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Golly gosh, Batman, it’s now February. Where did January go? February always zips by so quickly because it’s only 28 days and then comes March. I can already see some of my plans for the first quarter skating on thin ice.

Some of you know Fiona and I (plus our two much loved kelpies) are relocating to Melbourne. Both of us are new to such a move and, perhaps a little naively, thought it would be a lot easier to find a suitable place to rent. But alas, I’m still in Sydney and Fi is continuing her weekly commuting routine that is now quite tiresome. Moving activities have consumed more time than I expected impacting writing time.

So what do we do when life gets unusually busy, unexpected events emerge and/or things you anticipated would take less time take considerably more?

Procrastination

Often as a result of changed circumstances we allow the buffeting waves of life to curtail other planned activities. I’m the first to admit I can be overly precious about waiting for “ideal” conditions for writing. I fuel my procrastination by telling myself I’ll catch up tomorrow. Then tomorrow arrives and very few words get written.

Perhaps after the excitement of our New Year goal setting activity has lulled we’ve become nervous about starting that something new we had listed. The new manuscript, the email campaign, increasing our social media presence, or whatever it may be. Once again, we wait for the perfect conditions.

Then there’s the perfectionist in us all. We won’t start something until we’ve read everything there is on the subject or consulted with a cast of thousands or … you get the drill.

But that target we set only a few weeks ago isn’t going away anytime too soon. 

1. Start

Momentum is so important. Even if times are uncertain or the procrastination bug has grabbed you simply starting is a powerful first step.

“There are no rules. You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over, and it’s because you fall over that you learn to save yourself from falling over.” (Richard Branson)

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting aimless and unfocused activity simply to get a monkey off your back. Take a first step: open that blank page, mail off your current WIP to a critique partner, join Mailchimp, and so on.

2. Modify your Commitment (if possible)

So it’s been a long time since you hit that 2,000 word daily limit that got you so far writing your first manuscript. Maybe it’s only 200 words to start. Do something manageable and soon you’ll see the benefits of momentum.

3. Exercise Grace

To yourself.

We’re often our harshest critics. Negative recriminating self-talk can start to dominate our thoughts. This only fuels the fear.

“Whether you think you can or you can’t—you’re right.” (Henry Ford)

Be kind to yourself. Congratulate yourself on achieving those 200 words. Don’t edit your day’s achievement. Leave that for the second draft.

4. Engage your faith

How often do we jump into something and do it on our own? Jesus wants to do it with us; in fact, He’ll lead the way if we allow Him.

I was only telling a friend today how amazed I was when I pulled Angelguard out of the draw after four years of not touching it, how quickly I was able to re-write it. I know that wouldn’t have been possible unless I’d allowed Jesus to guide my writing over that three-month period.

“There’s not a day that you won’t need it; there’s not a situation that won’t demand it. What is it? The power of Jesus.” (Paul David Tripp)

How are your plans for 2015 coming along?

What tips do you have for when times get turbulent or procrastination begins to limit your productivity?

Ian Acheson is an author and strategy consultant based in Northern Sydney. Ian's first novel of speculative fiction, Angelguard, is available in the US, UK, Canada and Australia. You can find more about Angelguard at Ian's website, on his author Facebook page and Twitter

RECOGNITION

RECOGNIZE: a word with several meanings. Take this one.
To admit as one being entitled to be heard.

The female protagonist in my novel, The Testing of Miss Taylor Jones, is a reporter who longs for recognition. For one thing, she is stubborn and is prepared to hang in there no matter how long it takes. Which we possibly might admire, or feel irritated with.:)

But as I delved deeper into her character she made me feel uncomfortable. And I never knew the reason at first. It didn't come to the fore until I had worked on my M/S for the umpteenth time. She was my leading lady and had every good reason to act the way she did. Especially in the 1890's when quite a few brave females, even Christians, were struggling to find their identity in a male dominated sphere. Therefore I couldn't lay the blame on this young woman, so I had to look elsewhere.

Only then did I realize that longing for recognition was deeply ingrained in me. Uh-oh. I was writing myself into the poor girl whether she liked it or not! I am not one to put words into the Lord's mouth, but I am sure the Holy Spirit gracefully challenged my heart at that point. In the sphere of my writing was my motive recognition of myself? Or was I, through my characters, pointing my readers to the Lord? That is what I have always set out to do, but sometimes my old self nature worms its way in. Not into my writing as such, but the REASON for my writing. This is a personal heart attitude I am dealing with.

I wonder if any of you authors write things you are dealing with into your protagonists' lives? Or maybe even into that of your antagonist? Hmm. Perhaps it might give the characters a more honest flesh and blood reality.  That is one reason why revealing a character's motives usually explains the homing in on the goal onto which they have locked their heart.

Maybe it's that confronting Bible verse telling us our hearts are deceitful that makes us delve into why we do what we do. So I guess that should also be true for the characters we create. We all want them to be more than make-believe cardboard cutouts.What think ye?

Author Bio:   Rita is currently a scriptwriter and co-speaker on a five minute Christian radio program, Vantage Point broadcast throughout Australia. She has contributed to several U.S. non-fiction anthologies for Adams Media and has two historical romances traditionally published. She belongs to several writers’ organizations and her weekly blog, http://inspirationalromance.blogspot.com, shares personal stories and author interviews. It has a good number of international hits. She and her evangelist husband also minister together in special presentations.

What are your writing goals for 2014?

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I read recently the results of an American survey that outlined less than 5% of people set goals, write them down and track their progress.

This surprised me somewhat so I ran my own small poll amongst some loved ones, which essentially validated those results. I typically am a goal setter and will sit down at the beginning of a year to map out a series of goals. For some reason or another I didn’t do a very good job of this in 2013.  When I spend insufficient time on documenting and tracking goals, like last year, I don’t make as much progress. And this particularly applies to my writing.

So I’ve made a conscious effort of spending some quality time between Christmas and New Year on both reflecting back on 2013 and establishing goals for 2014. As Anne wrote in her New Year’s Eve post we should do this with the Lord. We’re all probably familiar with Proverbs 16:3

“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.” (NIV)

Sometimes we can read this to believe God will establish what we want. But as my Pastor said recently when referring to this verse, the Lord’s likely to mess with our plans for a while and then He’ll tell you what He wants and what He doesn’t want you to do. And then, and only then, will the Lord establish them.

But the first steps are both giving our goals to God and also listening to Him (as Anne outlined).

Dream BIG

Goals often fall out of our dreams. For example, I want to be a published author? Some people will call this a dream, others a goal. God wants to hear our dreams. The exciting thing is we can’t out dream God so it’s a great place to be in when we’re meditating with Him on what our dreams and goals can be for any given year.

Our dreams will remain forever just that, dreams, unless we engage specific activity to propel them forward. Many of us aren’t working to publisher deadlines rather self-imposed ones and because we’re all busy it’s easy for our writing to take a back seat at times. We’re all familiar with the old adage what get’s scheduled gets done so I find it important to schedule specific time each day to achieve that goal.

I set goals across a range of categories: spiritual, marriage, family, writing, friends, giving, to mention a number of them. Three of my writing goals for this year are:

1.   Complete the draft of my work-in-progress by 31 March 2014

2.   Complete the draft of one 50-page short story by 30 June 2014

3.   Read one writing craft book every two months

I consider it important to write focused goals that are time-bound otherwise the urgent matters that emerge, almost daily, will eclipse these important goals. Yes, stuff comes up which may make it difficult to achieve but put a line in the sand now and deal with the stuff if it happens.

I will share these goals with my writing group and ask them to keep me accountable.

Do you set writing goals and if so, what is one of your goals for 2014?

Ian Acheson is an author and strategy consultant based in Northern Sydney. Ian's first novel, Angelguard, is now available in the US, UK, Canada and Australia. You can find more about Angelguard at Ian's website, on his author Facebook page and Twitter