Reflections & Revisions

Text says "reflect and revise". Black stone with the word "Reflect" carved into the top. White stones behind it.

In January, I talked a lot about goals. And yes, that's what I'm talking about today. We just did that? Why are we talking about that again, you ask? Because a goal is only as good as your follow through. And I don't mean did you complete your goal. Yes, you need to work toward the things you wanted to accomplish, but I think it's just as important to reflect on those goals and make changes if you realize they aren't realistic.

I've typically been the person who lets their goals fall apart, instead of using them as goal posts to success. Why? Because I make unrealistic goals. And when it doesn't work out one month, I think, of well, I failed. Try again next time.

But it's not that I can't complete my goals. It's that as soon as I realize they aren't realistic, I just let them drop. And after a lot of research and though and soul searching, I'm not letting myself do that this year! Nope! This year is about the revision.

I'll take two of my goals for this year as an example. If you remember, I set a LOT of goals for myself. I broke them down into workable, monthly goals that I can track.

1) Weekly Blog - after years of neglecting it, I'm back to sharing a little about myself and my writing journey.

2) Weekly Newsletter - Because people sign up to learn more about me, right? Why aren't letting them?

3) One class a month on the craft of writing.

4) One class every two months on the business side of writing.

5) Read three books in my genre a month.

6) Read one craft book every two months.

7) Create writing accountability by hosting an in-person Show Up & Write with my local writing group, as well as stream it once I figure out how :P

8) Finish the edits on my cyberpunk novel.

9) Finish writing the sequel to it.

10) Finish writing my steampunk novel.

11) Consistently write and post my serial fiction (Maybe and Elements of Change) or Ream and Patreon.

Wow. It still looks like a lot. But I'm doing well on most of them. However there are two goals that I'm struggling with. So do I drop them? Just let the rest of the goals guide me? Nope. We're going to revise them.

So who are the culprits? Goal #5 and oop. One that didn't make it to that list :P So I guess #12.

12) Submit one short story a month to a pro-paying market.

So yes, I can submit every month. IF I didn't want to get INTO the publications I was shooting for. The goal is to get into a pro-paying market. Can I be held accountable for if the editors pick me or not? No, of course not. I can put out my best work, but it's out of my hands. That's why I set a goal of submitting once a month. But to research, write, and edit a story for a pro market is going to take more time that I've given myself. So I'm changing that one up. My revised goal is to submit 6 times this year.

The other goal was #5. Read three books in my genre a month. And it's not that I can't read those books, but what happened was that I found I had invested quite a bit of time reading a book that I just wasn't enjoying. Instead of setting it aside, I kept pushing ahead to get through it. Which meant I wasn't enjoying the read, and I wasn't getting to the other two books I needed to read! So I'm going to give myself a little grace on this one. At the beginning of the month, I'll pick three books, but if I'm just not into one of them, I'm allowed to pass on it. If I can pick up something else to read in its place, that's great, but if not, I'm not going to beat myself up. I'll put the book aside and maybe try it some other month when maybe I'm in the right headspace for it.

And that's all it takes to make my goals workable for me. I still have a lot to do, but goals are like books. The first draft looks a lot better after revision :P

So get on those goals and keep exploring my friends!

Chris Bannor

Fictional World Explorer