The clock strikes 12 and people act like they just wave a magic wand and “Abag gahdu” poof they become a brand new person. But that’s not how it works.
The clock strikes 12 and people act like they just wave a magic wand 🪄 and “Abag gahdu” poof they become a brand new person, Story Quester.
But that’s not how it works.
You’re more likely to end up exactly where you started when it doesn’t pan out after a week. Or blow a hole through a wall like Elora Danan in Willow.
Change—true change—takes time. It takes conscious consistent effort. Doing a little each day. Working toward a bigger goal.
Learning a few counts of a dance routine each week to do that big winter performance.
Writing a 500-word scene each week of a fantasy epic for a creative challenge.
Trying out one new technique each week to discover which of them would be the perfect addition to your tool kit.
Real change—the kind that sticks with you and actually works—takes time. And I know this all too well.
I didn’t wake up one morning in 2021 and become unafraid of needles after 17 years. I made the conscious decision to spend an hour of my life for 2 years going to cognitive behavioral therapy to overcome my debilitating phobia.
It wasn’t a snap-your-fingers fix. But it worked.
I think sometimes we set goals for ourselves that are just too big…
✓ Lose 100 lbs by summer
✓ Write a bestseller in a month
✓ Make $100K this year
…and when we fail to achieve them we stamp ourselves a failure and just give up.
But if we set a smaller achievable goal, and were a little kinder to ourselves…
Just think of all we could accomplish…
Back in December 2021, these were the goals I set for myself:
- Digital courses
- Boys Love stories
- Podcast
Now it’s 2024
And I’ve accomplished…
Exactly 2 of those things. And that’s being charitable.
Now I could be upset about how I failed “to accomplish my goals.” But instead, I’m choosing to reflect on all the things I did accomplish.
Digital Courses
I currently have a Free 5-Day Story Creation Mini Course and I’m in the midst of putting together a mini course to help storytellers craft their dreaded cover copy descriptions.
You know everyone least favorite step in the whole writing process. It will be available later this spring, and you can join the waitlist if you’re interested.
Podcast
Now, I haven’t created a podcast yet…but I already have plans in the works for one. Basically, my short-lived Kat Solves for Story reel series is going to be reimagined as a podcast. So if you’ve got a question on story you want answered leave a comment and ask away! It might just end up being the topic of a future episode.
Write Boys Love stories
Boy did commit to this one. I started work on several Boys Love projects one of which was my weekly serialized story They Come at Night which ran for 39 weeks for my Kiss Kiss List subscribers.
I wrote a half dozen short stories for various community challenges and contests. One even won first place and ended up in an anthology!
But most importantly I wrote several novels. One was a rewrite of a 2018 novel I created for Amazon’s now-defunct Kindle Worlds imprint. I’d gotten my rights back but hadn’t known what to do with a story that needed heavy rewrites to make it publishable again.
So I’d sat on it for a few years. Until 2022 when I started working on it again and in September 2023 Predestined was released into the world!
Now what’s the real takeaway here—the most important thing I learned—
Making yearly goals just doesn’t work for me.
Because it 100% sets me up for failure. Especially in our post-pandemic climate where literally anything could happen. I learned the healthiest thing I could do for my mental well-being and sense of achievement was to set smaller quarterly goals.
And if I could offer you one piece of advice it’s…
Don’t set yearly goals. Set yourself a quarterly (3-month) goal instead and then when April 1st rolls around assess if that goal is still something you should be working toward or if it needs to change into something new.
So, Story Quester, what is one goal you’d like to accomplish before March ends? Leave a comment and share it with me.
What’s my one goal? I want to reach 50,000 words on my next Boys Love novel.
