When You Fall Off the Horse

In our writing group, we're pretty militant about our goals. We all finished our first drafts of novels more or less together, each working toward the same date. Then we set a goal to be finished with our first round of edits on our novels by February 14th. Two of us made it. One didn't--mainly due to a promotion at work. While this is good news, it was bad news for her writing--she was stuck with more responsibility and found herself working late at the office instead of working late at home, in what I like to encourage her to think of as her "real career" of writing.

So she still has a ways to go on her editing. This kind of problem might have, once upon a time, caused me to get really frustrated with my progress and give up altogether, convinced I was a failure without the drive to make it as a "real writer." But my friend is pushing on. Here are a few things that I see helping her--and that can help you get back on the horse when you miss a writing goal.

If you miss your goal, just set a new one. You can't make every goal you set. Some are too ambitious. And life does get in the way. If you can't turn in your first draft by February 14, it's not the end of the world if you move the deadline to March 14. But make sure you're only doing it as a last resort--not because you just want to. If you're not at least a little strict about your deadlines, you'll always be moving them back and you'll impede your own progress.

Perfectionism isn't going to help you. Don't let high expectations for yourself hold you back. Yes, they hold you back--in making you hold yourself to an impossible standard and then give up when you can't achieve it. You're setting yourself up for failure.

Do one small thing every day to move yourself forward. So you can't edit a whole chapter today. So what? Edit 500 words. If that's too tall an order, do a paragraph. If you can't do that, just open the document and read a paragraph. It'll probably get you inspired to do a little editing--and even if it doesn't, it will get you back in the world of your story if only for a few minutes. Maybe you'll come up with some good ideas.

Don't quit. Changing your goals is fine. Doing small things every day is fine. Quitting isn't fine. Don't stop. Don't take a break. Even a small break can get you out of the writing mode and make your goals seem impossibly far away. Just adjust your goals, your expectations and your daily commitment to something smaller or easier than you think you can do, and plod on ahead. We all have times when we have to adjust.

What do you do when you fall off the horse?