đPart 2 of 4 : Strategically Define Your Writing Goals
And the book cover reveal for GRAVE BIRDS!!!
Hey, everyone! Happy New Year! Are you ready for great things in 2025? I am. But before we get into it, check out my cover reveal for GRAVE BIRDS!!!!
đ Isnât she gorgeous!!?? The art department took this cover in a slightly different direction than the previous book, and I think itâs going to make it stand out on the bookshelves. Iâm so excited for you guys to read this story. I came up with the idea YEARS ago, but had to let it marinate before I could write it. And if yâall want to repost the cover reveal in your stories, I wouldnât be mad one bit. đ Now onto the good stuff!
đPart 2 of 4 : Strategically Define Your Writing Goals
Iâm going to tell it to you straightâ>New Yearâs resolutions are for crapâŚunless youâre strategic about them. We have a saying in the Southâhell, we have a saying for everything, but this one fits this situation: âWish in one hand and shit in another, and see which one gets filled up faster.â (đŹ Hoo boy, us Southerners really know how to say things.) But the point is, expecting your New Yearâs resolutions to happen simply because you wish for them isnât a plan. How many times have you started a new year with all these aspirations only to find yourself at the end of the year in the same place you started? Hereâs the obvious solution to fixing that: You actually have to work on them. Sure, we do for a little bit. We jump on that new year high, but eventually our efforts peter out and by March, if not sooner, and those New Yearâs resolutions are a distant memory. Then the end of the year comes and you look back, bummed you didnât achieve them quite like you had hopped. Letâs do something about that this year. Donât you want a lot more success from your writing career? I sure in the hell do. I made big changes over the last few years, and those changes paid off big time when I sold my book at auction. Making a plan to get what I wanted worked. Hopefully what I did will help you as well. (Even if youâre arenât a writer, this can help you with your regular new yearâs goals as well.)
đ§ GRAB YOUR THINKING CAPS
I have a business-minded brain when it comes to my career (something I think a lot of writers donât have, and something Iâll talk about in future newsletters). Iâm constantly reading self-help and motivational books to improve my mindset or further my career. Years ago I stumbled on The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod (which I highly recommend), it talks about success is built from setting up your day from the second you wake. (I have a âMindfulness Morningâ routine, loosely based on this, that I do every day. Iâll share that with you in future newsletters, too. (Damn, girl, youâve got lots of shit to tell us! Yes, yes I do.)) Anyways, Hal Elrod talks about defining your affirmations, and I applied those same principles to my writing goals and it worked! Itâs more than writing your goals, itâs about applying intention, focus, and action to that goal. These five questions can really help strategically define your writing goals. When you do that, things begin to change.
1. What do you want? Clearly define it.
2. Why do you want this goal? How is it beneficial to you?
3. What does that general commitment look like? What are you going to have to do to achieve it?
4. Now get specific: When do you do it? How much? How often?
5. How are you going to make sure you do it?
I made up these specific prompts, but theyâre loosely based on The Miracle Morningâs affirmations principles. (You can also apply this five question format to anything youâd like to achieve: getting fit, reading more books, saving money, etc.) It always helps to have an example, so hereâs mine.
đHEREâS MY EXAMPLE:
(1) I want a six-figure deal at auction to a big publisher. (2) Achieving this goal will set my career in a strong direction to achieve the bigger things I want from my career later down the road. Making a commitment to writing the best book of my life, will attract the strongest agent who believes in me and my writing and they will champion my book to the success Iâm looking for. (3) I am committed to writing every day, by scheduling a set writing time, creating boundaries around that time, cutting out all distractions, and writing in a âcone of silenceâ environment. (4) Every Monday â Thursday from 7am-4pm I will work in two hour blocks with only 15 min breaks (30 min for lunch) with a goal of reaching 2000 words per day. I will set aside Fridays for my personal appointments and to dos. (5) To hold myself accountable, I will keep track of my word count on a spreadsheet, email my writer friend my progress, and reward myself with something special on Saturday when I complete my goal. At the end of each week I will re-read this goal, evaluate my progress, and recalibrate to this commitment as needed.
This is based off my BIG goal. Start there for yourself. And then you should do the same thing for your smaller goals, especially if you find something particularly challenging. Look at your above #3, do you struggle with: getting butt in chair, meeting a daily word count, marketing your book, etc. Then create a new strategic goal for that. When I made the above goal commitment (along with the other things I will share with you in this series), I was writing 3-4K words a day. When I didnât put in that level of focus and intention, I barely get 1K words from an entire day of writing. Focus and Intention are key. There will be plenty of times where you wonât want to do the work or youâll half-ass your effort. Thatâs when you have to ask yourself, âDo you fucking want a six-figure deal at auction or what? Then get your ass to work!â You donât have to curse yourself, but tough love works for me. The reality of failure, smacking me in the face, really gets me moving in the right direction. Feel free to give yourself love and encouragement, I hear thatâs a healthier option.
đ ď¸ TWEAK IT
Youâll probably need to tweak and refine this goal a few times. You might be over zealous and realize you canât write for that long or get that many words. Or maybe you underestimate yourself and need to up your goal. Keep it realistic. And ask yourself, what type of person am I. Iâm a competitive person, so I make my word count slightly out of reach. If I know I can hit 1K words in two hours, then Iâll make it 1200 words. That little bit of a challenge causes me to try harder to beat it. Maybe youâre motivated by racking up little successes and that builds your confidence. Then set your goal in attainable amounts for each day and feel confident as you write, collecting your gold-stars each 1K words. Refine your goal until you find what works for you.
đŠ SHIT HAPPENS
Things come up. You get sick. You have a vacation. Itâs the holidays. Youâre hungover. Youâre going to miss a day or two here or there. Get past the thing holding you up and then get back to work. Donât dillydally. Youâre not always going to meet your writing goal for the day, but donât stack the leftover work onto the next day. Thatâs overwhelming, and youâll put too much pressure on yourself. Simply show up the next day and start again.
This is just the first part of setting yourself up for success. It seems like such a small step, like maybe itâs not important. You might even feel like you can blow this off, that you really donât need to do all this, youâve got it all loosely in your head and thatâs probably enough. If that were true and that was working for you, then you wouldnât be here. If youâre not doing the work, itâs not going to happen. No one is going to make this happen but you. Do you want it or not? Then go fucking get it.
Youâve strategically written out your writing goals. It looks good. You feel great. You have a plan! Now wtf are you supposed to do? Coming next: Part 3 of 4 â Now Do the Shit You Said Youâd Do. The actual plan in action, how to make it happen. Next week Iâll share with you what I do to make my goals happen. Until then, do your homework and strategically write out your goals.
ICYMI:
Part 1 of 4 - New Year New You, What do you want from 2025? How are you going to get it?
â¨Meet My Writerâs Coachâ¨
So many of you have reached out to me about my writerâs coach, and now you get to meet her! Virtually at least. You can meet Heather Demetrios and hear about who she is as a writerâs coach on Creative.Inspired.Happy, a fantastic video (and audio) podcast hosted by Evelyn Skye. Also, if you want to read all of Heatherâs wisdom, you can find her here on Substack as The Lotus and Pen.
Bookish News
đLook whatâs on sale! 50% off the hardcover!
đ Stay tuned, because in the coming months my publisher will be giving away eGalleys of Grave Birds on Goodreads, leading up to the release date July 1, 2025. (eGalleys are a digital copies of the book, uncorrected proofs.)
If you want to be notified when those giveaways happen, be sure to add Grave Birds to your Goodreads TBR list, and donât forget to turn on your email notifications in your Goodreads settings, so you can be notified when it happens.
đBookstagrammer ShoutoutđŁď¸
Before we go, I want to give a BIG shoutout to the three amazing bookstagramners that helped me spread the book cover reveal love for Grave Birds all over the internet!
đ¸ Nikki with @poetry.and.plot.twists, such an aesthetically gorgeous account.
đŽ Sarah with @purplegypsybooklover, some of the best sexy romance book recommendations.
đś Paige with @thebookandtheboston, the cutest Boston terrier and if you need a good thriller recommendation, sheâs got you covered.
Be sure to give them a follow and let them know how much they are appreciated!
Youâre still here? You read ALL the way to the end?! Aww, you like me. You really like me! 𼰠Now get off the fucking internet and write that book, it ainât gonna write itself!
See yâall next week! đđť
xo,
Dana