they had succeeded or failed.

Until I heard the other reports, I had been happy with most of my year. While I hadn’t yet completed a couple of novels I’d started, I had written a couple of proposals, and one of them got the “nod” from an editor. (Proposals take me a while, with their sample chapters and market plans.) A revision for a book I sold in 2011, which I expected to take about two weeks, took the last three months of 2012 to complete instead.

Check the Numbers

Here’s where the depression part came in. Several friends said something like this: “In 2012 I wrote a six-book series for X Publisher, plus three books in another ongoing series for Publisher Y.”

After hearing that, I didn’t want to share that my completed projects were so meager. And yet, I had put in more writing hours this year than in many years (and I’m not counting the blogging or critique letters for private critiques.) Was I getting slower? Was I burning out? I didn’t feel like it, but I sure wasn’t producing books at the speed these other writers had.

For me—and for many of you—it’s all in the numbers.

Then I remembered something. Several years ago I had what looked like my most productive year. I wrote three books in a series for an educational publisher, then two mysteries for a different educational publisher. A five-book year!

But the whole truth was that the three books were all written in a week and totaled only about 750 words each. The mysteries were early chapter books that were less than 2,000 words each. That’s only about 6,000 words altogether! And it was less than two months’ writing time. Still, I could truthfully say I wrote and sold five books that year.

In Comparison…

In 2012, though, I wrote two proposals. One got nixed fairly early, and one got the go-ahead. I’ve been working on that novel, and each revision has changed it substantially. It will still take months to finish it. And the revision I did this fall and just turned in (for the book sold in 2011) grew into a longer book when I added the additional material my editor wanted. (It’s a much better book now.) But the numbers? The “revision” included major changes to the 36,000 words I had written, plus an additional 21,000 words of original material. This 57,000-word revision took me much longer—and was more challenging—than the five books I wrote several years ago.

Am I knocking educational writing or short books? NO! Not in the slightest. The value of the writing is NOT in the length. I’m just suggesting that you ask about the numbers. Before your writer’s ego shrinks any further when someone talks about their multiple book successes, ask them how long the books were. (While there are a few full-time writers who produce long books several times per year, they are few and far between.)

Part of the Writing Life

And if you like to write long books, get used to this. It will happen throughout your career. I generally sell one or two books per year, depending on length. But except for that one year, I don’t write short material other than this blog.

Writers aren’t telling you they wrote and sold six books last year to put you down or make you feel small. They are telling the truth. (It wasn’t until someone commented to me that I must not have seen my family that whole year that I realized the misperception on their part.)  But if it makes your writer’s self-esteem take a plunge, ask (nicely) how long the books were. Add up the numbers. (Some middle-grade novels are 50,000 words, but many middle-grade series books are 15,000 words or less.) You may realize that despite appearances, you’ve written much more than that last year. So don’t compare apples and oranges.

Better Yet, Don’t Compare At All

We were each given stories and material to write, either fiction or nonfiction. We each have a unique voice and a unique “take” on the world. No one else can write your stories—or my stories. And if the stories you are given to write are longer or take more thought, your “production” quotas will look lower to others. Find a way to be okay with this, or it will plague you throughout your career.

I hope your 2012 was a successful writing year, but be careful how you measure success.

Just curious: how will you measure success in 2013? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Organizing: Targets vs. Goals

Published on by Kristi Holl

[This article is reprinted by permission. See credits at the end.]

*******************

It’s traditional at the beginning of the year to define what you’d like to achieve in the coming twelve months.

That’s a good thing and I highly recommend it. This week I’ll be writing my own annual plan for the coming year.

However, I’d like to point out an area where just about everybody uses fuzzy thinking in their planning.

We don’t control our future entirely.

Some things we can control, of course. But some we just can’t. It’s crucial to know the difference.

If you’re looking for an agent, you have complete control over how many queries you send out. But you can’t force an agent to agree to represent you. All you can do is make yourself an attractive client, send out those pesky queries, and hope that one of the agents sees how brilliant you are.

What we need are two different words, one for goals that we can control, and one for goals that we can’t. As far as I know, we don’t have those words. We could make some up, but I don’t think that’s necessary.

Instead, let’s just define a “Goal” (with a capital letter) to be something we have control over, and let’s define a “Target” to be something we only have partial control over.

  • “I will write 10,000 words every week” is a Goal.
  • “I will become the best writer in my critique group” is a Target.
  • “I will attend one major writing conference this year” is a Goal.
  • “I will get two editors at conferences to request manuscripts” is a Target.
  • “I will send out 20 queries to agents in March” is a Goal.
  • “I will sign with an agent by July” is a Target.

Goals are good. Targets are also good. But they’re not the same thing.

You can make a list of Goals for the year that is 100% achievable. At the end of the year, if you haven’t reached all those Goals, then you have a right to hold yourself accountable.

You can make a list of Targets for the year, but you just can’t assume they’re achievable. It’s OK if they’re a bit of a stretch. It’s OK to aim for a spectacular year and end up with a merely great year. (For some people, the only way to achieve their best is to shoot for the impossible.)

But it’s a mistake to confuse Goals with Targets. That only sets you up for self-flagellation at the end of the year, if you don’t reach all your Targets.

An important point is that Targets usually depend on Goals. So set your Targets first. Then figure out what Goals you must meet in order to make your Targets as likely as possible.

Steps to Make This Work

Let’s see how that works out in practice. Suppose one of your Targets is “I want to sign with a major agent this year.”

If you’re a first-time novelist, then you probably can’t get an agent unless your manuscript is complete and polished. You also can’t get an agent unless you pitch to at least one (and probably several).

So here are five reasonable Goals you can set in support of your Target:

  • I will complete my manuscript by the end of March.
  • I will hire a professional freelance editor to evaluate my manuscript, with a deadline to get the evaluation back to me by the end of June.
  • I will polish my manuscript to the best of my ability by the end of August.
  • I will send out a minimum of 10 queries to suitable agents in September.
  • I will attend a writing conference in September or October and pitch my work to two suitable agents.

Now if you hit all five of these Goals, there is no guarantee that you’ll sign with an agent. But the odds of signing with an agent are vastly higher if you achieve all five of these Goals than if you achieve none of them.

Targets depend on Goals. But Goals don’t guarantee Targets.

Here is a five-minute exercise that you can do right now to create a reasonable set of Targets and Goals:

What are your Targets for the coming year? A good Target is concrete, objective, and difficult. But it’s not necessarily achievable. There is a part that depends on other people.

For each Target, set one or more Goals that depend on you alone. Goals should be concrete, objective, difficult, and ACHIEVABLE.

Do you have any other Goals for the coming year (besides the ones you need to reach your Targets)?

Write down all your Targets and your Goals and post them above your workspace. Make it clear which Targets depend on which Goals.

Look at your Targets and Goals every day before you start work. If you need to revise your Goals throughout the year, that’s OK. It’s fine to be flexible. If a great opportunity comes up during the year, change your Targets and Goals to include it.

A year from now, review your Goals first and then your Targets:

  1. Did you hit all of your Goals? If not, then figure out why. You may not have given yourself enough time. Or you may need to improve your work habits. Or it may be that your writing has a lower priority than other things in your life.
  2. Did you hit any of your Targets? If not, was it because you failed to achieve the required Goals, or was it outside of your control?

Planning your year doesn’t need to be complicated. But it does need to be clear. You control your destiny with your Goals. You don’t completely control it with your Targets.

Knowing that can help you keep your head straight on the long, long road to publication.

 

This article is reprinted by permission of the author.

Award-winning novelist Randy Ingermanson, “the Snowflake Guy,” publishes the free monthly Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine, with more than 32,000 readers. If you want to learn the craft and marketing of fiction, AND make your writing more valuable to editors, AND have FUN doing it, visit http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com.

Download your free Special Report on Tiger Marketing and get a free 5-Day Course in How To Publish a Novel.

Measuring Success: Changing Times, Changing Goals

Published on by Kristi Holl

Before reading a great article last week, I secretly feared I had lost my drive to write.

Not my “want to.” Just my drive.

For thirty years I’ve set goals, worked hard toward meeting them (some called me “driven”), achieved most of them, then set more.

I happily set one-year goals, five-year goals, and ten-year goals.

Goals that Once Spelled Success

  • Graduate from the Institute’s course. Check.
  • Sell first article. Check.
  • Sell first short stories. Check.
  • Repeat many times. Check.
  • Sell first novel. Check.
  • Sell more novels. Check.
  • Get agent. Check. Fire agent. Check.
  • Sell first series. Check.
  • Sell many series. Check.

They were busy whirlwind years, with writing, raising children, and teaching. But somewhere around Book #35 or so, I found myself losing the drive. Or so I thought.

I still loved writing and didn’t want to quit. But enjoying the writing and having a balanced life (e.g. more time to sleep and be with grandkids) meant more to me than the next contract, the next conference, or jumping on the next social networking band wagon.

Changing Times, Changing Goals

But last week, in a romance writers magazine that was given to me, I read an article by Barbara Wallace called “Defining Success.” Many of the definitions were as expected: get published, be represented by an agent, win an award, get fan letters. I almost stopped reading, thinking, “Same old, same old.” But then!

I read some definitions of success written by women who had been writing quite a while, most of them published many times. Here’s what their current “definitions of success” were:

  • Jackie Braun: Now, more than 25 books later, my definition has changed again. I see success as achieving and maintaining a happy balance between writing books and spending time with my family.
  • Judith Arnold: Today, with my mortgage paid off and no more college tuitions to cover, I define success as writing the books of my heart. I define it as ignoring the commercial pressures and focusing on the stories I feel compelled to share.
  • Donna Alward: If I never wrote again, I’d survive and I’d do something else. But if something happened to my family, I’d be destroyed. Figuring that out was really liberating and helped me rediscover the joy of writing.
  • Pam Nowak: I feel good about what I have done. If I never sell again, I’ll know what I achieved, and I’ll feel good about having done so.

It helped me to see how their goals had also changed over the years. I could really identify.

Coming Full Circle

Actually my goals now aren’t so very different than when I started writing when my kids were babies. Back then, I worried about how to write without neglecting anyone. In my first interview, the reporter came to my farmhouse to photograph me with the four kids piled on my lap. I still recall her last question: “How do you choose between your children and your writing?”

It was a great question, and it solidified my priorities for the next thirty years. I told the writer, “I don’t choose. The kids come first. The writing comes after them. If I can’t do a good job at both, I’ll quit writing.”

Some Things Don’t Change

I feel the same way today, although it’s about grandchildren now instead of children. They also grow up very fast! And they won’t always love coming to Nana’s house more than anything else they do.

Does that change my goals? Without a doubt. Will it mean less money? Probably. But like the other ladies in that article, success today (for me) means having a happy balance between writing and family–and writing the stories closest to my heart, despite the current market trends.

What About You?

How do you measure writing success? Depending on where you are in the process, your answers will differ. There is no “right” answer either, so don’t let anyone else define success for you.

Do spend some time thinking about this. Your answer today may well change in a few years, and that’s to be expected. But you’ll be a happier writer once you figure out what success means to YOU.

Writing Dreams Fulfilled

Published on by Kristi Holl

Will 2012 be the year your writing dreams come true?

This is the big weekend for putting up Christmas lights and (if you have the stamina) hitting the malls to start your Christmas shopping. Before you do that–while there is still a bit of sand left in the hour glass–let me suggest that you do one more thing this holiday weekend.

What Christmas writing wish would you like to see come true in 2012? It’s not too early to think about this. As the pace of the holiday season takes over, you’ll tend to put the writing on the back burner. Suddenly it will be 2012! This may be your last unrushed moment to think about your writing goals for next year.

Take Inventory

Nearly eleven months of 2011 are over. I’m sure you had writing goals for this year. Where are you at this point? I highly encourage you to review your goals and take stock. Make a clear, detailed, written description of your current writing life.

Then create a detailed image of your future perfect writing life. What are some projects you’d love to work on? What are your secret writing dreams? Make a list.

To go from where you are to where you want to be as a writer, two things are critical. One has to do with your feelings, and the other has to do with your will.

Two Requirements for Fulfilled Writing Dreams

First, you need an overwhelming desire to change something in your life. (Perhaps you want to get on a regular writing schedule. Maybe you want to submit the finished stories hidden in your desk. Possibly you’re ready to find an agent.) Whatever your goals, the more specific, the better.

Second, you must be determined to move from wishing and hoping to taking action. It’s as simple as cause and effect: you must do something different (cause) in order to develop the writing life of your dreams (effect). This determination will also involve developing good habits to support, nurture, and sustain your changes. (These habits might include eating right, getting sufficient exercise and sleep, and curtailing time wasters like too much TV and Web surfing. I’ve been working on such a list this past week myself.)

Time to Take Action

This week, think about what habits you may need to implement–and which ones you may need to eliminate–to support your writing goals for 2012. Remember to take baby steps as you make changes. (January’s goal might be to write 20 minutes per day. February’s goal might be 30 minutes of daily writing, etc.)

If you feel inclined, please share some of the goals and habits you hope to create. We’re all in this together! Time in 2011 is running out. Make the most of the remaining days to prepare yourself for your most successful writing year yet–in 2012.

Drains in Disguise

Published on by Kristi Holl

I was wrong–again.

For twenty years, I’ve told students and wannabe writers that you have to put the writing first! Do it before other things take over your day.

Fight the impulse to clean your kitchen first, or straighten your office, or clean up the mess the kids made before leaving for school.

“But I can’t work in chaos,” writers protest.

You know what? Neither can I anymore–at least not well! And when I force myself to, the work is doubly tiring. Doubly stressful. Much less satisfying.

Energy Drains in Disguise

Something I read today made me realize my advice might be a tad off. Not wrong altogether, since if we don’t make writing some sort of priority, we won’t do it. However, to eliminate energy drains in your life, you need to look at the whole picture. Certainly all the things you do in a given day take your energy. Every action you take on your lengthy “to do” list uses energy.

What you may not realize is that actions you don’t take use energy as well. Your disorganized office, the piles of laundry on the bedroom floor, the stack of bills to pay, the two birthday gifts to buy, the clothing needing repair–all this drains your energy reserves as well. It happens whether you are looking at the unfinished business or just thinking about it.

It siphons off energy that could be used in a much more positive way. “These items on your mental ‘to do’ list, the ones you’ve been procrastinating about, distract you or make you feel guilty and drain the very energy you need to accomplish your goals.” (So says Cheryl Richardson in Take Time for Your Life.)

NOT an Excuse to Procrastinate

Taking care of the unfinished business that nags at your mind–and keeps you from feeling like you can settle down to write–may be necessary before you can tackle your writing assignment. Don’t go overboard though, or you’re just procrastinating. Washing the dirty dishes is one thing–taking time to replace the shelf paper in your pantry is something else.

Figure out the things that you MUST have done to feel at peace in your environment, and do those things ONLY. (It helps to do as many of them as you can the night before too.)

Eliminate the chaos in your environment, and you’ll eliminate a LOT of the chaos that blocks your writer’s mind. Now…off to clean my office.

Gradual Exposure

Published on by Kristi Holl

 

For many reasons, we set writing goals–and then promptly get stuck. The reasons vary:

  • The goal is overwhelming, and we don’t know where to start.
  • We don’t have an hour or two each day to devote to reaching our goal.
  • We don’t really believe you can reach goals “a little bit at a time.”
  • We see others going gung-ho toward similar goals and feel intimidated by their (seemingly) effortless success.

Easy Answer

Regardless of what your writing goal is, one answer that nearly always works is the concept of “gradual exposure.” Certainly gradual exposure can be a negative thing, like the poor frog who is boiled alive when the water temperature gradually rises. But “gradual exposure” can also be a very positive–and easy–concept to work into your writing life.

Gradual exposure simply allows you to take actions toward your daily and long-term writing goals little by little. These small actions build on each other over time and form habits (such as daily writing, networking with other writers, writing a novel, etc.) According to Kelly Stone in Living Write, “This technique [of gradual exposure] is particularly helpful in areas where you have resistance to writing or fear taking some action that is required to attain the success you desire.”

One Task Per Day for a Week

Stone’s recommendation for gradually inching your way into your desired writing habit is to break down the task into tiny baby steps. You take one baby step toward your goal every day for a week. And you try to enhance or increase the action daily until you reach your goal.

Example: Let’s say your goal is to eventually write an hour every day. Currently you only write sporadically. Your first week of gradual exposure might look like this:

  • Monday: write 5 minutes
  • Tuesday: write 10 minutes
  • Wednesday: write 15 minutes
  • Thursday: write 20 minutes

and so on until you hit 60 minutes per day.

Or maybe you want a production goal that gradually gets you to the point where you can write 2,000 words per day. Start small, and increase daily by small amounts.

  • Monday: write 200 words
  • Tuesday: write 250 words
  • Wednesday: write 300 words
  • Thursday: write 350 words

Each day is a tiny stretch, but with enough tiny stretches, you can soon be writing those 2,000 words per day this way.

Other types of writing tasks can also be accomplished using “gradual exposure.” Let’s say you want to eventually have a successful social networking group of writer friends. When starting out, it can look overwhelming! But by using gradual exposure, you can get your feet wet and not feel like you’re drowning. This can apply to getting involved in Facebook, on Twitter, commenting on blogs, writing a blog, etc.

  • Monday:  subscribe to five writing blogs
  • Tuesday: read two blog posts and leave one comment
  • Wednesday: read four blog posts and leave two comments
  • Thursday: [continue building until you scan perhaps ten blogs daily]

When you’ve met your blogging goal, set up a gradual exposure schedule for creating a Facebook page, inviting friends, commenting on others’ posts, etc.

Gradual Vs. Gung-Ho

For me, I think the “magic” of gradual exposure is that I am not so apt to give up before reaching my goal. My personality tends to want to rush in and do it all RIGHT NOW–or do nothing. (e.g. decide to get in shape and start by running two miles although I haven’t run in a year; decide to get serious about studying the writing craft, read for five hours and get a ripping headache)

I tend to have rapid burn-out because my enthusiasm takes me where my tired body can’t keep me. The technique of gradual exposure prevents you from doing stupid things that lead to early burn-out and quitting. It applies to any goal you have in mind.

Are there some writing habits you would like to incorporate into your week? If so, I’d encourage you to try this method of gradual exposure. While it may not feel like you’re accomplishing a lot in the beginning, if you keep it up, you’ll be well on your way in a matter of days.