Writing Goals

My writing goals are:

1. I want to be published. I want to see my name after an article, column, book etc.
I guess you could say I've accomplished this because the anthology with my story in it is going to be published in September. I also had an article published in our Sunday Gazette a few weeks ago.

2. I want to have one of my children's stories published.
This is my dream and I have not accomplished this yet. I have some PBs that I really feel strong about and a couple of MGs that I love. I'm still editing one of them, though, and the other has been out to a publisher since March and I haven't heard anything from them yet. I need to take time out from writing and submit my PBs. It is so time consuming to look up and find the right publishers that will accept unagented material that I keep putting it off. And you know, nothing will happen to your stories if they are in your computer's hard drive or on your desk. They will only gather dust.

3. I would like to get a personal rejection letter. It may sound funny that my goal is a rejection letter, but I am tired of getting those form letters or notes with not so much as a signature on them. It would be nice to get a personal one with words of encouragement scribbled on it.

4. I would like to be called a writer. Most people don't think of you as a writer unless you have been published and unless you are getting paid for your writing.

5. I understand that in the beginning you may have to write for little or no compensation. That is OK, it will give you the experience you need and it will give you (hopefully) a following and name recognition. But eventually my goal is to get paid for my writing.

It seems like most of my goals center around getting published. But that is my dream. And it would be nice to get paid for it, also. I know I will not get rich from writing, but I would like to make some money.

I have decided that until my children's writing takes off I will also try to do other things, like sending in articles to newspapers and/or magazines. Writing short stories for anthologies, entering contests (which I have already been doing) and any other writing endeavor I can think of.

I have decided that you have to go after what you want. You can't just sit there and expect good things to come to you. You have to get brave (which is hard for me to do) and submit, pitch your ideas and write, write and write. You are not a failure, unless you don't try. If you get rejected or your ideas get put down, you have to get back up and start again.

What are your goals? Have you already met some of your goals?

Do any of you have suggestions on getting your feet wet in the writing world? I'd love to hear your comments and ideas.