Non Fiction

Using Goals to Succeed

Samantha Viles

Do you feel S-T-R-E-S-S-E-D when it comes to trying to finish a project on a certain schedule? When you reach your breaking point what do you do? It is now 2008. How many of us have declared “I am going to write a novel this year”.

The first month of the New Year is over and how many of us have yet to write a work or clear more than a few pages.

What kind of goals do we need to set for ourselves in order to succeed? There is no right or wrong way to get started on your project. There are writers that plot the course of their storyline. Other writers fly by the seat of their pants.

Those are the writers, like myself that sit down and writer or type whatever comes to mind. We let the story lead us instead of us leading the story.

To each their own. I sometimes find myself with little motivation to continue on with a piece of writing due to the overwhelming idea of the project as a whole. What I have found that works well for me is breaking the project into increments.

Try 5,000, 10,000 or 20,000 in a week depending on your situation. We would all like to be able to sit down and have the story fall to paper like rain from the sky but it doesn’t always happen. By all means don’t limit your flow if you are having an inspired moment.

I’m a child of the “Step outside my comfort zone and try something new” way of thinking. If your current method of motivation isn’t working for you then try something new. Set a goal, read an article, try writing something outside your preferred genre. There are hundreds of choices.

Don’t let the project overwhelm you. Let the project overwhelm your audience when it is finished.