5 Tips to Getting Back on Track

This is the time of year when you suddenly realize what happened to those goals you set just last month at the beginning of the year.  Are you keeping the goals you set?  And if you haven’t been meeting those goals, why not? How can you get back on track? Let’s look at some ways that might get you back in gear and in line to meet your writing targets. It all starts with looking back on what you have done for the past month:

1.      Review your writing goals. It’s always good to take stock of your goals and see if they are realistic. If you set the goal of a thousand words a day and you find you just can’t meet that target, maybe it will help if you lower it a little. Not everyone writes that quickly and not everyone can maintain that sort of target. Try 750 or keep a record for a week and see what works for you.  If you are writing 500 words a day on a regular basis, maybe set your goal a little higher, say 600 until you are comfortable with that. Then you can consider raising it.

2.      Applaud and celebrate what you have done right.  Look back on what you did accomplish. Did you write the four weekly blogs you intended to write? Did you go out of your way to promote your upcoming book in a way you had not originally planned to do? Celebrate those small steps. They make setting goals worthwhile. Take yourself out to lunch or take a friend. Give yourself a day to just read or visit the library and research

3.      Try a new writing project.  If you have been wanting to write a blog, then this might be the time to try it.  Writing non-fiction can be a good way to stimulate the creativity of writing fiction

4.      Try a new creative project. I attended a lesson last month on ways to stretch creativity and came away with a new appreciation for drawing, painting and just doodling on scrap paper. It gave me a whole new outlook on ways to expand my ways of thinking creatively and as I worked on just doodling I found myself coming up with a new way to approach a troublesome scene.

5.      Try stepping away from your book for a day or two. Give yourself permission to take a day or two off. Don’t let the time be too long, because you might not come back to your project, but sometimes a couple of days off can help you if you are overthinking a situation.

So take stock of what you’ve been doing and look forward to what you might do to get back on track to meet those goals you set last month. And if they are unrealistic then think about how to change them. (Editing never hurt anyone)