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2011 targets

edited December 2010 in - Writing Tales
I've set myself ambitious targets for 2011, but hoping it's a good way of focusing my mind on the writing.
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  • I'm doing the same. All my WIP should have moved to the Published folder, allowing me to start new research.
  • Hi, I am really hoping that 2011 could be the year I get the rest of my novel from my head onto the page! Be interested to hear what type of targets work best with others. Is it ... a set number of words each day/week? Or set time to be spent at keyboard. I sweat and anguish so much .. yet get so little done beyond reading and re-reading. Help! thank you.
  • conventional wisdom dictates a time at which you sit before the keyboard and don't get up until that time is done. If within that time you write ten words, it's ten more than you would have done. Slowly you begin to utilise the time to better and better advantage and once the work is flowing, you can over run your time. Worth a try?
  • Well 2011 surely can't be any worse than this lousy year. I have determined to shift up a gear and venture into new projects and up my productivity considerably.
  • My target is writing more poems and more of my children's book and to get it finished by the end of the year, if not before.
  • suggest you all drop in to the Progress Report Please thread and let everyone know how it is going ... it helps you stay motivated, having to tell others how far you have gone ... really it does! The list I had at the beginning of the thread has changed, the person who was the inspiration for the thread is hardly ever here so he doesn't check in, others check in and disappear again. But there are constants there so give it a try.

    My goals are the same, finish WIP in good time, finish third book for 2012 and get busy with books 2 and 3 for 2013 and ever onward. Another author turned up last night ... but on the brighter side, I think one or two who came forward have backed off, having seen how much work is involved and how much feeling I demand of them. It might all balance itself out in the end.
  • [quote=dorothyd]It might all balance itself out in the end.[/quote]

    Hopefully. My targets for 2011 are not all writing related. I want to sell my house to be either mortgage free, or with a substantially reduced one; this will help to give me more time for writing as I could then work part-time. Get my mother's flat ready to be rented, in the hopes that not all the money she and dad worked so hard for will end up in the coffers of the nursing home. I DESPERATELY need to lose weight, as the extra slows both my mind and my body down! after all those biggies we come to the writing ones: edit both my completed NAno novels in the hopes that I may be able to seriously think about sending them off to agents; write final part of the trilogy this year in Nano; give myself a kick up the bum and start entering writing comps, instead of merely thinking about it. Will that do for now????????
  • Just getting on with some writing this year.
  • Interesting listening to all your hopes for 2011. 2010 for me has ben pretty awful, so much that alot of things I wanted to do were totally blown out of the water. 2011 is a new beginning. To keep my business going well is my main thing, then to do more writing and get a portfolio of stuff together. I also want to try and organise a writing group in my area to give me motivation and to encourage others who are interested.. Do I try and find a tutor first or advertise the course?? See I am stuck already.

    I wish everybody the best for 2011 and may all our worries be little ones...
  • WW, you might find an informal writing group a better idea than a course, a friendly get together to discuss each other's writing, aspirations and answer queries. Not everyone wants to come on a forum like this and ask questions on submitting work, it could be done through a group like that. You had best not advertise a course without a tutor, it might all fall down! Think about the group idea first, yes?

    With you on the business front, BTW, we have come through two dreadful years but are at last seeing daylight and think we might survive, just.
  • [quote=Lolli]DESPERATELY need to lose weight[/quote]

    I find regular swimming really helps (assuming your local council doesn't close the pool that is). Walking is good to help keep it off (the odd walk to the shops etc instead of always taking the car) but swimming to puff yourself out a bit speeds up your metabolic rate, increases muscle mass and helps you burn off calories. :)
  • PBW I agree with you but, since I have had a recurrent cough for the past year and I know from previous years that swimming with a cough leads to sinusitis/ear infections for me I haven't used my very expensive gym membership, where one can swim without people getting in the way. Our local pools are still open but shared with schools and small and short. can't get into my stroke rhythm properly in a 25meter pool. I am expert on swimming/lifesaving - am a swimming teacher but don't actually teach any more except to my grandchildren
  • Ditto on the weight loss. Nearly passed out when I got on the scales yesterday - so I'm on the Rosemary Conley Inch Loss Plan as of now.
  • dorothyd - thats what I mean a informal group, a course would be restrictive. A group discussion type idea would be more attractive.

    Wont start until Spring, nobody wants to go out in the dark and cold.

    What business do you have? I run a boarding kennels in ireland (www.happyhounds.ie) tells you all!
  • Hi I dont make reolutions as I never ever manage to keep them. So this is a goal (not a resolution, then if I cant manage it I will not feel so bad). Like most of you I want to get work finished and sent out, my book mainly, but I also want to set our writing group a challenge this year( I am the chairperson for my sins). I am going to set them a target of sending out at least four bits of work to see if they can get anything published. If they have to do it so will I so its an incentive to me as well. Good luck to all in 2011
  • WW, I run a small independent specialised publishing company which relies heavily on mail order. I send out a monthly flyer with offers and new book, etc., which is why I am at work this week, the next mailout is due to be delivered to the Sorting Office Friday morning. I will go mortgage the company to buy the stamps later this afternoon!
  • My New Year's resolutions are to write more, spend my time more sensibly and to read more books. I often buy books and never get around to reading them. That needs to change. It can also be a great motivator to get yourself writing, after all so it's not just for entertainment value.
  • edited December 2010
    My New Year's resolution, if you want to call it that, is eat more food, but lose some weight. That might not make any sense to anyone, but it makes perfect sense to me.

    My writing targets for 2011 are:

    1. Write/rewrite at least 10,000 words on Dreaming Death
    2. Write at least another 10/15,000 words on Fragile.
    3. Post something on my blog at least once a week.
    4. Keep submitting to Static Movement or other presses.
    5. Make an even bigger name for myself.

    And my most important target for 2011 is to: Be happy, stay strong, nothing is impossible. (Even if the deadline is tomorrow)
  • 2011 has to involve meeting more people in my own age group for a start. Having moved to a new area earlier this year I am surprised how difficult is has been meeting people in our age group. I am past the age of having children at school, not able to work full time (and am limited even on the part time work I can apply for) and am not near enough retirement age. I have become disillusioned with many friends who I realised were friends of a time (generally when I was single) or that, dare I say it, had out grown where we lived before. I think everybody also had thsi idea that I was destined to remain single, mourning the collapse of my ex husband because we had always been so obviously in love until it fell apart quite suddenly (I was surpised to find how people had viewed us) and it was almost like I had broken some code by remarrying even though I had spent 5 years alone. If I were cynical I would say that a few of these were male friends who had been turned down and couldn't accept that I wanted to be wth someone but not them....I digress!

    So
    1. Make some new friends
    2. Complete my hypnotherapy course and start practising and making some money
    3. Continue writing so I can a) put together a collection of poems
    b) Finish my working in progress (well even if it is only the first draft)
    c) Continue attending my weekly writing group
    d) Take advantage of one day creative writing courses that are held in the area
    4. Lose weight and get fitter
    5. Stop smoking and stick to it

    (There are a few other lists to do with work on the house or garden but I won't bore you with them, I probably have you snoring already. LOL)
  • go, people! If you keep half of what you plan, it will be good!
  • I hope everything goes well for peeps. I am bad at keeping myself motivated. My animal business takes alot of commitment and I mean to make time to do other things. Christmas and the New Year at the moment is hectic....then around the corner is Easter...then the summer months and before i know it there is Christmas again. I am not lazy but I have wasted alot of time not doing what I feel I should be. I MUST MUST put time aside this year for the writing, because I have wasted so many of them:-(
  • Ok so working on the theory that there won't be any family crisis this coming year (as I don't have much family left the odds are in my favour).

    1 - Write something every day, even if it's only a line (or a blog entry).

    2 - Make inroads into the writing course, which hasn't really started yet as I haven't had the time with builders in and everything.

    3 - Lose weight, Pixie I understand exactly what you mean about eat more and lose weight as I have to do exactly the same.

    4 - Promote myself a little more, there are galleries around here that I can get work into, I just need to get the work together to do it.

    5 - Look after myself, have spent so long looking after everyone else I am in serious need of some TLC.

    Think thats about it.
  • [quote=aeschylusse]Hi, I am really hoping that 2011 could be the year I get the rest of my novel from my head onto the page! Be interested to hear what type of targets work best with others. Is it ... a set number of words each day/week?[/quote]

    For me it's the number of articles to get accepted, and the number of magazines they're accepted by. Also the number of short stories.
  • My targets for 2011 include:

    1) Edit first draft
    2) Continue researching...maybe that is just a given as I forsee that I will probably never finish researching. Even if I had a time machine and went back to the Victorian period for a while I would still have to do further research on my return.
    3) Complete the weekly writing challenge that I have set my self on my writing blog...strangely it involves writing.
    4) Complete the reading challenge that I set myself on my general blog - 52 books in a year.

    And there are no doubt some other targets floating about somewhere that I've forgotten about...or that I've not realised that they are even in existance yet
  • My resolution is:-

    1) Read more.
    2) Write something everyday, aim for doing it and making progress to a rewarding end.
    3) Make time available everyday to do this - no matter how busy I am.
    4) Do research and make time to do this.
    5) Lose weight.
    6) Have goals no matter what they are so at the end of 2011 i can look back at progress with satisfaction.

    Think thats all for now.....
  • My problem is time so I resolve to manage it better. With a demanding full-time job and a young daughter my time is rarely my own; even when I do get a half-hour here or there, it is never without interruption. There will be even less time when little 'un starts junior school in September as she starts 20 minutes earlier plus the journey is an extra 20 mins each way.

    I also resolve to declutter - regularly.
  • I really like DorothyD's suggestion of setting a time target, then not focussing (fretting?) over the number of words produced. I am going to muse on this and possibly go for an acceleration on it; in the way that, were I starting walking not writing, I would begin at 30 minutes a day, done (my choice of 5 days out of 7) then build from there.
    Thank you!
  • Good luck with everyone's aspirations for 2011.
    My vagabond lifestyle means keeping my 'targets' flexible.
    I haven't totted up my 2010 successes yet because I'm still waiting for an editor to send copies of the magazines she used my articles in. (Payment will come in due course.)
    Provided I match 2010's successes I'll be happy, and I know I've already exceeded 2010 for short story acceptances.
  • A little tip I find that works well for attaining goals is to break the year down in to 12 monthly sections and only write down what you want to achieve for the next month. For example: January: WORK: 1: get two features commissioned, 2: Write 5000 words on novel, 3: Pitch book query to 3 agents. HOME: 1: clear out loft, 2: take stuff to charity shop, 3: read two new books. HEALTH: 1: register with Lose the Lard progamme, 2: lose 5lbs this month, 3: swim twice a week. When you cut it down to manageable bite-size pieces, you will find they are a lot easier to do and attain, and you get a nice feeling when you tick your 'to-do' list off each month. At the end of January you see if there is anything you haven't managed to do and roll it over to February with your Feb goals you wish to attain. If you keep the list all year, you will see that by the end of the year you have achieved a lot of what you wanted to without putting any pressure on yourself.
  • Yes I agree midia, I have done that, also going one step further with my writing plans.

    Noted in my diary which hours of which day I have allocated for writing.

    Now I know just how much (or how little depending on how one looks at it) time I have to write, I know I will use it wisely.

    :)
  • Hi everyone, read all comments and quite suprised that a great deal of what is being said and the resolutions being made might have come out of my mouth. I AM NOT ALONE, phew, that makes me feel a lot better.

    I am a mature student now doing my Diploma in creative writing. Two days before Christmas I received results for my Script writing and was deflated, my Formatting had let me down.it just wasn't perfect. My problem being that I am a last minute writer, meaning that all that we learn in the six weeks semester I have to put into my work/exam.
    My point being I can't begin a piece of work at the begining , and then learn the next week and the next week that I need to put in other things that I have learned. is there another way to work? all proposals gratefully received. best new years wishes to all , mollyem
  • [quote=ginab]5. Stop smoking and stick to it[/quote]

    I hope you don't think me pushy, Gina, but I think you have little chance of succeeding in this one unless you make it No. 1. In fact if you scrapped the rest of your aims until you had succeeded with this one, because it's got to be the most important. It would only take a month of concentrated effort, and by that stage (this happened to me) you probably won't want a cigarette because they make you feel dizzy and sick: no pleasure. It also helps if you have a real reason for stopping.

    Then you can focus on your other great aspirations :) .
  • And inspirations.
  • [quote=Dwight]It also helps if you have a real reason for stopping.[/quote]

    That is the only way anyone will ever give up anything. Unless the reason to stop an activity is deeply meaningful to the person giving up, they may as well not bother.

    A lot of people who say they want to give up, do actually like smoking, just don't like the effects it has on perhaps their health, or their bank balance or whatever. Until they find a reason within themselves that is more important than the enjoyment of smoking, they're on a non starter.
  • I agree with you, Dora.
  • I gave up smoking 32 years ago, never regretted it, but oh it was tough at the time! Dwight is absolutely right, Gina, it has to come first or you won't succeed. The first thing you'll notice is more money to spend, the second thing is lack of ash and dust to clear up and the third thing, no smell on your clothes! Move that to No 1 and go do it!
  • I don't think smokers realise they stink dorothy unless other people tell them.

    My next target is to have another cuppa tea.
  • A brilliant idea, dora, and so easy to perform.
  • I have stopped so many times before, sometimes for a week or a month, even a couple of months, but have started again. I DO actually like smoking most of the time just not the effects etc. I actually stopped for 8 years at one point (well I did smoke when I'd had too much to drink but only a couple of times a year) but started again when I got divorced which is 10 years ago. I have put weigh on though when I do stop and since I am having problems caused by being overweight which have meant that I am in constant pain I simply can not afford to put anymore on. I already have it arranged and booked for me to have hypnotherapy at the end of the month to help me stop (this is part of my course and I am the subject rather than the hypnotist this time). It is because I know that this is already the time when I have planned to stop and have even bought an electronic cigarette in case I feel the need to feel like I am smoking. I know some of the reasons I smoke and this will all be looked into. With all this in mind I was determined to start the diet so that I could feel the benefits. The number one priority is having a healthier, more focus year. A new career in a new place, hopefully new friends and a new way of doing things. Smoking is just one part of it. The others aims will make me happy whereas I know from past experience that stopping smoking will not in the short term, it will simply make me bad tempered. If I am suceeding in one aspect I will at least be able to take comfort in that.
  • [quote=Lolli]swimming with a cough leads to sinusitis/ear infections for me [/quote]

    Yes indeed. I sympathise. I get intermittent trouble with my ears as well and I hope it doesn't eventually stop me swimming. I hope your cough improves.
  • [quote=Jennymf]Hi I dont make reolutions as I never ever manage to keep them.[/quote]

    I agree. I'm at an age now where I'm not going to be able to change the habits of a lifetime and keep New Year Resolutions instead of breaking them. This year I have made one and I shall focus on that one.
  • I don't make resolutions. I set targets/goals, that way I have a whole year to meet them and it takes soooooooooooooooooooooo much pressure off. plus if you word them carefully you can find they are more easily attained, which is great for self esteem. So, for example, I have lose wight ( not a specific amount) as a target, then even a one pound loss over the year makes it a success (although I hope to lose much more than that!) I also have them written down in a prominent place to help me focus on them and ticK them off as they are achieved!!
  • That's a good idea Lolli.
  • Yes, making a list is good - great feeling when a tick appears.
  • Except when it's in your bed and it bites you.
  • [quote=Stan2]great feeling when a tick appears.[/quote] It is, Stan it is. BTW I have a copy of the words and music of that Christmas Carol wot my ex wrote, so will send it to you snail mail. Is the address on your web site for the church?

    [quote=dora]Except when it's in your bed and it bites you.[/quote] OH I NEVER has them sort- I keeps a clene house I duz
  • Do you Lolli? Come and clean mine too pleeeeeeeeeeease cos i still ain't worked out how it's done.

    Actually, I have had a blitz today, looks rather nice in here, even if I do say so mesen.
  • I see what you mean, Gina. Best of luck with your raft of 'new life' targets. Will you have a tick list?
  • Thanks Dwight. Yes I will or rather I have. The diet is going well (it is an inital big push so I can then exercise more without so much pain and then be a little more relaxed on what I eat) and I have lost half a stone so far and am feeling better than I have in quite a while. I am not going to put too much pressure on myself though. It obviously isn't the way most people think I should be doing it but if it suits me and I am able to do it this way then I am happy.
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