The Magic of Tiny Writing Goals and Consistency
LITFRIENDS* One of our subscribers, let's call her "T", sent me a brief email. She said she needs motivation to reach her writing goals. I understand, it's so easy to NOT write.
Sir Issac Newton taught us in his first law that "every object will remain at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless compelled to change its state by the action of an external force. This tendency to resist changes and regain momentum is inertia."
So, my dear T, it is hard to feel motivated and get going. It's a fact. But the good news is that an object in motion tends to remain in motion. So how do we use Newton's laws to get going? We make a change. We've created a series of free organizational downloads for T, but everyone can use them. This 15-page download contains a series of organizational calendars. There's even a sample page of how you might plan the first draft of a memoir. We suggest-go old school and print them out and fill in your writing plans and goals. And if you write just a little 5 or more times a week, you will make progress. Be an object in motion, and you know what objects in motion tend to do. It's a scientific fact.
Here's the plan to get moving: follow a specific writing plan with a very easy word count. Momentum builds from there. We've got info about how to get the sheets and set easy goals in our most recent posts. You'll find the links below.
–Amy Lou Jenkins
Here's our concise email with four items to bolster your lit life a few times each month.
1. #WriterNews
(Subscribers can list their news on our FB page and we may promote it in our newsletter and website. Share widely so we can support each other.
Jehanne Dubrow, Texas, won the 2023 Felice Buckvar Prize for Nonfiction for “Lost Vessels.” He was awarded $1,000, and publication in the Spring 2023 issue of Bellevue Literary Review.
Avery Mitchell, Wisconsin, won the 2023 Wallace Nonfiction Prize for her essay “The Body Talks Back.”
2. #CallsForSubmissions
These Markets Want Your Work
Do you have some funky weird writing that you know is good but perhaps not commercial? There's a market for that. Ranger Magazine wants the unusual. They say "We accept everything. Text-based. Visual. Text-visual. Experimental film. Experimental music. Anything really, really out there." So fly your artistic freak flag. Details.
No freak flag? Go mainstream with the Chicken Soup series. Deadlines this fall for dog essays, funny stories, and more. Some literary types look down on this type of market, but many of the essays are top-notch. If you publish in a Chicken Soup anthology you are following in the footsteps of Ernest J. Gaines, Terry McMillan, Sue Grafton, George Plimpton, and Ray Bradbury (Oh, and Amy Lou Jenkins too, but I never admitted it in grad school). Be sure to read the general guidelines as well as the book-specific guidelines. Details.
3. #WritingArticles +
- Discover the magic of short word-count daily writing goals. Go there.
- Combine the short-word count goal with planned consistency and you'll find momentum. Read 5 Hurdles That Block Your Writing Goals and How to Overcome Them.
- Download your free 15-page writing project planning sheets gift.
4. #BookReview
While we want to bring you book reviews, we also want to help you get more eyes on your reviews: those you've written and reviews about your books that you have the right to reprint. Contact us if you have a review for publication you'd like to publish or perhaps you'd like us to publish a link to your review in this newsletter.
Summer has invited us to go outdoors. In response, I've been thinking of the beautiful book: Braiding Sweetgrass; Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, by Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed editions., 2015, Reissued in 2020 408 pp.
In a series of essays, Robin Wall Kimmerer brings her acumen as a botanist, professor, mother, indigenous scientist, and wordsmith to create an alchemy of clarity toward living on the Earth, our source. Each essay stands beautifully on its own, and together they are transcendent. Read the review.
End Notes
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