The Goal That Ate My Life
by on December 15th, 2009
filed under On Writing
It has been a crazy few weeks and not just because of the holidays.
I FINISHED MY BOOK!!! 
I set a ridiculous goal for myself and met it. I had to write about 30,ooo words in two weeks! That’s somewhere around 150 pages. Yeah, I questioned my sanity… more than once. But I’d paid good money to enter a contest that required me to send a copy of my completed manuscript. So I had to complete it.
How’d I do it? Well, it helped that I had two friends who had also set insane writing goals for themselves. We met at coffee shops & wrote. We cheered each other on and when we got too jittery reassured each other that we weren’t losing our minds-we were working toward our goals (and then we created a distraction & swiped their coffee cup).
When I’d made the commitment the only obstacle was a five day family vacation. But I reasoned that I could write during the six hour drive and at night at the hotel. That was before Monkey Boy decided to get swine flu wiping away a whole week of writing time because he couldn’t go to school. Time I had counted on. A lot. But I’d made the commitment, I’d paid the money. I had to do it.
I wrote on Thanksgiving and at 4am on Black Friday after returning from a 3am Old Navy shopping trip. I wrote for five minutes, a few hours and on one day almost 12 hours straight. Basically, I wrote every chance I got for as long as I could.
And now I’m in editing and rewrites… another level of hell.
It’s almost the New Year, time to reset goals. I wonder what crazy goal I’ll set for myself next year.
PS- Send a thank you card to a soldier for free at http://www.letssaythanks.com/Home1280.html
Beth,
Congratulations!!! Such tenacity and stick-to-it-ness, I bow to you. Hope to see you soon.
Shawn
Thanks Cuz!
Congratulations…I am so proud of you.. I can’t wait to read it.
I Love you..