Episode 9: The one where we talk about goals, habits, and the New Year

Fable and the Verbivore jump into the plans that they have for their writing projects as they head into the year 2020 (wow, that feels like a crazy number). Bethany is working towards finishing the outline of her YA trilogy series and planning to move forward into the process of querying agents. Laura has agressive goals to finish a draft for the historical fiction that she is writing with her sisters by June, and at the same time to continue to move forward with her son’s picture book with a hopeful completion timeframe of October.

We discuss the need to frame daily success as the completion of small daily/weekly/monthly habits that support these overarching goals and keep the momentum on these projects moving forward while staving off potential feelings of failure. From a psychology perspective, what you tell yourself about the work you are doing can be as important as the work itself.

We wish you a very Happy New Year, and look forward to hearing all about your own goals and habits that will be part of your 2020! We are also delighted to continue this journey with you into the new year!

Into the woods,
Fable & The Verbivore

Notes:

The Verbivore references a journal created by a YA author that has writing topics. The journal is the The Severed Moon: A Year-Long Journal of Magic by Leigh Bardugo. This is one of an infinite number of tools that can be helpful, if you are not sure where to start with habitual writing. Laura uses a variety of resources based on her given mood from childhood memories, random shower thoughts, and Pinterest prompts as part of her daily writing habit.

At the end of the episode, the Verbivore references a strange part from the movie Idiocracy where it is 5 hundred years in the future and cultural norms have degraded over time. This is the youtube link to the part about the Costco greeting.

Books mentioned:

K.M. Weiland’s Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success

Save the Cat! Writes a Novel: The Last Book on Novel Writing You’ll Ever Need by Jessica Brody

The Severed Moon: A Year-Long Journal of Magic by Leigh Bardugo

Music from: https://filmmusic.io
’Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)