I long ago gave up making New Year’s resolutions, but ever since discovering Bylines: The Essential Weekly Planner for Writers, I’ve been setting clear, measurable, and achievable goals every day, week, month and year. Bylines is a Writer’s Desk Calendar with 53 stories for inspiration and encouragement, and some nifty pages to help a writer set clear goals – and meet them.
I discovered the calendar through the Creative Writers Opportunities List back in 2006. When my 200-word story about the writing life was accepted, I not only scored a publication, but I was paid – five dollars and a complimentary copy of the calendar in which my work appeared. The five dollars was quickly spent, but the calendar has been invaluable.
The calendar is a spiral bound book with a week-by-week layout. Each week includes a very short essay about the writing life. The 2012 edition includes 53 essays by writers of all ages and stages of development from 25 states plus Ireland and the UK. These pieces run the gamut from funny to poignant. When the challenges of loneliness or rejection or motivation strike, these essays can boost me back to my desk and help me remember that my voice is important.
But Bylines is not just about inspiration. It includes some tools that helped me develop steady work habits as I’ve transitioned to writing full-time with regular gigs and a developing audience. The goals pages are the most critical of these tools. There’s a short preface about how and why to set goals, and then there’s a page for setting a goal for the year. The goal can be anything, from developing a daily writing practice by next December to drafting an entire book.
The first step is to articulate the goal; the next step is to break it down to manageable tasks. Pages for setting month-by-month goals follow with two checklists for each month: one for goals and one for tasks. The goals list is a place to commit to the small steps that will help writers advance to the larger goal, like completing a chapter or writing three poems, or sending out three queries. I’ve found that setting monthly goals has helped me both keep focused and achieve a sense of accomplishment, creating a loop of positive re-enforcement that keeps me writing more and more.
The task list includes items like Set Goals for Month, Pay quarterly estimated taxes, Back up computer files, and – my personal favorite – Clean desktop last work day of month. I confess that I don’t always complete this last item, but at least I’m reminded to. This task list has helped me become more aware of what I need to do to develop my professional, organizational muscles – because as I achieve more success with publication and reach a wider audience, I have a growing need to be able to keep track of the business side of this writing life. Using Bylines has certainly helped me work more consistently, which in turn has helped me achieve new and bigger goals.
Each year, Bylines features a different writer’s desk, a brief biography of that writer, and encouraging quotations. The 2012 calendar features American Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson. In addition, literary birthdays are noted each day of the year, and there’s a month-by-month list of literary holidays, which I’ve found useful both as prompts for timely essays and for chuckles. (June is National Bathroom Reading Month.) Other extras include pages at the back for tracking submissions, tracking business expenses and miles, space for Conference Notes and contact info. I’ve been using Bylines for several years now, and have discovered that each volume serves as a valuable record of my year’s work.
Bylines is edited by Sylvia Forbes, herself a successful freelance writer out of Missouri. She’s the author of over six hundred magazine articles in the past ten years, and is active in writer’s organizations throughout the mid-west. While family health issues have stymied her intention of publishing Bylines in June, she still makes that her yearly goal. To that end, she’s accepting 200-word stories about the writing life now through March first, for the 2013 edition.
To make it into the book, Sylvia passes on the best advice an editor ever gave her: “Just write the story.” She says it can be quirky, funny, inspiring – anything but an expanded biography of yourself as a writer. In addition to the payment (five dollars, a copy of the book and a discount to purchase more), publication in Bylines offers terrific, year-long exposure to a wide-spread audience of writers. Submission guidelines can be found at http://www.bylinescalendar.com/guidelines.php.
My goal for 2012 is to complete a draft of a new novel, tentatively titled Ellen. What’s yours?
Deborah Lee Luskin often writes about Vermont, where she has lived since 1984. She is a commentator for Vermont Public Radio, a Visiting Scholar for the Vermont Humanities Council and the author of the award winning novel, Into The Wilderness. For more information, visit her website at www.deborahleeluskin.com
Interesting is the common threads of problems with this and the “Bylines” calendar concept. If one thinks if this, many of us have had other careers where “time organization” was a major factor whether one has been a stay-at-home mom or dad, salesman, retail manager, postal worker, business owner, reelance artist, or a teacher. Plus, the 200 word piece sounds like fun too. I think I’ll give it a shot.
Hi Tim,
You’re right on: time-management matters, regardless of the enterprise. But for many writers who have day-jobs, committing to writing time is a big, first step, and Bylines provides terrific support.
Glad you’re going to take the 200-word challenge. Good luck! And best wishes for the new year. – Deborah.
I love the Bylines calendar. It is a wonderful tool for writers.
donna v
Yes! Thanks for posting! -DLL
I have only been at this for a couple of years. This whole month I have been wondering if there was a different kind of calendar that would help me track my professional growth. I have definite goals for this year coming up.
Thank you for the referral to the Bylines calendar and outlining how you have used it. Sounds exactly like what I’ve been looking for!
What a helpful post!
My BIG goal for 2012 – polish my book outline and then begin chapter writing for my first novel and start developing my author’s platform. Small goals? Write at least ONE short story per month, write more articles for magazine markets and, as a staff writer, get faster (more efficient) at writing articles for social media websites.
Do I have time for all this or am I nuts?
Laura,
I’m agog at your ambition! You call writing twelve short stories in a year a “small goal”?! I’m not an efficient writer, so I know that I have to set fewer, well-defined goals: 2 Commentaries/month for Vermont Public Radio; 2 posts/month for this blog; and 1editorial column/month for Vermont Independent Media. These are all 500-1000 word stories that are broadcast/published straight off. Three of the five are paid gigs. These allow me to build my audience for the novel I’ve written, the one I’m trying to sell and the one I’m hoping to draft in 2012, all of which keeps me so busy, I can barely do my laundry. (It’s a good excuse, anyway.) I wish you the best of luck. Do let me know if the Bylines is helpful. And thanks for writing. – Deborah.
My goal is to blog at least once a week. I know that doesn’t sound too demanding, but I am in my senior year of undergraduate work so making time to blog may become more challenging as the new year takes off. I’ve used the break between senesters to rebrand my blog and to weave in my Professional life. Right now, I don’t know that I want to post a massage or spa related article more than twice a month so I don’t alienate any readers who may not want Health and Wellness all the time. Right now I have an article up about using the strike thru key and how I was told it’s a way of using the rehetorical device known as Litotes. I still dont know if that was the right answer but I chose one that sounded more down to earth. The writers book you mentioned sounds very helpful. Part of what I am doing as tasks involves looking for things to blog about daily, be it a picture, an article that is thought provoking or researching a topic I am alredy familiar with. But your right about tasks being crucial to the overall process. I mention process philosohy in my Spa sensibility page. If you aren’t familiar with it check out Alfred North Whitehead. He popularized it years ago.
Hi,
On the contrary: I think blogging once a week is a Big Goal. More to the point, it sounds as if you are well-positioned to meet it. Goals should be challenging – and achievable; otherwise, we just abandon them. You sound ready for a great new year of writing. Good luck. -Deborah.
“Little steps get you to the goal.” — wise words from my sister. It’s SO important to not only have goals in mind, but to actually take the necessary steps to get there. Without commitment, having a goal means next to nothing.
Tiana,
I’ve also heard, “Success comes in small cans.” It’s so easy to set ourselves up for failure; organizing our lives for success takes more thought. You’re lucky to have a wise sister – and to know about commitment. Thanks for writing, and good luck. -Deborah.
LOL – Deborah, I set the bar high, but I know well by year’s end not ALL of those stories will be complete. It’s taken me all year to get my book outline together in draft form with all the research and the basic storyline and character development. It can be overwhelming sometimes when I think of the gestalt, so I have to break it down for myself into manageable pieces.
If I complete a third of the short stories, with drafts of the others waiting for future development, I’ll be happy with my progress. The important thing is to be organized and committed and expand my writing. If I work hard, and keep making measurable improvements, no doubt I will have produced even more than I did this year. I think anything that helps with the process, such as the Bylines calendar, is great. Jamie Wallace is someone who can lend assistance in developing my platform, learning to blog, etc.
I think this is going to be a very BIG year for me, not so much in terms of the amount of creative writing I do, but in terms of how I develop my own style of productive work habits. This past year was a good one, but I want next year to be even better!
I love my “job.”
Part of the reason why I subscribe to this blog is because I find so much of you all write not only helpful, but inspirational and often, just plain funny. Keeps me going. We are not alone. 🙂
Deborah, my goal for 2012 is to complete my allegorical fairytale book-length series for all ages. The working title right now is WALKING WITH WHITE HARES. Right now, my greatest challenge to organize my life into balanced segments involves remembering the importance of two items completely critical to my own creative processes:
1) daily outdoor exercise performed as mediation
2) sufficient REM sleep.
I MUST NOT allow others to set my schedule!
Granbee,
I love the title of your project! And I’m in complete agreement about “daily outdoor exercise performed as meditation.” In fact, one of the essays I’ve had accepted into a previous Bylines Calendar was about just that: I’m a compulsive walker. Something about the rhythm of walking shakes loose the narrative knots of a piece and I return to my desk with my voice coming in loud and clear.
I think you’re setting yourself up for success. Good luck! And thanks for writing, Deborah.
Reblogged this on PR+Advertising in Nigeria.
I have found this to be a really interesting peice of advice for would be writers. I am trying to write a book of my own life experiences and sometimes get a bit bogged down on how much I should really be putting into the book.
I have had fun developing it but am still a long way off getting it ready for publication. However, one day I will get there.
Hi,
I did find this piece to be one of so much value. I have been writing for a couple of years, and always have those good intention with a full time job, full time family, but find more joy in writing than ever. I am going to find byline because I have a need to set clear attainable goals within my means. Thanks