What’s shooting and scoring got to do with writing?

Well, if your were in my shoes right now you’d be hoping that the Philadelphia Eagles score a lot more that their hated competitors tonight lead by Tony “Oh No!” Romo. Even when the odds are set against them, there is always hope that they”ll pull through. Rough to be a die-hard Eagles fan, but someone’s gotta do it.

Last night was our first writing meeting for 2010. Not only did we discuss writing in general and the structure of our group, but also what each of us wants to achieve this year.

Goals

All of us are in different places in our writing, but we all strive for the same goal: publishing our novels, poetry, short stories, articles. A couple of us have first drafts done and need to find publishers and do that dreaded query letter. A couple of us just want a 1st draft done.

I will admit that we discussed our goals last year and not one (sorry guys) of us hit the mark. So as I listened to everyone’s goals it occurred to me that some were quite attainable before meeting next time. So I said “In 2 weeks you are going to update your goals for for the group.”

After the shocked silence, which perplexed me, they stated that there was no way that the goals outlined could be met in 2 weeks. We all looked at the same thing differently. For example, while I was looking at the list of goals for one writer, I realized that 2 of the goals were easily obtainable in 2 weeks. Everyone else thought I meant all her goals. Guess I dropped the ball there.

Driving Down the Field

Just like football, you need to slowly drive toward your goals. While not all of us had a laundry list of goals, we all had something we need to accomplish by a particular date.  None of the goals were unrealistic so I am confident that we can indeed score. Once I explained my thought, it was agreed that indeed she could complete a couple of the goals by the time we next met.

Fumbling

Now, last year we fumbled the ball and some (me included) didn’t even make it close to the goal line. While I could digress into all the reasons why, I won’t bore you with the details. Let’s just say that as we each talked about our goals and the best way to achieve them, it occurred to me why we fumbled last year. We discussed our goals in January and then never talked about it again. Without good communication the team would fail. The ball would hit the ground every time.

This year we have decided that for a few minutes of every meeting we are going to update the group on our progress and I know sure as I’m typing this, non-progress.

Keep Your Eye on the Ball

I think some of us lose sight of the goal when we don’t grab the ball with both hands and that little step towards the goal line goes wonky. It happens. Life happens. But we have to remember to get back in there and take the next snap. The goals we have outlined for ourselves are quite attainable there is nothing between us and that goal line that we cannot handle. Each player has to perform their job to the best of their ability and sometimes exceed our best, but when we stumble that’s when the rest of us step up and focus on the ball. While writing is mostly a solitary endeavor I find that it’s easier when the team huddles together to push past the obstacles and reach the goal.

So as I said in my last post for 2009: 2010 is the YEAR that We Get the Ring…er sorry, Our Books On the Shelf!

Some advice for the Philadelphia Eagles: Keep your eye on the ball and communicate.  That and a good Defense will get us into the 2nd round of playoffs this year and hopefully much further than that.

Catch ya on the flip side.