There have been some years where I’ve
sat down and thought my life was going nowhere. Nothing is different but I
realize now, I’m wrong. There’s not a year I can think of where something
hasn’t changed. Someone died, someone was born, we moved. A year is a lot longer
than we think. It’s up to us what we accomplish in that time period.
Did you know that the most common New
Year’s Resolutions are lose weight/eat healthy, stop drinking, stop smoking,
etc. These are all great goals but 99.9% of the time, they’re never kept so I
never make New Year’s Resolutions.
I make goals for the year. Nothing can be accomplished with a snap of
the fingers. There’s no magic wand to give you the life you want. It doesn’t
matter how many scratchers you buy, the odds of retiring on them are very low.
You have to work for things you want.
First, you need your long term goal.
My Long Term Goal: To be a
published writer who can live off the earnings of her books.
This isn’t something that will happen
overnight or even in the next few years but one day I hope to accomplish this.
It’s what I really want. To stay at home and write and have people who love my
books out there.
I don’t have to be a millionaire. I just
want fans who get my book and who appreciate the work that goes into writing
them.
You can also have more than one long
term goal.
Long Term Goal 2:
I want to be on a panel at Dragon*con.
I’ve gone to Dragon*con http://www.dragoncon.org/ in Atlanta every year for about five years now. And
I have seen some amazing authors get up and speak. I always think it’s amazing
how much some of them can pack a room. I really want to be one of those authors
someday.
Alright, so here we have some long term
goals. Great!
Once you have those – and you can have
as many as you like – it’s time to figure out what you need to accomplish them.
At the beginning of 2013, I hadn’t
finished a book. I’d started a ton but hadn’t actually finished one. I began to
wonder if I should continue writing.
Then I paid to take a 6 week class with
Nancy Knight and it was the best money I ever spent.
Nancy Knight is one of the founders of
Georgia Romance Writers http://www.georgiaromancewriters.org/, she runs the Writer’s Track at Dragon*con,
she helped found BellBridge Books http://www.bellebooks.com/ until she left them on good terms to
become a literary agent. Tired of having wonderful books turned down because
they were a little too different, Nancy quit being an agent and founded her
second small press publishing house, Gilded Dragonfly Books.
If Nancy offers you a class, you take
it.
I learned a lot from her but one of the
things she did me that struck a chord more than anything was she made us
promise to write a little every day. Set a writing goal and accomplish it every
day.
My Daily Writing Goal: 500
words a day.
I usually exceed this but I can get out
500 words usually within half an hour and so it was an easily accomplished goal
that I didn’t feel overwhelmed by. If you look at your daily writing goal and
cringe, it’ll trip you up. Lower it. You’ll be amazed at what you’ll
accomplish.
You can also do this as a “I’m going to
write for XX amount of time” goal. That didn’t work for me because I’d
procrastinate until I got nothing done.
After I set this goal, I realized that I
needed to prove to myself – and no one else – that I was a writer. It doesn’t
matter what the rest of the world thinks. They’re not you. So I set myself
three goals for 2013.
My Goals for 2013
1.
Finish
the Book. While I’m still making it pretty, I
have completed my manuscript Moonstruck.
In March of 2013, I entered the Finish the Book contest at Georgia Romance
Writers – you put in $5, saying you’ll finish the book. Whoever entered and
completes this task, gets entered into a drawing to win the pot. I won! Woot!
2.
Enter
the Maggies. The Maggie Awards http://www.georgiaromancewriters.org/the-maggies/ are given out by Georgia
Romance Writers every year. I’d never entered despite being a member for three
years. I was too scared and had never finished my books.
1.
Earn my Pro Pin.
A Pro Pin is given out by Romance Writers of America http://www.rwa.org/ . You have to have finished
your book and began to send it out for publication and have either been
rejected or accepted. It’s something to show that you’re now taking what
friends and family have thought of as a hobby and showing you’re perusing it in
a professional manner.
I
received this pin from Georgia Romance Writers president, Anna Steffl at our
December Holiday Party.
I accomplished
my 2013 goals and am now working toward my goals for next year.
My Goals for 2014:
2.
Enter
the Golden Hearts. Romance Writers of America’s
Unpublished Romance Writing contest. This is the Oscars of the Romance Novel
World.
3.
Get
everything set up for the Maggies this year. I’m in
charge of the Maggie Awards with Georgia Romance Writers this year.
4.
Submit,
submit, submit. Get my book out there in front of
editors.
So those are the goals I’m working on
for 2014. Some of them I’ve already accomplished.
What goals are you working on?
Bryonna Nobles is a paranormal romance writer
specializing in shifters and Greek Mythology. She is an active member of
Georgia Romance Writers. After serving two years as their membership chair, she
is now heading their award committee as the Maggie Chair. She is also a
volunteer for the Dragon*con writer’s track.
Georgia born and raised, her books take
paranormal aspects and put them in small, Southern towns with a very Steel Magnolias meets My Big Fat Greek Wedding with werewolves
feel.
A Hellenic Pagan, she loves educating
people on where different religious practices and holiday traditions come from.
Be sure to check out her blog: The Witch Next Door.thewitchnextdoor@blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment