Project Write Lots Of Words

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I don’t typically set many long-term goals for the new year. This is because I tend to be a little a lot incredibly competitive and probably would read other blogs and be all “Your goal is to run a 5K? MY GOAL IS TO RUN A 50K!” without thinking about how actually the longest distance I ever run is from the hallway to Scarlette’s room.

And also I used to write a lot of goals but never really accomplished any of them. So the whole exercise was a bit defeatist for me.

Instead, I adopted the idea of setting a few small goals that were manageable in bite-size pieces. As in, literally “My goal is to eat as many brownies as possible before Scarlette wakes up from her nap.” I am happy to say that I was very successful in that endeavor.

I have been hugely inspired, however, by Elise Blaha. I love reading her blog posts about setting goals and planning to be successful at them. And I also love reading her follow-up posts on what she did, what she would do differently and how it all worked out. So I decided to share a little of my plans for 2013 here, for the very public accountability of it all. I like accountability on account of how I was raised Southern Baptist. I also like potluck dinners and wearing skirts to Wednesday Night Church Service.

This year I decided to fore-go One Little Word and Project Life in favor of Project Write Lots Of Words And Put Them In A Book, which isn’t actually a thing so much as a made-up name for my big goal. I figured that having a fancy sounding name would make it feel all official and motivational and stuff. Don’t you feel inspired?

Writing stories has been my passion since I learned how to string sentences together. When I was in fifth grade, my teacher confiscated the notebook that held my stories, as I was not too-subtly scrawling in it rather than calculating whatever numbers were on the board. This is why I still don’t know all of the multiplication tables. (Seriously, I have no idea what 12 times anything is.) When she returned it, she included a form for my parents to sign so that she could enter them in the state writing competition. The day I held a blue ribbon in my hands was the day I knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up.

There are reasons I haven’t written. I’m not polished enough. I don’t know about publishing and queries and agents and manuscript formats. And up until now, I’ve dreamed a little rather than dreaming big.

On the first Saturday afternoon of 2013 I sat at a local coffee shop and wrote my first one thousand words.

Then I fastidiously cleaned off my desk and adorned it with my favorite print from my friend Kristina’s etsy shop so that I see it all the time, that motivation to dream big.

Maybe I’ll see if someone wants to publish it or maybe I’ll do it all myself.

Regardless, by the end of 2013 I plan to call myself an author.

“I am small but You are big enough to take my dreams, come and give them wings. Lord with you, there’s nothing I can’t do.” – Britt Nichole