10 Ways to Amp Up Your Write Life

What are your goals for 2019? I’ve been reflecting on 2018 trying to prepare my new writing goals. A few things stand out. (1) I surpassed my goals. (2) I had no control over the achievements. (3) I had full control over my actions. (4) I took risks.

My two goals in 2018 were to macro edit my manuscript and attend two conferences. I wanted to improve my writing in order to get traditionally published some time in my life.

So, I set aside a daily writing time, listened to audiobooks each day, joined a critique group and read about writing, all the ingredients to improve writing.

The first half of the year I entered two synopses into a contest.
And guess what! I was a finalist and got a request. So, I finished the “winning” manuscript in 2 months, in time for a conference. Was it good? No. But it was done.

By the second half of the year, I realized that I had written the wrong manuscript. Now, I had to finish the second manuscript to submit that one. I won a scholarship to another conference, did not become a #pitchwars mentee, participated in #faithpitch, and received a folder full of rejections and a few maybes.

All this to say, I did way more than I ever dreamed to do in my 2018 writing life. Here’s how it happened:

1. Set aside writing time. It’s amazing how much you can write in an hour or two a day if you write every day. Most days I felt like the tortoise in “The Hare and the Tortoise.”
2. Enter contests. Contests can give you opportunities and unbiased feedback.
3. Have a growth mindset. Always look for opportunities to grow in your writing. Try to imitate your favorite writer’s style, practice new writing tips, and learn to listen.
4. Take risks. Failure is an important step. It’s better to take a risk and fail, than to never have tried.
5. Finish what you start. Lots of focused effort needs to go into finishing. But it’s worth it. Many of the opportunities I’ve gotten have come from passing the finish line.
6. Remember why you started this journey. I want to quit at some point each day. But my dream is for God to use my writing work. That keeps me going.
7. Learn to see stories everywhere. I write fantasy so I thought stories could only form in my mind. I was wrong. The difference between fantasy and reality really is an extra touch of magic.
8. File stray idea. I get a few substantial ideas a week, but it’s impossible to work on everything at once. So if I get a novel idea, I write a short synopsis and let the project marinade until I can get to it. If I have a short story idea, I write a sentence or two about my story and work on my current project. This means there’s always a project waiting for me.
9. Embrace the bad first draft. If my inner editor is too present for my first draft, it stilts my writing.
10. Be fresh. All the agent and editor wish lists, I’ve seen, ask for something new and exciting. The only way to know what’s “new” is to read your genre. Know what’s selling and think of a different twist. If you can’t think of something fresh, start writing anyway and you can always rewrite.

My goals for 2019: (1) Finish my work in progress. Get a glimpse of it here.

Happy New Year! I can’t wait to hear about your amped up writing life in 2019.