What to Do When Your Writing Goals Seem a Long Way Off
What to Do When Your Writing Goals Seem a Long Way Off
This post was originally published in September 2017 and updated in October 2020.
What do you want to achieve with your writing?
You might have all sorts of goals. Perhaps:
- You want to win a short story competition.
- You want to make an extra $500/month freelancing.
- You want to make a full-time living as a fantasy novelist.
- You want to sell 100,000 copies of your latest book.
- You want to get a book onto the New York Times bestseller list.
Some goals are more “realistic” than others. Some goals might take years or even decades to achieve.
Whatever your writing goals are, you might feel that they’re a very long way off. If you’ve currently written a total of two short stories, ever, then making a full-time living writing fiction is going to take a while.
When your goals seem so far away, it’s easy to get discouraged – or even to give up entirely. And yet, if you don’t set goals for your writing, you’ll end up feeling that your time needs to go on something “more important” than writing.
To stick with writing even when you have big, tough goals that are going to take a lot of work, it’s important to:
- Set intermediate goals for your writing
- Get support from other writers
- Review your progress regularly
Getting Out of Your Writing Slump: Part #2 – Re-entering the Writing Zone
Getting Out of Your Writing Slump: Part #2 – Re-entering the Writing Zone
This post was originally published in June 2017 and updated in October 2020.
Last week, we looked at some of the practical things you can do to clear some space in your life for writing.
Simply having the time and energy to write, though, isn’t enough. You need the desire to write too … and that’s what today’s post is all about.
When you’ve not been writing for a while, you may feel unsure whether you even want to write. I felt this way back in mid-2008: I was exciting about making a living from freelance writing (I’d just left my day job) … but I was also about to start an MA degree in creative writing! I felt like I’d lost all interest in writing fiction.
Twelve years on (and with three novels and a novella out there) … you can probably guess I got out of that fiction slump. 😉
For me, the cure was – in retrospect – a bit obvious. I needed to start surrounding myself with fiction writers and with material on fiction writing again. From day one of my Masters course, that urge to write fiction was back! (more…)
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Can You Call Yourself a “Writer” if You’re Not Currently Writing?
The Three Stages of Editing (and Nine Handy Do-it-Yourself Tips)
What to Do When Your Writing Goals Seem a Long Way Off
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My Novels
My contemporary fantasy trilogy is available from Amazon. The books follow on from one another, so read Lycopolis before the others.
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