Turn of the Year
As we close out 2007, I hope that all of you have taken some time to set your writing goals for 2008. In fact, I'd like to invite you to send me your goals so that I can post them on our blog.
Something happens in the subconscious mind when we set a goal. We establish a target at which to aim. Our inner GPS system gets to work and leads us to our destination.
Imagine trying to play basketball without a hoop. That's what it's like to live life without goals. So take time today to ask God where He wants to take your writing during the coming year. Then write down what He says and look at it every day. If you do, then this time next year, Lord willing, you'll be sending me your list of goals accomplished during 2008.
And that's my "musing that matters" for today. What's yours? :)
Blessings,
MaryAnn
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Copyright 2007 by MaryAnn Diorio, Ph.D. All rights reserved. This blog entry may NOT be reproduced, reprinted, or published in any form whatsoever without the written permission of Dr. MaryAnn Diorio. You may, however, forward it to others, but please do so IN ITS ENTIRETY. Thank you for your cooperation.
Comments
This is a stretch for me to post my goals along side those of established and successful writers. But I'm going to do it anyway. I'll be the voice of the unpublished, uneducated but willing writers out there; I'm sure I'm not alone as a lurker. My first writing goal for 2008 is to write something everyday that is inspired by the Holy Spirit, even if it is only 15 minutes of writing. My second writing goal is to attend some kind of work shop or seminar that will teach me more about writing and how to use my writing to further the Kingdom of God. I believe that small baby steps really do add up to something worth while. Happy New Year to all!!!
I plan to sit down today or tomorrow and write in my little 2008 planner of what I want to accomplish in writing. Right now, I plan to keep querying general market magazines on my ideas. I have one editor very interested in an idea, and I'm waiting to hear from her. I plan to follow through with writing projects I didn't do because of other assignments earlier this year. I also need to market my reprints, which fell by the wayside in 2007.
My main writing goal for 2008 is to believe in myself enough to put the "Rule of 13" to work in my life. By the end of June, I plan to have found and finished a course on how to study and select markets and then produce/send out the initial 13 queries. By December, I plan to have developed the habit of always keeping at least that many queries circulating. This seems very, very ambitious considering that I haven't been able to bring myself to query any market for over two years. But I am called, so therefore I am equipped!!!
Blessings to you all for the New Year!
Sue Peel
I love all these ideas! It reminds me that I used to keep a writing journal, in which I'd make a note of how much I worked on a particular project that day. I put the title initials in the margins, and then I could see exactly what was what. I'm not sure exactly why I stopped, aside from not being able to get the same sort of blank journals after a while.
I think I'm going to start using a journal again. Meanwhile, my first writing goal for 2008 is to finish the novel I started in November for NaNoWriMo and submit it to Love Inspired. I'll probably come up with more goals later, but it's late tonight...and almost next year!
Have a Blessed, Happy, and Safe 2008!
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Dear MaryAnn,
I plan to spend time tomorrow--New Year's Day--writing down my 2008 goals and reviewing my past goals. In 1999, I started putting my writing goals in a small spiral notebook, adding the new year's goals each January. I also used the notebook to record "progress towards my goals." Much of that progress includes statements like "received rejection from ..." LOL, but each rejection is a precious jewel to me--at least I sumbitted something! My rejection motto is this: "As Christ was rejected and yet became the CORNERSTONE, so will these rejections become the cornerstone of my writing for Him." (My writing business is "Cornerstone Ink.")
Anyway, I'd suggest to others that they start a notebook of goals with space for progress notes. I sometimes think I'm still at square one, but when I look back in that notebook I see how much God has honored my writing over the past 9 years.
Vie