Tag Archive: setting goals
Eric San Juan
August 6, 2016
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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Eric San Juan
April 11, 2010
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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Eric San Juan
December 28, 2009
I’m not much for New Year’s resolutions. They’re either a laughable waste of time, a recipe for disappointment, or both. But I do believe in setting goals, especially when it comes to what I want to accomplish with my writing. I’m way too scatter-brained and easily distracted to stay focused without a clearly defined set of goals in front of me. So with this in mind, last December I outlined a set of goals to accomplish in 2009. They were as follows: 1) Finish refining my middle grade fantasy novel and BEGIN SEARCHING FOR AGENTS. The book needs at least one more pass before it’s ready for prime time, but that should not stop me from being ready to start the querying process. 2) Finish…
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Eric San Juan
October 15, 2009
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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