Tag Archive: goals

How I almost forgot why I write (and how I got back on track)

August 6, 2016 3 Comments

It’s easy to lose sight of why you write. For about two years now, I’ve worked full-time as a freelance writer and social media marketer, penning corporate blogs, articles for SEO specialists, the occasional news story, website copy, and whatever else people will pay me to write. I’ve done freelance work on the side for many years, but that switch in autumn 2014 was a big plunge into icy cold water. It hasn’t always been easy. The money mostly sucks, the workload is hot and cold, the guilt can be crushing, people often don’t want to pay you or they will try to scam you, you have to operate like a small business (which is antithetical to why you write in the first place), and…
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Random Musings, Writing

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Staying Focused, Keeping Busy

April 11, 2010 2 Comments

Someone recently asked me how I stay focused. It seems like I’m constantly juggling projects, working on new things, producing new material … but how do you keep your nose in your work (especially when also dealing with a full-time job and family)? Aside from the fact that my focus is an illusion — the truth is I’m a lazy, not-very-driven person by nature and always have been — the secret is, there is no secret. It’s damn hard. It’s never easy. And that’s all there is to it. For the person not yet making his or her living solely on writing, for the person wedging that impossible dream into a life already crammed with work, family, and life in general, staying focused on writing…
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Writing

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GOAL: finish my novel by Dec. 31

October 15, 2009 1 Comment

Amid all these other projects, one of my goals this year was to finish the dystopian science fiction novel I’ve been working on. My progress has been unsteady, but it is moving forward. I’m roughly 25,000 words into it. But that’s not far enough. I need to get the first draft finished by the end of this year. That’s my personal goal. So I’m calling myself out. First draft finished before the end of the year. If I do not do that, I suck. That is my deadline. First draft, end of the year. Deadline. I am committed to doing this. It is my top priority. It seems like the end of the year is a while away, but it’s actually a pretty tight deadline….
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Writing

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Tellin’ Stories

January 14, 2009 1 Comment

Writing about Neil Gaiman’s Sandman the last few weeks has reminded me of how envious I am of him. Not in a BAD way, mind you. Rather, in the way that makes you more eager than ever to bust your ass and create things until the world sits up, takes notice, and says, “Okay, good. You can live your life doing this full time.” Here’s a guy who was allowed to create something that afforded him the ability to write pretty much any kind of story he wanted to write. Horror. Fantasy. Adventure. Mythology. Romance and historical and crime and drama and a hundred other things. This when he first broke into comics. When he was a totally unknown quantity. And he took it, and…
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Random Musings, Writing

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