You may not be ready for all this forward-facing business of the new year, like goals or resolutions, at least not just yet. You're not alone if that is the case. And I want to remind you that that's okay. You're not behind. We don't have to take off into the new year like a frickin' rocket. It's okay to breathe, to ease into things, and then when you're ready, buckle down and get after those writing dreams. Welcome to the Write It Scared podcast. I'm your host, Stacey Fraser, a formerly repressed creative soul, turned fiction writer, story editor, and author accelerator certified fiction book coach. At Write It Scared, we tell the truth about why writing a novel is so hard by acknowledging that most writers grapple with two stories. The one they want to put on the page to the best of their ability, and the often subconscious internal story that prevents them from doing it. This show is designed to help you identify and rewrite the internal narrative holding you back while you discover and write the story you want to tell and learn all the tools to help you do that successfully. Join me each week for a new episode where we'll talk about writing to deepen our understanding of the craft and of ourselves as writers. Writing a novel is an inside job that we do not do alone. Welcome to Red It Scared. I'm glad you're here. Let's dive in. Hi, writer. Welcome back to season two of the Write It Scared Podcast. I'm your host, Stacy. I cannot believe we are here in January of 2025. And I don't think that I'm ready. It kind of snuck up on me. The time between Thanksgiving and the first of the year just feels so elusive, slippery. It's like a nebulous time warp. And there's so much going on, so many different activities. I'm going in a million different directions. Sometimes I don't even know if I'm coming or going. So I don't really feel ready for 2025, but it's here. And I don't know about you. Maybe you can relate. But I feel much better about things when I move forward having a plan. So that's what I want to talk to you about today is making a plan for 2025 and talk about these things like goal setting, depending on how you feel about that. I'm not sure I'm ready, as I said, but ready or not, here we come. So I do hope that you had a wonderful holiday season that allowed you to fill your cup and dream your dreams and left you feeling fired up. But if not, if your holiday season makes you feel kind of like mine does, it's fun, but it is not restful, that is okay too. You may not be ready for all this forward-facing business of the new year, like goals or resolutions, at least not just yet. I you're not alone if that is the case. And I want to remind you that that's okay. You're not behind. We don't have to take off into the new year like a frickin' rocket. It's okay to breathe, to ease into things, and then when you're ready, buckle down and get after those writing dreams. Today I'm going to give you some tips on how to set smart writing goals and an exercise for you to go through when you are ready. So writing dreams are fun, right? When we imagine where we'll be and how we'll look and act and feel once we live them. I think all pre-published writers dream of finishing the novels and publishing them and the readers enjoying the creations. And personally, I dream of writing stories that hit people in the heart and make them realize that they're not alone. And when I think about that, it makes me smile. But I love what Mel Robbins says about dreams. Dreams are easy because they don't require any effort. Now, goals are hard because goals require a tremendous amount of change to achieve them. There's a huge gap between the dream of publishing a novel and actually writing it. And what lies within that gap are years of persistent effort of learning all the things that we don't know, facing the self-doubt and the imposter syndrome. And depending on where we put our focus, it can kind of feel bleak. I mean, there has been times when I'm like, if it's not gonna be that hard, why bother? But we have to bother because it matters. Our stories and our voices matter. The joy that we cultivate as writers from expressing and sharing the ideas and stories inside, it that creates a ripple effect in the world. I mean, think of every book that you've read and loved. Think of every person who's ever touched your soul or inspired your writing journey. Where would you be if they had given up on their dream, if they decided that their writing goals weren't worth pursuing? I like to think about all of those who inspire me when the changes that I need to make to reach my goals feel way too big or way too hard. And then I remember something key that I wanted to share with you. We don't have to change everything at once. So as we look to the next 12 months, let's think about that. We don't have to change everything at once. Writing progress is made in inches, not in miles. This is a marathon, not a sprint, and we have to pace ourselves by taking small, consistent steps towards our writing dreams. That's how we accomplish our goals, and that is how we affect change in ourselves and in the world around us. So when you are ready to think about the next 12 months ahead, I have a goal setting exercise for you to help you set smarter writing goals by reflecting on what worked and didn't work in the past. But before you do that, I encourage you to please take a moment and reflect on everything you did in the last year that you were proud of, whether it was writing related or not, because it all counts and it all applies to the lens of your reality. And all progress, no matter how small, matters. And it's really hard to build upon the efforts and the accomplishments that we don't acknowledge. And I don't think any of us give ourselves the credit that we're due for all of the things that we do, all the challenges we face, all the lives that we touch. So please take a minute to do some reflection and then when you're ready, go on to the first step of the goal setting exercise. So you might want to hit pause here and go grab a pen and a piece of paper to write these things down. So the first step to setting smarter writing goals is to ask yourself about last year's goals and achievements. What were they? And did you meet them? When you look back and do some reflection, do you feel like those goals were reasonable? Did they accurately reflect the lens of your reality? Did they take into consideration that you might be the primary parent, that you might also work a full-time job, or that you volunteer for various organizations, that you give your time and effort to other places? Did they take into account the other responsibilities of your life? Now, if you did meet your 2024 writing goals, how do you feel about it? Was it worth the cost? Would you do anything differently? When you look back, what did you learn? Now, if you didn't meet those writing goals, what got in the way? Was the goal too lofty? Or was the method to achieve the goal a problem? What was lacking? The second step, now that you've done some writing about your 2024 writing year, is to evaluate it and then write down three to five writing goals for this year. Given what worked and what didn't work last year, what do you need to change to meet the this year's goals? Then come up with some action steps for each goal. And this is like a micro step. It's the only thing you focus on going forward, just meeting that micro step. You like throw away the goal and just focus on the process of how to get there. For example, my aim is to have a polished manuscript ready for betas by the end of 2025. To do that, I need to finish up the last act of the first draft, and then I need to revise it. So my micro steps are going to be focusing on that last 25% of drafting and coming to the page on a consistent basis and then allowing the story to rest and then going through the self-editing process. So my micro actions will be button chair time and making that happen. So the other thing you want to think about is if you have to make some changes, what are the things that you're willing to change and what can't shift in your life? You know, how can you look at your goals and also apply the lens of your reality? And that goes back to making sure that your goal is achievable and attainable based on where you are at this phase in your life. And then finally, I think it's always good to ask yourself, what do you wish you were brave enough to do this year that you weren't brave enough to do last year? I know when I ask myself this question, but it really stretches me to grow and face my fears. So for you, an example might be you really wish you were brave enough to share your work and to get feedback on your pages so that you can grow and become a stronger writer. So that may be a challenge that you're setting up for yourself this year is to reach out to a few people that you trust to give you informed editorial feedback. Or perhaps you want to find a writing community or jump into the query trenches or start your author newsletter or finish your author website, whatever it is, consider it a challenge, yes, but don't forget to make sure that it is still something that stretches you, but it is still achievable. It is true that nothing changes if nothing changes. But again, we don't have to do everything all at once, and we certainly don't have to do it alone. Now, the final step here, after you've done your reflection and you've thought about what went well, what you were proud of from the previous year, and last year's writing goals, and you've assessed if they were reasonable and what happened, whether you met them or you didn't, and how you feel about it, and you've set yourself up with some solid, attainable goals that factor in the lens of your reality. Now it is time to build in some accountability. So share your goals and your plan to get them with a trusted person, or you can email them to me. You can reach me at stacy at writeitscared.co and ask this person to check in with you at the end of the first quarter to make sure you're on track. Or you might find that you need to readjust the goal. I like to think of goals like goalposts. Sometimes I have to move them, you know, because life happens and that is okay. And if you need to do some readjustment, that's fine. As long as you keep working toward what matters to you, you will get there. The when it happens isn't really important. What matters is that you show up as consistently as you can in service to your dreams. So let this be your year to observe patterns that didn't serve you and break out of them so that you can embrace and embody the action you need to take to make your writing dreams happen. I'm so excited for the new podcast season of 2025. We are going to be talking about character development and writing mysteries and doing some deep dives on story structure and writing fantasy and building magic systems. And I have an entire fabulous guest list lined up for you. So make sure that you tune in next week. We're going to be talking to Michelle Reginald, who is a book coach that is going to talk to us about a method to interview our characters to get them to tell you what it is you need to know. She has some very handy tips. For now, I'm signing off and I wish you Happy New Year. But I do have one more thing before you go. I have a question for you. Would you like to plan and write your next novel or your first one with more confidence and less guesswork? Of course, right? Writing is hard. So let's make it easier. I have a free tool to help you do exactly that. First Draft Confidence is a free workbook and introductory guide to all the foundation work that my clients complete before they begin drafting. And it helps to prevent false starts and abandoned drafts. First Draft Confidence has seven simple exercises designed to help you overcome mindset wobbles, learn how to organize your thoughts so that you can start to see the story, help you set up realistic writing expectations and a schedule that fits your life, test drive your story concept to see if it will support a full-length novel, and develop your cast of characters as well as a high-level outline that will work whether you're a pantser or a plotter or somewhere in between. Plus, it has resources on how to format your novel to publishing industry standards, word count expectations for your genre, recommendations on excellent craft books for drafting novelists, and links to resources to answer all your big questions about story structure, character arcs, writing backstory, weaving in conflict, hooking readers, and more. So let's take as much guesswork out of this drafting business as we can to avoid the first draft flail. To download first draft confidence, go to write itscared.co forward slash novel planning guide. Or check the link in the show notes. Thank you for listening to the Write It's Scared Podcast. If you enjoyed today's show, please make sure to hit the follow button so you never miss an episode. And please leave a review. Reviews help other writers like you find the voices and messages they need to hear to continue to write their stories. Let's lift each other up. Remember, you can be scared and still be unstoppable. I'll see you next week.