At this summer’s Muskoka Novel Marathon, I placed a bid (all proceeds supporting adult literacy) for a package of support with a professional writing coach. And I won!
I’m a motivated person. I’ve set goals in my life and achieved great things; becoming a veterinarian, surrounding myself with wonderful family and friends and writing a novel… but now the time has come to get published.
So, with this goal in mind, I started the coaching services.
Wow.
I can’t tell you how great it is to have a skilled and supportive person push you to set your goals, to schedule your time and then to cheer you on.
Initially, we started with a conversation, where it was clearly identified how my greatest enemy was time. Specifically, time management. I needed to give myself permission to set aside the time to write and then to follow through.
From there, I was encouraged to set goals, to print them out and to put them on my fridge.
This has been firstly, inspiring and secondly – eye opening. I hadn’t realized how little I’ve been communicating with my family about what I’m working on and now, by placing my goals out for all to see, it has not only let my family in, but I suddenly have permission from them to take the time I need to write.
Furthermore, by seeing my goals being checked off, I’m inspired by how much I’ve achieved. I’m going to refresh this list monthly and pat myself on the back as I achieve my goals each month.
Since I first started working with the coach, I have completed SO MUCH; I’ve changed the point of view of an entire novel from third person to first person, polished my query and first pages for a critique partner, sent those pages off and since made edits, wrote and sent out our family Christmas letter (which is still a form of writing) and wrote a fresh blog for my website (a blog in which I love and gives a fresh landing space for any curious agents as I am querying).
As impressive as this list may seem, there are goals to add to my current list. After completing this blog, I would like to write ahead and have the next one ready for Ascribe, I need to continue writing forward with a short story I started and find a source to submit it to. I need to write a new blog for my author website, return to my latest WIP and continue sending out queries until I’ve reached my query goal.
In order to achieve my goals, I will need to schedule writing time.
Currently, any time waiting for kids prior to hockey games, or during skating practice, or hockey practice, is my time to write. From there – I need to find and claim more windows to dedicate to writing. As should you!
My coaching advice for you… don’t let the sun go down on your goals.
