Goals, Schmoals!

The original title to this blog entry was, How I Learned to Find Peace, Contentment and even Happiness in Failing to Achieve My Writing Goals. But that got a bit unwieldy, as my blogging program politely edified me on.

But I digress. This all starts on Saturday, when I hosted D-Day, an event sponsored by my friends at the Chicago Writers Association. Two months ago, I wrote about this event on this blog. I explained that the "D" is for deadline, and the concept behind the event is that you, as a writer, set a goal to complete a writing project that you've either been thinking about doing or have already started but have stalled out on and need a jump start.

Close to thirty writers signed up to participate in D-Day. Less than one-third showed up for the D-Day celebration.

There are a lot of ways that you could look at that and you could come up with any number of explanations for the winnowing of writers. Here are just a sampling of hypothetical reasons:

• The writer never intended on coming.
• The writer intended to come but something else came up.
• The writer lost enthusiasm somewhere along the way.
• The writer was drunk and doesn't remember signing up.
• The writer didn't meet the goal. 

The last one is the one that's probably most plausible. Truth be told, I didn't meet my stated goal, which was to write 20,000 words. But I was hosting the party, so I couldn't beg out.

Even though I didn't reach my goal, in many ways I feel like I did. How could that be, you ask?

Well, for far too long I'd been telling people that I was working on my next novel when, in fact, I wasn't. I'm pretty sure there are a lot of would-be novelists that do this all the time. What it means is that they're thinking about writing but not really writing. They call this "conceptualizing" but it really just means they they're stuck in a mud bog, spinning their wheels. As a writer, this is an awfully easy trap to fall into.  

Sometimes, as a writer, you just need a good kick in the ass. That's what D-Day turned out to be for me. Over the course of two months, my manuscript grew from 3,000 words to 15,000 words. The average length of a novel is 60,000 to 100,000 words. Obviously, I've still got a long way to go. But I'm a lot closer to getting there than I was two months ago. If I keep at the pace of 6,000 words per month, I'll be able to write "The End" before this time next year. And that's a goal worth striving for.

During the D-Day event, I read the first chapter of my novel-in-progress. I note this primarily because that first chapter didn't exist two weeks ago. Back in April I offered readers of this blog an insiders peek at my current project. To my surprise, a few even took me up on the offer and I sent them a sample of it. I feel a bit guilty about that now, since the story now has a completely different opening to it. So I'm renewing the offer. If you'd like to read the new Chapter 1, contact me by email and I'll get it out to you by special e-delivery. Of course I make no promises that a year from now, when I've finished writing this darned thing, Chapter 1 won't look completely different than it does now. That, of course, is the nature of writing. It's an evolutionary process that, hopefully, becomes better over time.

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As a reminder, this Wednesday, August 16, I'll be on a panel at the Schaumburg Township District Library, 2nd Floor, Adult Classroom, 130 South Roselle Road, Schaumburg, Ill., from 7-9 P.M. Joining me on the panel discussion, Is It REALLY Happiliy Ever After, will be other local first-time authors Simone Elkeles, Jimmy Jack, Gail Lukasik, Ann Macela, Morgan Mandel, Joseph Rizio, and Marcus Sakey. We'll be discussing what it's like to sell and market that first book.

So, is it REALLY happily ever after? Oh, I can't ruin the ending for you. You'll have to come by the Schaumburg Library and find out for yourself. Oh, if you can't stop by, please tell your friends.

Comments

[R.J. Baker]

Hey, I know all about not meeting a goal. Where's the new book? Can I joing the Chicago Writer's Group?

I'm back to, or soon will be, practicing law again and will be traveling to Chitown more often.

Keep in touch.

RJB

[D.J. Cripe]

I have heard a quote regarding being a writer and it went something like this:

Being a writer is one of the worst jobs but to have written a book is one of the best accomplishments.

Keep up the efforts!!