I’m not one for resolutions these days. Life experience has taught me that I’m rubbish at keeping them, and this awakens the nagging voice of my conscience, telling me how crap I am at… well, everything. The best way to silence that voice is not to encourage it in any way.
Goals, however, are another thing entirely.
One thing about being completely freelance is that I have no boss. There is no one to nudge me, to let me know where I should be and at what time. No one to criticise me when things go wrong, and no one to congratulate me when things go well. After working in the corporate world for a good number of years, this can still feel a little weird at times. Disorientating. Adrift, like a little boat at sea with no sails or engine. In order to keep myself pointing in the right direction, I need goals, and I need to enact plans to ensure I accomplish those goals. It is an education in itself to organise your indie business in such a way that you can do this without feeling like it’s affecting your creativity.
There are so many different solutions available these days, from apps to spreadsheet templates, to good old paper planners. I used to use the pen and paper option, as I’ve always loved the feel of writing with a pen in my hand, but this year I have ditched that in favour of transferring everything to a spreadsheet. I already write my fiction and nonfiction by hand, and I use my journal most days, which is also handwritten, so I thought it was time to go electronic for the planning element. It also means I can tweak the layout and content from time to time without making a mess.
It’s really very simple, and it’s based on asking myself three questions:
1. What do I want to achieve?
2. When can I realistically achieve it?
3. How can I break it down into sizeable chunks?
And that’s it.
Question 1 is the hardest because I struggle to keep the list to a manageable size. I have so many things I want to achieve in my writing career. The novel writing alone is probably around twenty years’ worth of work without any other distractions! So, I have to choose only what I think I can achieve in the next twelve months. My spreadsheet allows for five major goals throughout the year, one for each of the following: health, fiction, nonfiction, editing business, personal development.
Question 2 requires objectivity. It’s important not to try and do too much in the same period of time. Can I really write a novel in a year? I’ve never done a first draft that quickly before, and it’s a goal for 2025. But I wrote 40k in four months in 2024 with a few tweaks to my usual routine, so I’m carrying that forward. Watch this space to see if I succeed…
Question 3 is really about using a calendar. For each goal, I work out the major milestones and see if I can arrange that around the four quarters of the year. Then I attribute tasks to each milestone, which may fall roughly into each month.
Here’s an example:
In 2025, I want to publish four more nonfiction books in my Wordsmith’s Guides series. The first two (books 3 and 4) will appear over the course of spring; the second two (books 5 and 6) towards the end of the year. I have outlines for all of them, and the covers and text are ready for books 3 and 4. Book 3 is almost ready for the ARC team. Book 4 has a little more content to add. Books 5 and 6 have chapter plans but nothing else yet. So, I can break this all down, month by month.
I shall publish book 3 at the end of February. Book 4 will come out in May. Books 5 and 6 in the autumn. That allows me to spread the various self-publishing tasks (proofreading, cover designs, KDP creation, marketing, etc.) over the course of several months across the year. So, by the end of January, I’ll have sent book 3 to the ARC team. During February and March, I can concentrate on finalising the content for book 4 to send out to the same team with a view to publishing in May. During the summer I shall concentrate on covers and content for books 5 and 6, and get them sent out to the team in autumn, with a view to publishing before the end of 2025.
The key thing about all of this is fluidity. Life happens, and sometimes I need to postpone things for any number of reasons. If my editing business suddenly goes mad, I may have to put all writing projects on hold until I can dedicate enough time to them to do a job I can be proud of. And there’s nothing wrong with that at all.
Maintaining momentum can be tricky, especially if you find it hard to stay motivated, as I often do. I have discovered that I am very much an early bird. (I am writing this at 6.30am on a Sunday morning!) If I don’t get up and start work by 9am, then it disrupts my day entirely. Today, I will get this blog post out shortly, then I shall finish my short story for my writing group by around 10am. Then I’ll have breakfast. After that, a short walk to clear my head. As it’s a Sunday, and the last day of my husband’s holidays before he goes back to work, I shall stop there, and we will spend the rest of the day together. There’s talk of a long board game session, and maybe some TV over a glass of wine.
So, whatever you’re planning to achieve this year, here’s to success for us all. Cheers!
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