Hello, writers. In just two and a half weeks we’ll begin DaKoWriMo (Daily Kos Writing Month), our several-years-old tradition of setting a special writing goal for the month of January. It’s like NaNoWriMo, but without Thanksgiving and Election Day getting in the way.
So, it’s a good time to think about your goal. Two suggestions for goals:
1. Make your goal measurable. (Rather than, eg, “I will write more.”) That way you can know if you’re meeting it or not.
2. When you set your goal, think about what you already know about your process.
If you’ve done NaNoWriMo or DaKoWriMo in the past, you’ve probably already learned a lot about your process. For example, you might know:
- What time of day is best for you to write?
- How much planning do you need to do?
(Too little, and writers tend to get stuck midway through the manuscript, out of ideas; too much, and we get bored and don’t feel like writing.)
- Do you write better alone or with other people?
- Is it better to stop in midsentence, as some writers do, or to round out a scene before you call it a day?
- Do you edit as you go, or do you plow straight through to the end and then revise?
- If you set a goal and don’t meet it, do you feel happy with what you’ve accomplished, or upset with yourself for not finishing?
And so forth.
So, knowing what you know about your process, what goal works best for you for January?
Since the above doesn’t lend itself to a Tonight’s Challenge, write 100 words based on these two word randomly selected from the dictionary:
peculiar
echo
Before signing a contract with any agent or publisher, please be sure to check them out on Preditors and Editors, Absolute Write and/or Writer Beware.