Goals, Expectations, a Podcast Episode, and a Free Webinar
Photo by Jamie Fenn on Unsplash
New year, new goals?
Setting goals for my writing is fairly straightforward for me, but for my book coaching business, not so much. As a result, I’ve been looking into ways to do better, think more strategically, plan, and then execute.
My search led me to Gretchen Rubin’s The Four Tendencies quiz (scroll down about halfway to find this free quiz). The quiz focuses on how you respond to expectations—both to your own (internal) and to others’ (external)—and the results can help you understand why you act and why you don’t act.
Inner expectations are goals you set for yourself, such as to finish a first draft in three months or to walk 20 miles per week. Outer expectations are things like work deadlines.
Rubin’s quiz told me that I am a “Questioner.” I meet inner expectations and resist outer ones. She explains, “questioners question all expectations, and they respond to an expectation only if they conclude that it makes sense—in essence, they meet only inner expectations.”
In addition to learning how you respond to expectations, you can learn strategies for dealing with them. If you find the quiz useful, you may want to read her short book of the same title.
Time to revise a first draft?
If revision is not something you look forward to, then check out Savannah Gilbo’s podcast, Fiction Writing Made Easy, specifically this episode: “5 Mindset Tips for Revising Your First Draft.”
It’s a collection of ideas from a handful of book coaches, including me. Here are the topics and when they start:
[02:48] Why you should absolutely love your "hot mess" first draft—it's exactly what it needs to be right now.
[08:01] The right (and wrong) people to ask for first draft feedback and how to prepare yourself emotionally for their response. This one is mine!
[12:40] A practical approach to handling hard-to-hear feedback so that it feels less personal and more purposeful.
[19:05] A unique 3-step revision process that transforms how you think about your first draft to turn it into a ‘must-read’ success.
[22:59] Why comparing your revision journey to other writers only holds you back—and what to focus on instead.
If you like this podcast, I know Savannah would love it if you would rate and review it on Apple Podcasts.
Is your story reader ready?
My friend and fellow book coach Julie Artz is hosting a free webinar on Sat., Jan. 11 at 10 am Mountain Time (US) called “Get Your Story Reader-Ready with the Four Essential Questions.” (It’s free, but please register in advance.)
It’s a 2-hour webinar that includes a mix of lecture and live coaching to help you if you’re stuck in the planning stages, languishing in the mushy middle, or unsure what happens next. Julie will introduce you to her Story Scaffolding Method for planning, drafting, and revising a story with the right foundation to finally achieve reader readiness.
Julie says, “Come prepared to work–in the workshop, we’ll start by taking stock of market factors that might affect your story, then explore how the four essential questions a story must answer create the scaffolding upon which you can build your story. We’ll look at how the four essential questions function in some popular stories, as well as some warning signs that you haven’t answered those questions in your story. There will even be time for three lucky writers to get coached through honing their four essential questions.”
Because crafting a story is an iterative process, Julie’s workshop is appropriate for you whether you’re planning, drafting, or revising, whether this is your first book or your fifteenth.