Search
Most Popular Articles
- Discussion of the Human Body Defense System
- The story of the 12 animals zodiac in China
- How to Balance Your Body to Get Pregnant
- How To Stop Your Cat Scratching - Get Rid Of Those Fleas
- Eating Junk Food -- The Hidden Price
- Ski Boots -- Testing 1, 2, 3
- Wear it Up or Wear it Down?
- Cat Care, Cat Products and Cat Diseases
- Choosing a Cell Phone
- Artificial Satellite Types
Write SMART: How to Create Terrific Writing Goals--And Achieve Them!
 Category |
: Writing |
 Times Read |
: 51 |
 Date |
: 13 March 2008 16:15 |
by: Katey Coffing, Ph.D.
Open up your favorite calendar and circle todays date.
Why? Because no matter what day it is, youve been given a wonderful gift: a bright and shiny year ahead to make your writing dreams come true.
What are your writing goals for the coming year? If you dont have any, this is the perfect time to create them. Clear goals help you stay focused as a writer. If you choose what you want to accomplish, you can arrange your time and priorities to get them done.
Take five minutes right now to decide what big things youd like to achieve this year. (Ill focus on your writing, but this technique can work for any area of your life.)
A long-established acronym, SMART, can help you create great goals. SMART stands for
Specific
Measurable
Action-Oriented
Risk/Realistic
Timed
Heres how each of these words can help you succeed.
Specific:
When determining your goals, be precise. Instead of "Ill write more this year," consider "Ill complete a new chapter every two weeks."
Measurable:
For each goal you choose, make sure you can measure progress. For example, how will know youve completed it?
Action-oriented:
Choose goals you control so theyre not at anyone elses mercy. Rather than "This year Ill get a book contract," set goals to complete and polish two novels or mail 30 queries to agents.
Risk/Realistic:
Its always good to stretch yourself. However, if writing ten pages usually takes you several weeks, dont count on writing six novels this year. Unrealistic expectations can get you so frustrated youll lose momentum. Instead, create goals that motivate you without being burdens.
Timed:
Setting a particular deadline will help you pace yourself to get things done. For each of your goals, establish a completion date.
Next, take these big SMART goals and figure out what smaller steps youll need to achieve each of them. Design these subgoals to be SMART too!
Once you have a list of goals for the year, put them where youll see them every day. Print them out and tape them to your computer, your office wall, even your bathroom mirror.
See them, know them...do them.
Writers, I hope this coming year brings everything you wish for. More importantly, I want you to *make your dreams come true*!
Katey Coffing, Ph.D. © 2004 All Rights Reserved
About The Author
Katey Coffing, Ph.D. is a novelist and book coach who helps women delight in writing (and finishing!) their books. Visit her at http://www.Women-Ink.com/.
To receive additional articles and tips for women writers, subscribe to Kateys ezine, The Write Calling, at http://www.Women-Ink.com/the-write-calling.htm.
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? Please do, as long as you include the above short bio and blurb with it. (A short note to Katey to let her know would be appreciated! Contact her at https://www.hform.com/form.cgi?1717945)
Random Article 1 |
Random Article 2 |
by: Linda Correli The significance of writing skills is emphasized far and wide over and over again. Writing skills are called mandatory, indispensable, crucial and drastic ability, a ticket to the thriving future of the person. The overwhelming majority of instructors and employe |
By Jane StrausIf you have a sentence followed by a list, do you use a semicolon or a colon? The answer: That dependsDid you introduce the list with an introductory word such as such as? Did you have a complete sentence before you began the list? Is your list part of your sentence or did you indent t
|
Random Article 3 |
Random Article 4 |
by: Rebecca Guevara I was in a brisk discussion about whether a woman would or would not leave her wayward husband when a man interrupted and said, But hes not real! Its fiction! It was time to end the talk before I began my ten minute soliloquy that would have sent everyone in the ki |
by: Mark Woodcock The term creative writing is used to discern certain types of inventive or artistic writing from other general types of writing. The field of creative writing is broad and includes many different formats and genres of writing. The broad and general description of it |
| indir teknolojix.com hiperucuz.com teknoloji forum The Most Beautiful Places hava kargo adtech ile reklam 2.0 dönemi ba?l?yor ve Trkycmhrytllbtpydrklcktr r10.net seo yar??mas? |