How to Plan Next Year's Goal
No Plan is Still a Plan
Hey Friends,
I made you a chart.
It’s getting to be that time of year again. Are your instagram ads all new planners and bullet journal tips? Mine are! I love a year-end wrap-up (like all the books I read last year and my agenting-year in charts—2023 versions of those coming soon!) and I love making big plans for coming year even more. I rarely, if ever, hold myself to those plans, but I like the exercise of doing them. They help me understand my own priorities, and I come back to them when I feel lost throughout the year. It might pain you significantly not to reach your goals, and ugh, yes, I know. So, the chart above should help you, all of us, better pin down where we are and where to go next. Use this to help make an attainable goal for 2024, whether that’s big or small.
If you’re here, you are probably writing a book, want to write a book, or are thinking about maybe writing a book one day. (Or maybe you help other people write books, and if so, this is still for you.) You can write FINISH BOOK or START BOOK on your 2024 goals and call it a day. But you’ll wake up on January 1 with no idea of what to do. So, let’s start where you are. Find your starting point in the chart above (with explanations below) and set your next year’s goal, whether you need moral support of firm next steps. You might even have a chance at accomplishing it!
Are you writing a book?
No.
Huzzah! You aren’t writing a book! This is great. It will save you SO much time, not writing a book. You can read, do your job, see your friends and family. It’s a real time-saver, not writing. This is your annual reminder that you do not have to write a book if writing a book causes you significant pain (it causes moderate pain for all of us), if you cannot afford to right now, and/or you’ve decided to just not. Writing a book does not have moral value and millions and millions of people don’t do it every year. Now, if accepting you will not write a book makes you mad instead of relieved, keep reading. That’s a sign you want to write a book, and just don’t know where to start. If you’re still not writing a book, read on to find ways to help those in your life who are.
I need a new idea!
If you have the desire to write a book but you just don’t have a solid idea yet, here are some things you can do to get the juices flowing. First, read more, anything and everything! Not only will this get you in a bookish mindset, it’ll show you what’s out there, what’s already been done, what the general market looks like (if you read new books). Other’s creativity can be inspiring, even things much farther afield than any genre you might write in. Watch movies, listen to music, go see art. Fill your creative cup.
Next, write anything in your journal or notebook—free write, Morning Pages, flash fiction, essays no one will ever read. It all counts and it all helps. The act of writing begets more writing. Instead of freaking out that the clock is ticking, recognize that idea generation is part of writing a book, even if none of those words make it to the final pages. This counts as writing, period.
Read and write anything you want. It all counts. Take the pressure off yourself that it has to be right or important. Write fic! Read comics! Read Moby Dick! Having fun while you do this loosens you up for the grind that writing can become.
I want to!
You might already have an idea and now it’s time to put the rubber to the road. I highly, highly suggest outlining, but you’re allowed to pants it, too. I’ve done it both ways (though I’ve had more success with outlining). One way isn’t necessarily faster than the other. When you outline, you spend the time upfront decided where you want to go and how you’re going to get there, and then you can go forth and write. When you pants it (i.e. writing something by the seat of your pants) you’re going to spend a little (or a lot of) time figuring out where you want to go every time you sit down to write. Maybe that appeals to you and outlining feels like homework. That’s ok! Do it either way! If you’re finding hard to get started, remember—all brainstorming counts as writing, even if your word count doesn’t go up. Make lists, follow wild plot lines, write character sketches. It all helps.
I’m terrified.
Boy howdy do I feel this. Many times I’ve been poised to write, facing the blank page, and <nothing>. Crickets. I’ll be too scared to type a single word because I can’t stop thinking what if it’s bad? what if I’m just going to take it out later? I’m already so far behind, I can’t afford to do less than perfect now. These kinds of thoughts will kill anyone’s creative flow. There isn’t any cure for creative terror than just doing the thing you’re afraid of, one word at a time. You can start anywhere. Write the end. Write the middle. Write three beginnings and pick one later. Sometimes I’ve been known to start something with (actual typing here) I DON’T WANNA THIS IS GOING TO SUCK I HATE IT ALREADY I WISH I WAS DONE and just get into whatever I’m working on. Somethings you have to let the fear out, get it somewhere you can look at it, to realize it’s just a feeling and not reality. Everyone feels like this at some point or another, even the writers you love and idolize the most. Put a sentence down, one at a time, and you’ll overcome what’s holding you back (at least mostly).
I stalled out.
Maybe you had great intensions last year and then you had a big deadline at work in March and didn’t get back on the horse until June, when you spent your week’s vacation locked in your basement writing. Then somehow it was Thanksgiving again and the hell if anyone can get anything done over the holidays. Maybe you hit a sticky plot point you didn’t have the time or mental space to unstick. Maybe you have misgivings about your work and feel like you don’t have time to invest in something that’s not going to payout. (None of us know what’s going to payout, sorry.) Either way, you stalled out and that’s ok. We all have done it or will do it in the future. You are not a failure for stalling out. You’re a typical writer like the rest of us. It could be a sign you need a new idea, but it could also just be fear and anxiety. You did not “waste” last year doing whatever you had to do that was not writing. Yes, time has passed. But there’s time ahead yet. Find what feels right on the left side of the chart, and use that to guide you. You can get moving again, I know it.
Still writing last year’s.
You didn’t stall out last year, but you didn’t finish, either, like you’d maybe planned to. Join the club! The time it takes to complete something isn’t always measured in the same way we count our weeks, months, and years. If you’re still chugging along with last year’s project, keep going! You can do it! You are on your way to your goal and there’s no reason to change course now just because you start writing a new year on your checks.1 Whether you finish in February, May, or October, 2025, don’t stop now!
Shiny new project!
Maybe your creative calendar and the Georgian calendar lined up and you’re going to start a new project on January 1 (or 4 or whatever, no one’s counting). Great! It’s fun when that happens and maybe you got a pretty new journal to start it with. What you need to do now, besides get crackin’, is try not to overthink things. Writing a book or other long project is complicated and non-linear. You might have one good week followed by a slow one followed by a medium, and so on, times roughly 52. That is ok! That is typical! The beginning is always messy, and the best way to get through it is to embrace the messiness and just keep going. You can fix it later. But if there’s nothing on the page to fix, then well what are you going to do? Get your shitty first draft down the best way you can.
I hope that helps to organize your thoughts and goals some, and that you’re excited about whatever the next year brings you. It’s ok to carry this little spark of hope, even in the face of so much darkness elsewhere. Happy writing. Or not.
Do you like raffles? I know I do! (I won TWICE this weekend at my kid’s school event!) Check out the Knitwits Raffle of handmade knit and crochet goods, lovingly created by book industry pros! Proceeds benefit the Book Industry Charitable Foundation (BINC), which supports the employees and owners of your favorite comic shops and bookstores in times of financial need. Just look at the amazing things you can win!!
OXOXOXOX,
Kate
Does anyone still write checks? I write like one a month.
Great post. Oh well, I had quite a year. The goal for next year is to bring my writing career to a whole new level. 🤗 ~ And I love bullet journaling. I just have to be careful not to spend too much time doing it.
I am living in all three bubbles on the left side of your chart.