Writing Tip: Manage Your Expectations

As some of you may know, I am wife. We just celebrated our one year anniversary this summer! Being married is the best thing in the world, but it requires work. I’ll never forget that while preparing for our marriage and taking pre-marriage classes, I learned that there is ONE thing that kills marriages faster than anything else. It’s not finances or politics. Nope, it’s unmet expectations!

Now, my blog is not about marriage, however, I could not help thinking how this applies directly to our writing. How often to we come up with grandiose ideas for our novels that will sell a billion copies and make us millions of dollars? Ever catch yourself day dreaming about which actors and actresses would star in your film once that adapt your book into movie formatting? (No one, just me? Anyhoo . . .)

The point is, in our writing too we must manage our expectations. 

Writing is hard and making a break through in the industry is even harder, some might say that it is nearly impossible. So I am encouraging you to “make resolutions” (without the need for a New Year) and to set goals for your writing, but in doing so, make them realistic!

• Set yourself real goals that you truly can accomplish! Here are some examples:
  • Write Every Day (even if it’s just for 5 minutes)
    • Try to hit a word count every day (even if it’s 20 words).
    • Try to finish as much as that book as possible (even if it’s not the whole thing.)
    • Send out queries to multiple publication houses (but don’t stop writing, waiting to hear back)
• Don’t give yourself unrealistic expectations. Here are some examples:
  • • Starting and Finishing that new idea for a book and having it picked up within the year (yes it can happen, but it doesn’t often)
    • Becoming a millionaire with your first book (Suzanne Collins wrote amazing books for YEARS and was not known until her latest series).

Be kind to yourself and be honest with your writing. Expect that some days will be more productive than others and set realistic expectations so that you do not cause unnecessary hardship.

What are some of your realistic and unrealistic expectations? Let me know in the comments below!

Happy Writing Everyone!

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