Resolutions for Writing

Why Am I Here?

As a retired academic who spends inordinate amounts of time with words, I am here because I am interested in the potential of sharing my experience and my work in progress via social media. During a 30-year career as director of a university program for graduate students preparing to be future faculty, I facilitated workshops on goal setting for academic success. To assist graduate students, I expanded a goal-setting method I had used to complete my doctorate. Over the years, I tinkered with my method, reworking it each year to better help the graduate students who took my workshops complete their degrees. It was a thrill when one came galloping into my office after six months or a year, blurting out with unbridled enthusiasm, “I followed your model! I just defended my dissertation! Thank you!”

My Goal Setting Model

Most goal setting models focus on setting measurable goals—such as completing a chapter in a certain amount of time. Producing a work of fiction fits into this framework. To complete either an academic document or a work of fiction, one is required to work with others, produce original research and text, and meet deadlines. The method I developed required them to 1) verbalize their desired end objective (their dream career goal) to another person, 2) write down their goals and what was required to complete them, 3) be honest and write down the current state of their progress and work, 4) acknowledge their fears, the obstacles they might encounter, and the individuals who might support them in these areas, 5) examine and up-date their progress on a weekly and monthly basis, and 6) report back to their confidant or thesis advisor on how they were doing.

Applying My Goal Setting Model to Writing Fiction

When I found time at home to write for myself, I journaled or experimented with fiction. I even wrote some poetry, but I neglected to set my own writing objectives down on paper. Never did I discuss my interest in writing fiction with others. Nor did I consider moving toward publication, so I never dealt with my fears or the possible complications I might encounter. I never asked anyone for feedback on my work, completely missing out on the evaluative component. In other words, I did not apply my own goal setting method to my personal aspiration to be a published novelist. Thus, my file is filled with under-developed, unfinished work. I wrote but my efforts did not lead to a completed product.

During the course of my career, access to the internet became common. Social media soon appeared. Blogging became an opportunity for individuals to share their work. However, when I initially learned about blogs from a journalism graduate student, I never considered a blog as something I would like to pursue. In my workshops, it never occurred to me to suggest that graduate students might benefit from blogging about their work. Perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps a blog could have helped them connect with others who are interested in similar subject areas, providing them with an extended research network. Perhaps blogging could have helped them learn to write and to budget their time well. Perhaps blogging could have awakened ideas floating below the surface. As I mulled this over, I realized that perhaps combining goal setting with blogging could develop the structural support writers of original work need to accomplish their own creative goals. I decided to experiment for a year and determine if setting goals and blogging about my progress might help me produce a publishable work. I resolved to discuss my progress with my readers. I resolved to face my fears and potential obstacles. I realized that I want to open my work up to comment and suggestions, having a conversation with others who share similar goals.

Thus, I set four goals for 2018:

1) Focus on my creative writing and do the research to support it;
2) Complete a draft novel by the seventh of December 2018, writing 30 pages per month;
3) Document my progress through a blog to be posted the seventh day of each month, writing 12 blogs in 2018; and
4) Develop a network of kindred spirits who are willing to share their own goals, progress, and observations with me.

This concept might be completely unexciting to some readers, but intriguing to others. It might seem humdrum to some writers, but inspirational to others. Whether you are a reader or a writer or a dissertator, I look forward to your comments. If you are drawn to join me, feel free to set your own goals, following the six steps outlined above. Then, follow along with my blog once a month from January 7, 2018, through December 7, 2018. Make comments or ask questions in the dialog box below, if you are so inclined. Perhaps my blogging and your comments and questions will stimulate my creative productivity and your own.

Happy New Year! And, as my thesis advisor emphasized long ago, “Don’t get it right. Get it written.”