I posted a note about goals the other day, to make them quantifiable and doable. Also, it helps to keep oneself honest by either having a friend or family member making you accountable, or by keeping track of your own progress.
Take for instance, Betrayal of the Wolf, the sequel to Heart of the Wolf. I started writing it 4 weeks ago. The holidays cut into it a bit, but I was able to manage 89,000 words. I'm now uploading some of the chapters for critique, getting it ready to send to my editor. How did I manage to write so much in such a short amount of time?_s1.jpg)
First, I set a goal of 5,000 words a day. Some days I made it. Some I was far short of--mostly because of the holidays--but other days I wrote even more. Every single day I noted how many words I had left to write, and how many I had written. So on the first day 5,200 done, 84,800 left to go. Sounds horrible, right? But I kept whittling it down, day after day.
And now I'm nearly finished. I'll go beyond the 90,000 while I'm doing revisions and will no longer worry about the word count but about the quality of the story, adding more conflict, characterization, hooks.
Every day I told my family, I've finished such and such and have only so many more words to go. Lots of rolled eyes and laughs for the first 45,000 words, but as I continued down the road, my mother was asking when I was sending it to my editor. Monday?
Not ready yet. I need to finish editing it. But at least now I have a novel to edit.
So whether it's writing a book, losing weight, or doing some other project you've a mind to accomplish, make yourself accountable. Even with losing weight, if you keep track of all the calories you've eaten in a day, it can be astounding...making yourself aware of how much you're accomplishing can be all that it takes to make it work.
What about someone who wants to be more productive at anything? How much time is wasted on tv? Emails? Phone calls? Daydreaming?
By making yourself accountable, you can reach your goals. :)
Terry Spear
Heart of the Wolf will be released April 1st from Sourcebooks!!
If you're looking for a sexy, urban fantasy with hot alpha males and alpha females who stand up to them, take a look. Best selling authors~~Joy Nash, Cathy Clamp, and Patti O'Shea~~along with Tess Mallory, Deborah Macgillivray, Sandy Blair and new Red Sage author, Nicole North have endorsed it!
