The best laid plans...

Throughout January every year, I feel like I'm being bombarded with posts and emails talking about New Years Resolutions, Five Year Plans, Word of the Year, and so on. When I was running a business, all the business coaches talked about plans and goals, including five year plans. It's hard not to get caught up in it all.

If last year taught me anything at all, it's that the best laid plans can be derailed with something completely unexpected. For me, it was my son ending up in hospital after three days of school, and continuing the year in a wheelchair, finally walking out of the hospital in November. There was no way we could have planned for this, no matter what resolutions or plans I had made at the start of the year.

I had plans for writing and publishing more, working more hours in my day job so we could afford to move house, get back to the gym, read more books, and so on. None of this happened the way I wanted it to, though hospital waiting rooms are great places to get more reading done!

In spite of my plans, I had my first book published with a traditional publisher and we had a fantastic book launch. I have so many ideas for new stories, and many experiences where I thought 'That will be great in a book one day'.

It also taught us a lesson in leaning on God and our church community. Everything we've been through, especially last year, is all in God's plan, and we can't see it at all. We have learned that prayers are answered, but not always in the way we expect, or in our time. We have learned that the family of God is more than just our immediate family, and that they really do care for us and want to support us during the happy times as well as the hard times.

These lessons apply not only in my home life, but also in my writing life. I never expected I would be writing fantasy novels for kids, in fact, writing novels for kids wasn't something I had expected when I got back into creative writing.

For this year, my plan is more along the lines of "Go with the flow", or, rather, "Let God lead me". I know the dreams I have for me and my family, and my writing. I still have plans, but I have learned to put these in God's hands, and to be flexible.

Here's to a fantastic 2018.

Melissa Gijsbers lives in Melbourne with her two teenage sons. Their family is about to expand to include a new blue tongue lizard and a fighting fish!

She currently has three middle grade books available and is working on more in any spare moment she isn't reading.

You can follow her writing journey at www.melissawrites.com.au and www.melissagijsbers.com

New Year Goal Setting

By Narelle Atkins 

Last week I talked about New Year Writing Resolutions and setting priorities. Today we’re going to look at specific writing goals. 

The first thing I do is review my writing goals from the previous year. I look at the achievements I celebrated during 2014. I consider what worked well for me and why. I ponder the goals and activities I should either scrap or rework for 2015 and consider their importance on my priority list. Do I want to continue working on my unfulfilled 2014 goals? Do I have new goals I’d like to add for 2015?

I break down my goals into short term (up to 1 year), medium term (1-3 years) and long term (3 plus years).

Short Term Goals 

The key to achieving short term goals involves planning a realistic writing schedule.

For my writing schedule, I consider:

1. Daily/weekly goals 

2. Word count vs. hours spent writing 

When I’m writing to tight deadlines, I set weekly word count goals that I split up into a daily goal for the days I have scheduled writing time. I sacrifice leisure time to make the word count and I factor in an extra twenty percent of time/words to take into account ‘life happening’. Something will always happen to disrupt your schedule. 

Your work plan is your road map that defines the steps you’ll take to achieve your goal. I’m going to use the data from my analysis of my work plan for ‘Seaside Proposal’ to help plan my next writing project. I tracked my daily word count and the time allocated for revising and editing. This data will help me to estimate my average word count per hour and determine a realistic word count goal for my next project. 

For my sixth book, ‘Seaside Proposal’, I wrote 40k words over fifteen weeks from May 26 to September 8, 2014. The book deadline was September 15 and I edited as I wrote. I prefer to write a first draft, rest it and then revise and edit, but my schedule didn’t give me the luxury of following my usual plan. 

During those fifteen weeks I attended writing conferences in Sydney and San Antonio, completed copy edits for ‘Winning Over the Heiress’, promoted ‘The Doctor’s Return’ when it released in August, and completed the ‘Seaside Proposal’ book admin for the Art Fact Sheet that’s required by my publisher. I allocated time for book admin and book promo, which reduced the time I had available for actual writing. I did the copy edits for ‘Winning Over the Heiress’ while my critique partners and beta-readers were reviewing ‘Seaside Proposal’.

A few months ago I started scheduling a monthly lunch date, by myself, to brainstorm new and current writing projects. I go to a café on the other side of town, where I’m unlikely to see anyone I know, and I spend up to an hour scribbling ideas in my note book. 

In 2015 I’m going to be flying to Sydney for the day on a regular basis for a work meeting related to my day job. I’m planning how I can effectively use the travel time to work on my writing.

Medium Term Goals

How many writing projects do you plan to complete? Which months have you scheduled for each project? 

Are you writing proposals for traditional publishers? Are you working on indie projects? Do you have contractual deadlines to meet? 

Set up a budget and allocate time for each project with realistic deadlines in 2015 and beyond. Have flexibility in your schedule and add in at least twenty percent to allow for ‘life’ to happen and unexpected changes. Don’t forget to schedule time for vacations and other important activities. My twentieth wedding anniversary is coming up and I’ll allocate time for a special family holiday.

Long Term Goals

Your Writing Journey 

Where do you want to be in five years? What steps do you need to take now to make it happen? 

How many books will you have written, either published, contracted or pre-published?

Set goals that are within your sphere of influence 

For example, becoming a contest finalist/winner is outside your sphere of influence. But, entering X number of contests is within your control. 

Dream Big 

Don’t stifle your secret dreams and assume they couldn’t possibly happen to you. If you don’t try, you can guarantee that you won’t achieve your goals. Our writing journeys may not pan out the way we want, despite our best laid plans. I’ve learned to enjoy the journey, including the detours, rather than being fixated on the destination.

NARELLE ATKINS writes contemporary inspirational romance set in Australia and lives in Canberra. Her debut book, Falling for the Farmer, was a February 2014 release, followed by The Nurse's Perfect Match in May 2014, The Doctor's Return in August 2014, Her Tycoon Hero in November 2014, Winning Over the Heiress in February 2015, and Seaside Proposal in May 2015. 

Narelle blogs regularly with International Christian Fiction Writers and Inspy Romance. http://internationalchristianfictionwriters.blogspot.com/ 
http://www.inspyromance.com/ 

She is also a co-founder of the Australian Christian Readers Blog Alliance (ACRBA). http://acrba.blogspot.com/ 

Website: http://www.narelleatkins.com 
Blog: http://narelleatkins.wordpress.com 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NarelleAtkinsAuthor
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/narelleatkins
tsu: https://www.tsu.co/narelleatkins
Twitter: @NarelleAtkins https://twitter.com/NarelleAtkins

New Years Writing Resolutions

By Narelle Atkins

It’s that time of year when we reflect on 2014 and consider what we’d like to achieve in 2015. A writing career isn’t built by accident. Successful authors have taken steps to achieve their writing aspirations. Each writer will have their own ideas on how they define success, which is a reflection of their goals, hopes and dreams.

Work Life Balance

How much time do you have available for writing and writing-related activities? Can you write part-time or full-time? Is your writing a business or a hobby?

These are important questions to answer. Most writers have a life outside of the writing world. They’re balancing their writing time with day jobs, family responsibilities, church and other volunteer work.

It’s helpful to ask the question: Realistically, how much time do I have available for writing? This is different to asking how much time I’d like to spend writing. Take a look at your calendar and see where you have blocks or snippets of free time. What is the best way to spend that time? Can you write and still meet the other obligations in your life?

Establishing Priorities

Where does writing fit among the items on your priority list? I have school-aged children and my responsibilities as a wife and mother are higher up on my priority list than writing.

My priorities were put to the test over the last few years. In March 2013 I signed a six book contract and agreed to deliver six books, 275-300k words in total, in fifteen months. I had a 45-50k book due every three months from June 2013 to September 2014. I met all my contractual obligations and delivered all six books on time.

Now, as I reflect on the last two years, I’m challenged to consider if I'd sign up for another contract with really tight deadlines. My writing schedule impacted my family life and the amount of time I had available to spend in other areas of my life.

Creating time vs. Admin/book promo time

Next week I’m going to talk in more detail about specific goal setting for our creating time. I define creating time as the actual time you spend working on your ms. This includes brainstorming, outlining, writing, revising, editing and proofreading. It doesn’t include checking email or cruising social media.

We need to factor in time for writing admin and book promo. Writers are encouraged to build a platform for book promotion before they are published. This takes time and, more often than not, it’s time away from creating. Last year I wrote a post on the ICFW blog on Balancing book marketing and writing time.

Writing networking – groups and social media

The experts tell us that social media is all about building relationships. The goal is to build relationships with our target audience. But, we need to ask the question: What is our ‘Return on Investment’ (ROI) from Facebook, Twitter, blogging, Pinterest, Goodreads, tsu, Google+ etc.?

ROI includes money, time and any other resources we invest in a particular activity. Are we achieving our goals and receiving a good ROI as a result?

Are we connecting with our target audience by providing content they value? What strategies can we employ to improve our ROI (including exit strategies if the activity is not working for us)?

Your contribution to the writing world

How can we volunteer in our writing organisations? How can we help and support other writers?

Are we involved in groups and activities, both in-person and online, that are aligned with our goals? For example, if my goal is to network with contemporary romance authors, I’m not likely to achieve this goal by joining my local poetry group.

Your faith journey

I’ll finish today with a few questions to ponder. There’s no right or wrong answer and we can prayerfully consider all of our options.

How does your writing influence your faith?

Is your writing drawing you closer to God? Is it encouraging and inspiring you in your faith journey?

How does your faith influence your writing?

Are you writing for the Christian market, general market, or both? Who is your audience and how can your writing add value to their life?

NARELLE ATKINS writes contemporary inspirational romance set in Australia and lives in Canberra. Her debut book, Falling for the Farmer, was a February 2014 release, followed by The Nurse's Perfect Match in May 2014, The Doctor's Return in August 2014, Her Tycoon Hero in November 2014, Winning Over the Heiress in February 2015, and Seaside Proposal in May 2015. 

Narelle blogs regularly with International Christian Fiction Writers and Inspy Romance. http://internationalchristianfictionwriters.blogspot.com/ 
http://www.inspyromance.com/ 

She is also a co-founder of the Australian Christian Readers Blog Alliance (ACRBA). http://acrba.blogspot.com/ 

Website: http://www.narelleatkins.com 
Blog: http://narelleatkins.wordpress.com 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NarelleAtkinsAuthor
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/narelleatkins
tsu: https://www.tsu.co/narelleatkins
Twitter: @NarelleAtkins https://twitter.com/NarelleAtkins