You are a wizard who takes funny-shaped squiggles on the page and weaves them into stories that mean something. Your words have the potential to tug at people’s emotions and even change their minds. This is magic in its purest form.

Other people go through life completely oblivious to the magic that surrounds them, like muggles in the Harry Potter world who muddle through each day not realizing that there is an epic battle going on around them.

Writing is a super-power and can have serious repercussions, but as writers, we don’t have to take ourselves seriously in order to respect the seriousness of our craft. This is why some time ago, I began referring to the DIY MFA community as “word nerds.” Most people saw that word nerd status as a badge of honor. Others got persnickety about it, like the guy who wrote me an angry email saying “I am not a word nerd. I am a writer.”

I stand by the moniker, however, because I want to challenge this community to embrace what makes us different, what makes us writers. Ours is a weird vocation, after all. It does us no good to whack non-writers upside the head until they “get it.” Instead, we have to own our word-nerdiness and recognize that what makes us different is also what makes us AWESOME.

Writers are weird, and that’s OK.

We word nerds are full of contradictions. We have a LOT to say, in fact if you get us talking you’ll likely have a hard time getting us to shut up. At the same time, most of us are pretty introverted so instead of speaking our minds eye-to-eye and face-to-face, we hide behind our computers instead.

We are relentless in growing our stories. We cultivate and prune our words until they are just right. Then we harvest up the fruits of our labor and gently lay them on the literary altar, only to have the crows swoop in and tear it all apart. Then we start the process all over again because that first round of suffering just wasn’t enough.

Finally, we are passionate about experiencing the vibrance and wonder of the world, but we’d rather lock ourselves in a room and write about it than actually go out into that world in the first place. We writers are total weirdos, and that’s amazing.

Two Sides of Writing

Over the years, I’ve devoured books and articles about creativity. I’ve tested countless productivity strategies and motivation methods, but I keep coming up against the same fundamental problem: Writers are not like other people. We’re weird. We’re awesome. We don’t fit into any one box, so most people don’t know what to do with us.

Writing is a creative no-man’s land. On one hand, it’s an art. It’s intuitive and driven by inspiration. It’s brings together emotion and beauty and other right-brain things. But then there’s the left-brain side of writing: the logic of story-telling, the engineering of plot, the complexity of the research we often must do. Writers take left-brain concepts and marry they with right-brain artistry. We are the corpus callosum of the creative universe.

There’s a lot of advice about productivity, creativity, and goal-setting on the web. The trouble is most of that advice either focuses on the analytical or artsy end of the spectrum, but never the middle where we writers often fall. Either it’s all about making to-do lists and scheduling every action item, or it’s about crafting a beautiful, freeform vision board. Either you have discrete, measurable action steps, or a broad sweeping vision. Either it’s corporate and strategic, or artsy and intuitive.

But what happens if you’re both?

This is why I’ve created the special Stop Dreaming, Start Doing video series, an online workshop that will help you exercise both the logical and creative sides of your brain. And it’s FREE. We release this workshop a few times each year so stay tuned because more awesome is coming soon.

If you want to be the first to hear when this video series is re-released, just hop on over to DIYMFA.com/join and sign up with your email. You’ll also get a free DIY MFA Starter Kit and other goodies.

In this workshop I break down the goal-setting process and show you how to set milestones you can actually reach without squelching your beautiful, masterful vision. I’ll also dig into all that mindset stuff behind the goals, the stuff that can either make or break your chances of reaching success.

Will you join me?

The post Goal-Setting for Writers appeared first on DIY MFA.

Taking on big goals like writing a book means figuring out how to fit your work and personal life around your project. You have to stay focused and keep track of all the steps you need to stay on track and turn your dream into a reality. In today’s episode, I wanted to share with you my go-to productivity tool, my favorite way to keep track of all the moving pieces that go into writing a book.

I want to give a special shout-out to Jane Friedman, too, for sharing her version of this highly effective goal sheet on her website a few years ago. I have modified it to fit my own style and the DIY MFA mindset, but the idea was sparked by her original goal sheet. Thanks so much for sharing, Jane!

The DIY MFA Goal Sheet

I use this goal sheet regularly to track my big goals for the year, and create actionable “baby steps” that get me to those goals. I love looking back on previous goal sheets to see how far I’ve come, and I love the feeling of accomplishment I get when I check something off of the Action Steps section.

You can download a copy of the Goal Sheet PDF here. Use it to follow along as you listen to the episode audio. In the section below, I give you a run-down of the different sections of the goal-sheet and how to make it work for you.

Date

First, put a starting date on the sheet, and then when you’ve completed it and you’re moving on to a new goal sheet, add the ending date and save the sheet in a file or folder somewhere. Saving and dating your goal sheets will help you honor your achievements by celebrating the progress you’ve made toward your goals and giving you insight into your process.

Top Priorities

This is where you put your three big goals for the year. These goals don’t all have to be writing related, although if you are serious about completing your manuscript at least one of the should be. But even non-writing big goals (like completing a course or having a baby) will have an impact on your productivity, so it’s important to list them.

Action Steps

These are the smallest, most immediate next steps to help you reach your goal. What do you need to do right now to get closer to your end goal? List it here. Anything that you can’t control or impact right now goes in the next section.

On the Radar

This section is closely related to the Action Steps section, because as you mark action steps off your list, the items that you have On the Radar will move in to take their place. The On the Radar section is broken down into three subsections:

• Write with Focus: This section is where you would list anything that you’re creating, even if it’s not technically writing related. Whatever you are putting out into the world goes in this section.
• Read with Purpose: This section is for anything that you are consuming, or taking in, in regards to your creativity (i.e. books read, art galleries visited, movies viewed, courses taken).
• Build Your Community: This section is for the connections you make with experts and with your peers in your areas of interest.

The idea is to recognize the ideal balance for you between these three subsections and then maintain the balance through your action steps. Balance does not mean that each section has to receive equal focus. Find out what works best for you and what helps you meet your goals and then maintain that balance.

Power Tip: Make sure you list out all the itty-bitty steps and mark them off as you complete them. This will ensure that you don’t miss any steps along the way, and it will help you build that sense of mastery and success that is so vital to staying motivated!

Finally, hop onto the DIY MFA mailing list so that you can keep current with our updates and awesome new content as soon as it’s available!

Link to Episode 24

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, leave a review, and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available. Also, if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please share!

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome.

The post Episode 24: My Go-To Productivity Tool appeared first on DIY MFA.