Writing Goal 2: Finish the Book
By Candie Moonshower

(I don't know who or what company to give credit to for this nugget of wisdom, because my daughter tore the back cover off the pad and hole-punched several designs in them, too. It doesn't matter, though, because I learned this lesson several years ago in a personal way, and it's imprinted on my brain.)

Dreams are good. To dream of spending your days writing, or finishing your manuscript—to dream of publication—all good. But dreams don't get the job done.

I learned years ago that I could dream all the livelong day—and dream the days away. Meanwhile, my writing life was not progressing. Manuscripts were never completed. Stories never came to a satisfying conclusion. And I was constantly frustrated.

So when I decided, on New Year's Day of 2001, to get serious about writing fiction, I gave a lot of thought as to why, though I'd wanted to write fiction since I learned to read in the first grade, I'd never finished a sustained project. Meanwhile, my nonfiction work—my paying freelance work—I always finished, on deadline, and with excellent results.

I realized that it wasn't about the goals, it was about the expectations behind the goals. With paying freelance work, there is someone else, out there, expecting the work. With fiction, before you make that sale, there is no someone else.

I decided that I had to set just as high a priority on my own expectations as I do on other people and their expectations of me. And I learned that just as I do with my freelance work, I had to approach my fiction in a step-by-step method.

For example, a goal of "Write my novel by June 1" is overwhelming and self-defeating. The days fly by. And before you know it, it's almost June 1, and the novel is nowhere near completion. It may not have even gotten off the ground.

A smaller goal, such as, "Write 25 pages a month until the draft is finished," is manageable. Or, even better, set weekly or daily or hourly goals, depending on how you work best. Setting smaller goals—as small as you need to—produces verifiable and visible progress toward a larger pay-off.

Instead of setting goals that turn out to be impossible to reach, decide now to set goals that you know are attainable, but which, over the course of the year, build on each other. Success at one easy goal leads to the next, bigger success at a harder goal—and so on—until December 31 has arrived and you have tangible evidence of your many successes.

Here's to everyone's writing successes in the upcoming year!