Goals are tricky things, like New Year’s Resolutions in a way. They are things that everyone has in their minds. Sights that are set, whether realistic or not, as plateaus to be attained. Writers are dreamers – in general – and sometimes those goals are lofty indeed. This week, the Confabulators are challenged to tell us what their goals are. Setting things like this down in stone (really pixels but who’s quibbling?) are tough for us to do, too.
So check out what we have to say on the subject of what we want to do or what we want our writing to be. This’ll be interesting for sure.
Tangible goal: receive a publishing offer from a legitimate publishing house. Ephemeral goal: write stories that entertain my audience.
Is it shallow if I say I’m really looking forward to groupies? Oh, wait . . . do we have literary groupies? Are they hot? Shit! That does sound shallow. Just say peace. Yeah, peace. I’m looking forward to my writing bringing about world peace. Suck on that, haters!
I’m very fortunate right now that I have two novels contracted. Realistically, I know that’s not going to be enough to bring in a living wage. My goal is to write and sell enough books to build up a backlist and have a steady income from it. I figure, oh, I don’t know, a gazillion should do it. Maybe two gazillion. The economy is a little rough.
I have three goals for my writing. I want to have someone publish my 1) novel, 2) short story collection, and 3) book of poetry. If I can accomplish these things before I die, I will consider myself a successful writer — even if they don’t sell a single copy.
My goal would be to make a living writing full-time, but I am a bit of a realist. I would be happy with making enough of an income out of writing that I could actually say it contributed to my yearly income in a meaningful way. I would like to publish a novel, a short story collection, and have a screenplay produced. I would also like to write academic papers and teach literature or writing. I’ve also thought about starting a small press in retirement, editing a literary journal and publishing small regional titles. My goals are pretty vast, but sometimes those are the best ones to have.
Consulting my crystal ball (the oracle is on vacation, stoned on a beach somewhere) I can honestly say that I’ve got some pretty high-falutin’ goals: getting a novel published by a Name House and parlaying that opportunity into a full-time writing career. It’s not likely, but it’s possible. I can see just the barest pinpoint of light on the horizon. Maybe that’s a star. Or torches and pitchforks. I don’t know, but I have to go now. Time to start walking that direction and see what I can see.