Beyond the Textbook

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Beyond the Textbook

Laurie Lupold

Attaining Our Goals

As writers, we often set our goals based on wants, not on logical expectation. For instance, we idealize the prospect of becoming a novelist when we have yet to achieve a more logical achievement of having a much smaller piece deemed marketable. Thus how can we push our expectations so high up the ladder that we will surely fail, especially if we have limited our time?

A much more productive way to become successful is to prioritize. Certainly writing an enjoyable novel will take some time. To allow ourselves to ensure we reach this goal it would be more productive if we were to say we will achieve this goal eventually.

Designing a list of short-term goals provides us with a strategy of obtaining our long-term success. Simple goals such as writing a certain number of pages in a day or week or number of projects completed in a week, month or year. Not only have we now set ourselves up with attainable goals, we have also created a successful writing pattern. As all writers know, you must write on a continuous basis to withstand a career in the writing market.

One thing that is pleasant about setting our goals is that they are negotiable. Goals are not set in stone and may be altered at the writer's approval. Our lives change periodically and so will our ability to achieve our goals. Keeping our goals at a logical level is important. We often must deal with rejection and in response we receive this as a personal failure. This is difficult enough to deal with without setting ourselves up for failure. Base your goals on logic and you are certain to succeed.