Hey guys, Kat Clay, here.
Today, I want to talk to you about something that's really important and that
can help you get your writing done, achieve your writing goals.
And it's something I do really regularly, but always at the start of the year.
And that is goal setting.
Now goal setting might sound a bit
corporate, might sound like something you do in a big business, but if you're a
writer, you are essentially running a small business.
You want to get paid for your writing.
So today I'm going to get into how you can set goals as a writer and how to actually
stick to them because we can all set goals.
But if we don't do them, what's the point?
Stick around, hit subscribe and let's get into goal setting for writers.
So one of the things I do and I buy every
year is a MiGoals planner, and it's a great goal setting journal.
You can use a notebook, you don't have to buy a fancy planner.
But I highly recommend these.
I'm not endorsed by them, but I do really love them.
But first up, let's look at the problem
with goal setting for authors or why you are not sticking to your goals.
There's three main things that really stop writers from getting to their goals.
And the first one is that we plan way too much.
We decide to do too much, and that can be overwhelming.
So why I find this goal setting process helpful, because it clarifies the big
goals and then it breaks it down into little ones.
The second problem I find is that goals are not specific enough.
So you might be like, I want to write a book.
Well, that's good. But like, what sort of book?
How long is your book going to be?
Do you want to write a non-fiction book?
Do you want to write a novella?
Do you want to get it traditionally published?
Like these are all questions you kind of
need to dig into and that's a good thing to do at the start of the year.
Say I want to write a book, but really
specify what you want to do with that and what sort of book it will be.
The third problem I find with goal setting.
Right. And the thing that stops us from actually
achieving our goals is that we don't really want to do that goal.
We think we should do that goal like it's a good thing to do.
But you need to be really passionate about
the goals that you set so you can't just, like, go,
oh, yeah, I guess I want to go to more events in 2021 like that.
Sounds half-hearted to me.
And if you don't really want to do it, if you're not that passionate about it, it
won't keep you going when things get tough.
So for me, like writing a book is a huge undertaking.
If you are not passionate about it, if you
are not excited about it, then don't do it because it takes a long time.
It's really hard to do and grind your soul a little bit.
So onto the actual goals and how do I it?
So the big thing for me is that I go broad and specific.
So it's really important to just brainstorm, have a time where you throw
out all these ideas of all the things you've always wanted to do and put them on
a piece of paper and then start breaking it down.
The goals you set should also be things that you can achieve.
So I could set a goal to become a New York Times best selling author.
But a whole bunch of that process is out of my control.
Like I don't control who buys my book. I don't control.
If someone wants to buy my book, I can
produce a great book, but I can't control every aspect of the publishing process.
So try to keep your goals contained to
things that you can actually achieve and you have control over.
So once you've done this brainstorming and listed everything that you want to
achieve, it's time to group those ideas together.
Is there a common thread, other things that you want to achieve?
And they could all come under the one umbrella.
So for me, I have a few things like
writing, marketing, photography, health and life stuff.
Right? I have little umbrellas.
And then what I do is I start at least
those things under there and you can see where those things overlap.
Once you've done that, pick your top three
bit out of that big piece of paper, pick three that you really want to achieve.
You don't need to have fifty goals.
You won't get them done.
OK, three goals is enough.
Even one goal is enough.
From there I start to go really specific into those goals.
So I'll be like, I want to write a book.
What are the steps I need to take to write that book?
I'm going to do a whole video on my writing process from start to finish.
So if you're interested, check that out.
I will put a link on this video when
that's all the next part is the carrot and the stick.
So this is my favourite part because it's how you motivate yourself to write.
And when it comes down to it, I am a very
base human being that I get motivated by food.
So when I go and write my novels, I write
from eight to one and I'm not allowed to stop and have lunch until I'm finished.
My word count and I'll tell you what, that
is a huge motivation to write my books, I tell you.
But for you it might be something completely different.
So when you finish your book, you get a
new pair of shoes, you go for a nice day out with your family.
All those kinds of things can be rewards for your goals.
It's really important that you tell people
your goals so you don't have to tell everybody but have a couple of
accountability partners, the people who might be trying to achieve similar things
to you, a writing group, a friend, and tell them I am going to do this this year.
So I have told a few friends, I'm writing
a book, I've told you I'm writing a book this year and that helps with
accountability and also to motivate you because you're like, well, I told everyone
I was going to write a book, so I better go and do it right.
Every month I sit back and spend some
time, I take an hour to review everything that I've done towards those goals.
I do this every week in my MiGoals journal.
I just write down what I've achieved this week.
And it's so helpful to look back through the year because my immediate response is
to say I haven't done anything this year, I haven't achieved anything.
And that's a load of crap.
So it's actually a really good thing for
me to do to write down the things I do to achieve my goals that week.
The next step is a really practical one, and it's just to nut out that time and
those timelines for you achieving your goals.
So make sure you allocate enough time to do the work.
If you know you have a certain number of hours in the week to write, then you need
to allocate how long it takes you to do that.
And I suggest tracking the time it takes you to do that as well.
That will give you a better idea through
the year on how to actually get to that point.
So if you have goal setting time like,
say, writing a novel time, you need to make that time sacred.
Like that is your time to do that project and you need to stick to it.
That's a big part of actually achieving
your goals, is sticking to the times that you set to do them.
So they're my top tips for goal setting for authors.
I highly recommend making sure you have a journal.
Put them all down.
You plan out your month, your weeks, your times to write and you stick to them.
You stay accountable with your friends and
also the promise that you've made to yourself.
So let me know how you go.
If you have any questions, hit me up in the comments below.
Thank you so much for watching.
And if you like this video, want more writing, video games, cosplay, random nerd
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And thanks so much for watching.