Set Your Goal NOW to Write Your Book

“Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement.”
– W. Clement Stone

Think writing a book is hard? You may be right, but you know you can do it. The hurdle of planning out a manuscript and then a writing schedule shouldn’t stop you from your goal of becoming a book author. People have done harder things.

Setting goals is a task everyone ought to embrace. Whether you do it for a specific project (like writing a book), or at various times throughout the year, knowing what you want in life will prevent that feeling of just floating through each day without purpose. Knowing your purpose and goals motivates you to wake up and take action every single day. Just imagine waking up one day knowing you overcame your obstacles to writing your first book, or second, or third – it’ll feel great!

Setting goals in every aspect of your life will keep you focused on what you want, whether it’s about getting your book finished or increasing your business profits – perhaps from the completed book. Knowing what you want allows you to put action steps in place. Below are some examples of people who have set goals and overcome hurdles to achieve those goals.

If you’re feeling defeated with not reaching your goals in the past, don’t worry. Even the most successful celebrities and business owners have seen their own failures; but they continue to set goals anyway.

After all, nothing happens in life without taking action.

Successful People Who Set Goals and Worked Through Setbacks

Entertainer extraordinaire Beyoncé keeps a photograph of an Academy Award by her treadmill, where she sees it every day. In 2013 she won an Oscar for the theme song to the James Bond movie, Skyfall.

Michael Jordan, arguably one of the best professional basketball players of all time, was rejected by his high-school basketball varsity team because he was too short. Told he would never play at that level, Michael trained even harder and visualized his name in a professional locker room.

Walt Disney was laughed at by many bankers when he proposed his idea for the DisneyWorld theme park. The last laugh is on them because today the entire Disney franchise – including the many theme parks, movies, and merchandise – are worth many billions of dollars.

J.K. Rowling, known for writing the Harry Potter series, couldn’t get book publishers to talk to her. Depending on food stamps to survive, she finally found a publisher who agreed to publish her book after the publisher’s daughter started reading the book and became entranced.

Count Your Failures as Lessons Learned

Thomas Edison is another person who was labeled as “stupid” by his teachers; yet at one point, he held more than 1,000 patents for his inventions. Most famous for inventing the light bulb, Edison is also known for having said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

You may not have reached every goal you set, but that doesn’t mean you should stop trying. Setting a goal with a specific purpose – such as writing a book – is a definite starting point. And remember to revise your goals when needed and always take the necessary action steps toward reaching them. You’ll get there sooner than you think!

About the Author
Linda Berry is the owner, consultant, coach, trainer and reader for the Spiritual Discovery Center in Southern California. She’s an international astrologer, podcast & summit host, and spiritual & inspirational book author. She also owns Book Authors Support Services (BASS), where she guides authors in writing, publishing and marketing their books by developing a “plan of action” that includes manuscript development and writing, the publishing path and the execution of advertising, public relations and promotion of the book. She may be reached at 951-665-7600 or lindaberry_@hotmail.com

Afflicted by the Dreaded Writer’s Block

I’ve long asserted writer’s block results from uncooperative characters’ refusal to participate in the creative process. However, today I find myself having to admit sometimes it’s not their fault. Gary’s not being bratty or cantankerous, and it’s not that Marc has nothing to say (in either English or Portuguese). This one’s all on me. I’ve simply not been focused on writing.

These past several months, I’ve been actively writing two novels – Tender Mercies and Brothers by Betrayal – books five and six in the Sheldon Family Saga. Happily cruising along, since January 29 I’ve written slightly over 11,000 words in Tender Mercies. While it’s not exactly magnificent, given that it’s been six weeks, my word count for Brothers by Betrayal is slightly more impressive: Since January 15, I’ve logged nearly 27,000 words.

But this past week, I hit a literary wall. I wrote a shocking number of words. Zero. In either manuscript. Yeah, you read right. Zero words. Zilch. Nada. The big goose egg. Which is really disappointing… especially since I’ve been on kind of a writing tear since last April. In 30 days – April 27 to May 26 – I cranked out just short of 42,500 words, to finish the manuscript of The Unintended Hero (three weeks ahead of schedule, I might add). Alas, that’s not going to happen this year.

In my defense, my mind has been on other things. I’ve been working on editing and layout projects for various clients… estimating new editing projects for prospective clients… catching up on projects I let slide during the Women In Publishing Summit earlier this month… cleaning the house in advance of a house guest’s arrival next weekend… preparing two presentations I’ll be delivering at the upcoming Tennessee Mountain Writers Conference (which is all online this year)… and a doctor’s appointment an hour away in Knoxville. Plus, my husband and I are rather fond of regular meals… and they’re not going to prepare themselves.

But perhaps the biggest reason I’ve let my personal writing take a back seat is both books have reached difficult situations and I hate to put characters I love in painful scenarios. I know it’s for their own good (and for the sake of the story), but it pains me to see them having to endure hardships and emotional distress.

This coming week I’ve got three projects to tackle, including a proofreading project for a nonprofit group and a memoir edit for a new client. I guess I need to suck it up, put my blinders on and not get distracted by what’s not important.

Fortunately, next week guest blogger Linda Berry will be back to save me from myself.

In the meantime, when you hit a metaphorical wall with your writing (or other stuff that’s important to you), how do you overcome it?

And speaking of things metaphorical, here’s a clip (or should I say another clip?) from Guardians of the Galaxy that illustrates Drax the Destroyer’s inability to process metaphors. It’s purely for your entertainment… and because it always makes me giggle.

But now I suppose I should take it off endless loop and get back to work.

It’s Time for a Bit of Silliness

You know how sometimes you just don’t feel like doing anything serious? Well, today I don’t feel like writing a blog post. Call it boredom. Call it writer’s block. I just don’t feel like it. Yeah, yeah, I know: I’m a serious professional with vital writing and editing information to impart to my readers and… blah, blah, blah. <insert eye roll here>

I don’t know about you, but I could use some levity and amusement right about now. So today’s blog post will be devoted entirely to jokes, puns and other random silliness. If you’re looking for serious, click here. Or here. Or even here. The rest of this post is all about fun.

Mountains… they’re not just funny; they’re hill areas.

Sticks float. They wood.

Time flies like arrows, but fruit flies like bananas.

Math humor: What did 0 say to 8? “Nice belt.”

Why are foot soldiers so tired on April 1? You’d be tired too, after a 31-day march.

An old Russian couple was watching the news one winter night when Rudy, the red-headed meteorologist, predicted rain all day long, with temperatures remaining below freezing. “Why, that’s just ridiculous,” the man scoffed. “With the temperature below freezing, it would be snow.” But the wife shook her head. “Oh, no, dear,” she replied seriously, “It’ll be rain. I’m certain of it. After all, Rudolph the Red knows rain, dear.”

I just heard a report on the local news that sometime overnight, thieves broke in to the police department, disabled the security cameras and stole all the toilet seats in the place. No fingerprints were left at the scene and no suspects were identified. Investigators are baffled. Apparently, they’ve got nothing to go on.

I’m suing the Girl Scouts for false advertising. I ate a whole box of their Thin Mints and they didn’t work.

Then someone told me I could go to the paint aisle in the hardware store to get thinner. I’ve been going there every day for two weeks and that hasn’t helped yet, either.

St. Patrick’s Day humor:
What’s Irish and stays out all summer? Paddy O’Furniture.
There’s a new Irish florist in town. Phil O’Dendron.

My bicycle can’t stand up by itself because it’s two tired.

Two TV antennas got married. The ceremony was just okay, but the reception was terrific!

Speaking of weddings, I attended a really emotional wedding a few months back. Even the cake was in tiers.

Let me preface this next story by saying archeologists are a group of people who really dig their work. 🙂 Archeologists in Vienna recently exhumed Mozart’s body. They were astounded to find a little old man hunched over a piece of sheet music, working away with an eraser. “Wolfgang!” they cried. “What are you doing?” Mozart looked up at them, gave a shrug and said, “What do you think I’m doing? I’m decomposing!”

And finally, I’ve recently become proficient at knitting while I’m driving. One day last week, I was driving along on the highway, knitting, when a police cruiser pulled up alongside me. The cop rolled down his window, pointed toward the side of the road and yelled, “Hey, lady! Pull over!” I shook my head and showed him my half-finished project. “No,” I replied. “Cardigan!”

Okay, enough of these silly yarns. You may now resume your regularly scheduled serious adult day. But before you go, please post a reply, sharing your favorite joke or pun.

Things I Learned at the Women In Publishing Summit

This week’s Women In Publishing Summit 2021 re-energized me as an author. It left me invigorated and ready to take on my current writing projects with a new passion. Plus, information sessions and conversations with fellow editing professionals armed me with new perspectives and vital tools for my editing arsenal.

But I think the most important thing I learned this week is never to underestimate a group of women with a common goal.

As a natural introvert, I customarily shrink into corners and try to avoid being noticed. But the small-group settings in the Zoom chats made me push myself beyond my comfort zone, to actually interact with other live human beings. And the women in these coffee chat groups made it easy to want to engage. Every woman was welcome; each woman was drawn into the conversation. And each woman’s experiences were acknowledged and validated.

And the sessions! Oh, my goodness… the sessions! Individual tracks for fiction, nonfiction and children’s authors, plus a separate “general” category for info that spanned multiple tracks. I still need to finish watching the videos for days three through five of the conference. So glad I’ve got six months to watch and re-watch all these fantastic presentations!

So what did I learn this week? The first thing I learned is projectile vomiting is no way to start a Monday. And when you feel miserable and your internet cuts out for ten minutes in the middle of a live session (the joys of rural living) and you only survive the hour because of that glass of ginger ale in your sweaty little hand, sometimes the best thing is to scrap everything on your schedule and indulge in a bit of self care. I shut down my computer and went to bed. When I woke up four hours later, I felt almost human again and was able to watch a few video presentations. And, boy golly, did I ever learn a lot! Two of my favorite sessions so far were Showing vs. Telling with Eileen Cook and Shayla Raquel‘s Finding Your Antagonist’s Saving Grace.

One of the main things I learned this week is there’s so much more I still need to learn! I need to get my author website functional. I need to build an email list. And I need to amp up my marketing skills in a big way. Whew! And that’s just for starters.

I even learned you can find out some of the most amazing things if you just think to ask.

This afternoon, we had a post-session happy hour. Dozens of attendees from different parts of the globe (the ones who were still awake, at any rate) convened in a Zoom meeting and divided up into small breakout rooms to chat. Many of us had lovely adult beverages to enjoy – which, come to think of it, probably made the conversation flow a little more easily.

After an hour-long chat with one group of participants, I mingled a bit and wandered into another room, where I soon learned one of the women was a medical doctor. When presented the opportunity, I asked whether she could provide some information about my giving a character a brain tumor.

After cheerfully agreeing, Cristy’s initial question/comment to me was an alarmingly enthusiastic, “Do you want her to die? Give her a frontal-lobe tumor.”

That struck my new pal Kate as so hilarious, she felt inspired to post this. And for the record, no, I don’t want her to die. I just needed something that could explain her increasingly erratic and unsettling behavior over a period of several months.

The conference wraps up Monday (International Women’s Day) with the closing keynote address, Why Supporting Women Matters, presented by Desiree Peterkin Bell. But since no event is over until the conclusion of happy hour (another important thing I learned this week), Alexa Bigwarfe and the rest of the organizers have kindly scheduled a wrap-up happy hour event Tuesday evening.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go investigate email-list platforms, figure out how to register a domain name and decide what kind of lovely adult beverage I’m going to whip up for happy hour (can’t leave these things ’til the last minute, you know).