On Goals

Category

March 12, 2015

The formula for achieving your dream

In publishing my first book, I achieved part of my dream. In hitting break-even in only two months, I’m getting closer to the next step—becoming a full-time author who can support himself with his writing. But there’s a difference between these dreams. The first one, finishing my book and independently publishing it, was mostly a struggle with myself. The ongoing struggle of sales is against other forces, and they’re outside my control. But in achieving part of my dream, I’ve learned the formula, or at least...

December 2, 2014

The brick walls

“The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.” -Randy Pausch I came across this quote at Zen Pencils today, and it was just in time. I’ve been dealing with some hurdles in the publishing process. I wanted to be coming to...

November 10, 2014

Save it for your daydreams

I once was talking to a young writer—I say young, though he was probably around my age—who watched anime, just as I do. We were talking about the stories we were working on, and at one point, he began tell me about his grand designs. He wanted it to be an anime, done by this studio and with these seiyuu. He could see a live-action movie as well, and described how some of the special effects would look. He thought it could then make...

November 2, 2014

Worth doing

“Just about everything worth doing is worth doing because it’s important and because the odds are against you. If they weren’t, then anyone could do it, so don’t bother.” —Seth Godin In our stories, we venerate the heroes who triumph in the face of great odds. But what we don’t always realize is that they’re not heroes because they won. They’re heroes because they tried. You won’t achieve greatness if you’re the same as everyone else. It takes doing the hard work...

June 2, 2014

Goals & expectations

One of the challenges of my new private accountability system is that it gives me concrete goals. When I’m on track or ahead of the game, it’s great – I’m more productive when there’s some pressure, but not too much pressure. But when I get behind… My muse I don’t do creative work well under pressure. The key, then, is to give myself plenty of time and get ahead of the game, because then I’ll fly along. But with a full-time job, side work,...

May 29, 2014

Private accountability

In my ongoing battle for productivity, let me tell you about my latest weapon. A few months ago, I told you about Jerry Seinfeld’s productivity secret about not breaking the chain. After that I began publicly tracking how long my “chains” were, but I stopped doing that a while ago. Why? Because even though I’m not published yet, and am therefore not a professional, I prefer to act like I’m one, and I feel that constantly talking about how much I am (or...

January 21, 2014

Combo counter update – It’s going well, it’s going not so well

For those of you who recall my Don’t break the chain post, here’s an update: Combo counter: Editing chain, 10 days. Writing chain, 0 days. So in some ways it’s going well, and some ways not so much. On the one hand I’ve been keeping up with the editing, and it’s helping me make some serious progress through this draft. On the other, I’ve been completely falling down on writing new content, and my failing has gotten so consistent that...

January 9, 2014

Don’t break the chain

I’ve been struggling with my motivation lately. Actually, that’s only partily true – it’s motivation + a changed work situation that have thrown my old routines into disarray. But what’s an excuse, and those aren’t useful. What I need are solutions. Two things. First, I refer you to Jerry Seinfeld’s Productivity Secret. Side note: Though he revealed on his recent AMA that he didn’t come up with it, I’m sticking with the name because it’s how I remember it. Sorry Jerry, you’ll...

November 21, 2013

On writing fast, writing well

I’ve given myself three challenges since I started this blog, two of which I succeeded at, and one of which I failed. Today I realized another difference between them: while the first two were editing challenges, the latest one was a writing challenge. It was also the one I enjoyed the least, To me there’s a major difference between writing and editing. Writing is the fun part, where the artist in me gets to play around and do all the fun creative...

November 19, 2013

One short story, one week – buzzer beater

Another challenge completed, and this one ended in victory. I wrote my second short story in the universe shared by my novel in one week, but damn if it wasn’t a near thing. I have things to talk about – why I was barely able to hit the goal, some lessons learned, etc. – but it’s late (early?) and I used the last bit of today’s effort hitting the goal. I may edit this post or I may make a...