Setting Micro-goals, to Balance the Gigantic Goal of Book Writing

Anyone who has written a book knows, it can take years. The gratification is so delayed that sometimes the end goal seems too far away to possibly reach. During my early book writing years, I applied intense focus to get the work done. It worked for me, and I self-published two books in three years. But my third book has been more painstaking. I've been 'focussing' on it for almost five years. If I didn't have something else to do, I'd go mad.

So three years ago, I set a smaller goal. I joined Writers Victoria, and decided I'd like to be published in their member magazine, The Victorian Writer. I didn't send a hundred submissions, as I didn't really have the time away from book writing to create new pieces of work. So I watched and waited for the right theme. Eventually a theme popped up that reflected a moment in my already written memoir draft. After five years of working on the memoir, it was time to start making the memoir work for me.

It was only 100 words of micro-fiction, lifted directed from my manuscript. The smaller project took nothing away from my main project, and actually enhanced it. That little bit of light that has been shone onto my work is encouraging. How lovely it is to see my work in print. There's nothing like seeing your writing in a writing magazine, to make you feel like a real writer.

That is all for today. This is an experiment in writing a short blog post. Otherwise the drafting, editing and proofing can go on for days – days I don't wish to subtract from book writing. 

Maybe as the year renews, you can think about setting micro-goals too. They really do give you a little bump that can help you to move the larger goals along. Maybe you'd like to pitch to The Victorian Writer!