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Did you take part in the fast and furious write-a-palooza of WdC's 22nd birthday bash? What will you do now?
Let's check out some strategies to keep you active on the site without burning yourself out. |
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We've all been there. Riding a creative high, surrounded by the hubbub of like-minded people, keeping pace because we know there's a definitive end date. It's sometimes a breeze to let yourself get lost in what you're doing, or push yourself a little harder than normal, when you know it's temporary.
What can we do once the ruckus settles down, and we're back to our regular routines? How do we keep the action going?
The first thing we can do is take stock of those routines. Are they working for us? Are we giving our creative side the outlet we need? Are we juggling too much on the creative side and creating chaos in our lives that doesn't need to be there? I'm not preaching finding 'balance'. Life is in constant motion, and the scales tip back and forth all the time. I'm talking about having a flexible plan that will let you work with what time you have to jump into your creative endeavours when time allows. One part of that is examining if there's time you're spending doing something else that could be swapped for writing time.
Personally, I don't write much in the summer. With a short season, and a love of gardening, I've decided something has to give. I don't disappear from the site entirely, but let's just say my gardens are grossly over-pampered. It's a trade-off I have to make for both health/physical reasons, and mental wellness reasons. Setting too many goals leads to either unnecessary stress, fatigue, or outright failure to achieve much on either the writing or gardening front.
There's a long-standing financial planning system that uses 'the snowball effect'. When one thing is paid down, the money is applied to another area, increasing those payments by the amount of whatever it is you paid off. That second debt gets paid down faster, and once finished, you move on to the next thing the same way (I just saved you a bunch of money on the never-ending sequels about the snowball effect).
Snowballing applies to what we do, too. Only instead of reducing our output, we increase it. This can be in either quantity or quality. Sometimes we feel we need to do all the things—when in reality, it can be just as satisfying to do some of the things at the highest calibre we can. There's also something to be said about the wisdom of knowing when 'good enough' is good enough, but that's a topic for another day.
Here's a few things you can consider going forward:
1. Decide What's Important to You
Do you really want to write a novel, or is your true calling short stories and you're writing a novel because everyone says you're supposed to want to write one? Are you learning free verse because everyone says rhyming is passe, but you've always been fascinated by metered poetry, and desperately want to practice in form?
Seriously, don't get caught up in that.
The likelihood of you being excited about the thing you don't really want to be doing is extremely low, and you'll find the most amazing excuses not to focus on it. "I should really work on chapter 3, but I just can't tonight. I have to take a toothbrush and clean between the joints of the laminate flooring" is a really great clue your goals aren't right for you.
2. Set Your Goals Around What Excites You
Once you know what you want to do, narrow down your options and pace out your steps. There's plenty of free resources around the internet that can help you plan a learning path if you're a complete beginner at something specific. There's also plenty of experts here at WdC that can help set you up for success.
If you're not a beginner, or already know what you want to do, you should still take a moment to rank those items in order of importance, and plan out the steps to achieve your goal.
3. Commit, but Don't Overschedule
If you can set aside chunks of time every day to work on your writing, that's great! Sometimes it's as easy as giving up idle time - instead of staring at the receptionist while waiting for an appointment, take a notepad and paper (or digital device) and spend a few minutes working on your wilder side. If you can't, that's okay, too. Commit to accomplishing something every week, no matter how small or insignificant it seems. The reality is just because it appears like a small goal compared to someone else's—it can make a big difference to you.
Small steps are better than no steps, and just like the financial snowball, one thing builds on another. Before you know it, you'll have a collection of poems, a stable of short stories, or several chapters written.
4. Be Kind to Yourself
Don't let yourself get away with making excuses—but cut yourself some slack if you don't hit every milestone on the exact date specified. Re-examine the roadmap. Is too much packed in there? Are the key steps too large? Can you break them down even further? Have your life circumstances changed? Maybe reprioritizing what's important in your creative life can help make things more manageable while still letting you play in the awesome wonders of Writing.com.
Remember, there's lots of ways to accomplish what you want at the speed you need to go at. Your short and long term goals can be met with a plan that has flexibility baked into its foundation. |
Set Goals, Plan Your Steps, Take Some Action!
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Action/Adventure: September 07, 2022 Issue [#11553]
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