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This week was so amazingly productive! Unfortunately, none of my words were fiction. I spent a large portion of my week creating new pages on our website for all the wonderful things our team developed. Seriously, check them out.
I like goals. I like having a purpose and working toward something. I like the sense of accomplishment when I smash through a goal but I think I’m too hard on myself when I don’t succeed. Failure is part of life; it makes us stronger.
This year, I just wanted to write words. That was my only goal: write some stuff. I hoped to add my first publication credit (not counting all the anthologies we’ve produced where I’ve been an unlisted contributor and editor) but I wasn’t pushing super hard for that. It was a stretch goal, more like a dream. I wanted to stop being so frustrated by this immense creative blockage and I didn’t know how to achieve that.
Then the whole year went to shit and I finally gave myself a pass.
I stopped hating myself for being unable to write and started accepting that words come when they’re ready. Turns out, I really needed to hear that. I wrote a lot more in 2020 than I expected, more than I wrote in 2019. I started drafts on three novels, research and planning on a fourth. I completed and submitted seven short stories—five to beta readers, one to be read aloud during a workshop and the last was accepted for publication. I think I’m still in shock.
The point is, at least to me, it’s possible.
This coming Saturday (January 2), WW is throwing a goal-setting party for 2021. I’ll be there, writing down my goals for the year. It’s harder to ignore them when I have to see them every day. I hope I get to see your goals too!
Fiction projects: too many
Fiction words this week: ---
About the author: Theresa Green is the co-founder of The Writer's Workout and a crime fiction writer.