by David Rawlings, @DavidJRawlings

It’s now February. 

This is the time of year when resolutions – made in the heady naivete of a fresh new year – traditionally start to wobble. If you had a word for the year, now might be the time when you reflect on whether it’s the right word or how you’re tracking with it. And the glow over the whole ‘we survived 2020’ is fading.

It is with me. I set word count targets and set a plan for 2021, and now I’ve hit the February hump I’m reviewing how I’m going. Here in Australia we’re now back at school, which shakes up our family schedule – settled over December/January – like an Etch-a-Sketch. So the groove I figured I was settling into is now a work-in-progress again. 

When the busyness of getting back into the swing of the things post-New Year is creeping into the margins of your writing time, how do you keep up the momentum of a New Year? How do you stay on track with the goals that you set, without losing enthusiasm? How do you maintain the energy your flow of ideas? 

Staying on track is a key to finishing. In talking to author friends from around the world, there seems to be three things you can do to keep on track, and they all relate to staying true to your writing.

Stay true to your ocean of creativity

Creativity is sometimes described as a well, but I find it’s more like an ocean. 

I find my ideas and writing productivity relates more to the ebb-and-flow of tides. When the tide is in, I can’t stop writing. But when the tide is low, a day of writing feels like wading through a swamp. 

I find that when I make my goals at the start of the year, I can sometimes do it without the tide times in mind – all time feels like it should be writing time. But things change, life happens and priorities jump up.

So … Do you need to review how your ebb-and-flow is contributing (or hindering) your writing? Can you identify ways to work with the various pressures that have already arisen in 2021? 

Stay true to your story

When I write a novel, the storyline in my head that first appears in my synopsis isn’t set in concrete. So I have sometimes taken time to chase a character down a rabbit hole because they lead me there. In The Baggage Handler, I revised one character completely once I got to know him, and that blew out my goals by a couple of months. But it had to. 

If you find yourself behind schedule, is it because your story is taking more time than you first thought? If so, that’s okay. The creative process isn’t linear and sometimes requires more from you than you first planned.

So … is your story changing, and in so demanding more time, energy or research? Do you need to be flexible, and will your story be better

Stay true to why you have targets

Goal-setting in the early hours of a new year can sometimes be over-ambitious or under-confident. I set out most years with very aggressive word count targets that inevitably get trimmed or expanded depending on how the words come out.  But targets are simply tools to help you achieve your overall goal of finishing your work. Sometimes the targets you set need to shift as well to accommodate your workload, extra pressures or circumstances beyond your control. Let me share with you my example: in early 2021 (after I’d set my word count targets based on how much available time I knew I’d have), my wife was accepted into her Zoological Studies course. This now changes my available time, so I’ve revised my targets to accommodate it. 

So … could you ramp up or tone down your word counts or page targets in light of progress? Revise what you set out to do in light of what you’ve done. What changes could you make (or need to make) in order to keep the fire burning?

There are just a few suggestions to help keep you track, to keep the momentum going while staying true to your craft.  What do you find works for you once February rolls around?

 

---