  Short Stories
This week: Achievement is Relative Edited by: Jay's debut novel is out now!  
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This Issue:
Achievement is Relative
Goals change over time. Have you re-evaluated your progress lately?
What were your writing goals in 2015 and how can you improve on them for the coming year? |
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Setting goals for ourselves is a common practice in the field, especially if productivity is the intended result. Whether you're writing for the amusement of yourself, your friends, and your family, or trying to make your first big break, or really just stepping out into the wild world of submissions, it can be useful to step back and catalog things. This might be a spreadsheet or a list; maybe just some spring cleaning in the old portfolio. Itemize what you have in inventory and what, if anything, you intend to do with it. You might simply want to revisit an old item in your portfolio for a light dusting; others that have been squirreled away under lock and key might be worth revising and putting back out there on the market.
Figure out what it is that you want from your writing, and if you aren't getting that, don't be afraid to make some changes to your writing habits (without compromising anything else, of course!) I don't think I know anyone who thinks they get "enough" time to write in a given day, or week, or month. Since many times we basically have to carve that time out, we have to not be afraid to take it whenever we can get it. If you want to spend more time researching markets, you might borrow some of that time from your writing time, for example, as long as you don't let it drag you down the rabbit hole of watching cat videos on YouTube afterwards. 
Be honest with yourself when setting goals, but don't be afraid to aim big, either. One of my friends uses her biggest, most current aspiration as her password in various places where she needs to login daily-- just as a daily reminder. Not revealing her secret passphrase, but why not give it a go? It might drill in some positive reinforcement to type "enter1contesteveryweek" or "1000wordsaday" or something like that, for example. (Especially if you have to upgrade it later to "enter2contestseveryweek", no?  )
Don't be afraid to make changes to your expectations, either. a lot of people treat resolutions and other plans which coalesce in January as something set in stone and inflexible. Plans are made to be bent and reshaped-- no battle plan survives contact with the enemy, to paraphrase an old saying. Don't view it as a pass/fail scenario but as a "suggested" mode of daily or weekly activity. For example, I'm setting a challenge with a friend to complete a nebulous number of words -- a "chapter or short story", up to me -- per week. I've found that word count per day forces my brain to churn out massive gobs of useless material, but if I can be satisfied with myself by producing one solid piece of flash in a week, I'll take it!
Find your groove. Revisit old goals and see if they still fit you, like the clothes in your closet you swear you'll go through someday and see if they all fit. And if they don't-- recycle them and pick up some new goals that fit the new you. 2016 is right around the corner, and I have no doubt that it's going to be my best writing year yet. I hope it will be yours, too. 
Take care and Write on!
~jay |
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From "A Post-Script on Impostor Syndrome" :
MacTÃre Taibhse  writes:
I enjoy this newsletter as it is always a great combination of an essay about writing and a great list of short stories to check out- new favorite pieces and authors to find! The editorial essay about your experience with the dreaded Impostor Syndrome was spot on this week. I never knew there was a name for my debilitating lack of confidence- not only in my writing sphere, but my academic one as well. The more someone tells me that I am doing something right, that I know what I am talking about, I dig my heels in- convinced that I know nothing and soon everyone else will be able to see that too. Thank you for your advice on how to get past that situation. I think it is something we will all battle- it will never go away, but it will get easier and someday, it will be funny to us, instead of a sore spot.
Indeed! One of the exercises that we had to do at Viable Paradise was an unofficial one, wherein when someone gave us a compliment, the correct response was some variation on, "Thanks, I really appreciate hearing that." Initially, my classmates and I were really skeptical about it as it seemed really silly, and so we were doing it... semi-sarcastically, just because we'd said we would do it. And then, a funny thing started to happen-- we started to say it without worrying about it anymore. It's not perfect; there are still times where I flinch as though someone's thrown a coffee mug at me, but I think this is a good exercise to practice. |
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Short Stories: December 09, 2015 Issue [#7363]
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