Here in Kansas City, school is getting ready to start. As a student, this was always a favorite time of mine. The new packets of paper, the flawless folders, the clean notebooks. I loved that I hadn’t flunked anything yet, or humiliated myself in gym class, or been caught passing a note when I should have been taking them.
And even though I’ve been out of school for 10 years now (hallelujah!) this has remained a time of year that feels like a chance for a fresh start. A time of untapped potential. A time to make some goals.
In his fabulous book on writing, The Art of War for Writers, James Scott Bell talks about the importance of goals, and I completely agree.
In the past I’ve written very specific goals. (“In September I’ll finish edits on my manuscript and send it to Roseanna. In October I’ll complete the project and turn it into my editor.”) If you’re in a more predictable stage of your life, I really encourage this. I’m eager to get back to the days of specific and aggressive goals.
But with a newborn in the house, and a writing career that’s at more of a crossroads than I like, this really just isn’t possible for me at the moment. So instead of throwing out the whole notion of goals all together, I instead just have to allow myself more of a time cushion. Here’s my goals:
1. To finish the first draft of my WIP (work in progress) by December 11th.
2. To finish the first round of edits on my WIP by January 31st.
3. To finish the second round of edits on my WIP by February 14th and send it to my cript partner, Roseanna. (Who I’m sure will crack it right open on Valentine’s Day … especially since she sent me a manuscript, oh, a thousand years ago and I haven’t gotten back to her yet.)
4. To input her edits and have the final polish done within 2 weeks of her returning the manuscript to me.
What are your goals for this fall? For this school year?