With the arrival of a new year–and especially a new decade–the webs abound with advice on making this year count. “This will be the year I lose X pounds.” (Not me, I’ve never weighed so much in my life!) “This will be the year I organize my life.” (Haha. Ha. Ha.) “This will be the year I get my dream job.”

Now that last one is a common resolution that I can call my own. This year I hope to get two dream jobs: published author and mommy. Let’s focus on the former, as I assume you understand the steps to achieve the latter. One Scottish Playboy’s Secret Love-Child coming right up! The best advice I’ve heard from published authors is the key to making a career out of writing is to treat it as a job. No writing only when the Muse inspires you. No letting writing time take a back seat to the demands of real life. No excuses, period.

“I assumed the burden of the profession, which is to write even when you don’t want to, don’t much like what you are writing, and aren’t writing particularly well.” – Agatha Christie

New York Times best-selling author Bob Mayer (coauthor of Agnes and the Hitman with Jenny Crusie) lives outside of Seattle and is a member of both my writing organizations, so I’ve had the pleasure of hearing him speak numerous times. A former Green Beret, Mayer tackles the career of writing with a single-minded determination that is a little scary to behold. Identify target…hunt target…neutralize  target…BAM! But really, it’s the same straight-talking, good advice that Cherry Adair, Susan Mallery and Donald Maass have shared: if you want to be a career novelist, you must set strategic goals and break each goal down into achievable steps that you have control over. You don’t have control over the whims of the market. (Or as Mayer says, “The Publishing gods are fickle.”) But you do have control over honing your craft and writing the best damn book you are capable of writing.

“The world is moving faster, change occurs constantly, competition is fiercer, and the one constant that stands in your way to achieving what you want out of life, both personal and professional, is fear.” – Bob Mayer

In the last Greater Seattle RWA chapter newsletter, Mayer outlined the hierarchy of strategic goal setting.

• Overall writing goal: I will be a NY Times best-selling romance author in 5 years
• Book goal: I will write and polish till it shines the second novel in my Hearts of Darkness series by October 1 (Cherry Adair’s Finish the Damn Book Challenge deadline).
  
• Business goal: I will research agents seeking paranormal romance and submit queries for Hearts of Darkness. This year I will attend two writing conferences and network will other writers (RWA National or PNWA, and Emerald City). I will also network by volunteering for Nationals/PNWA and Emerald City (I’m the hospitality chair this year for EC).
• Shorter range/daily tactical goals: I will write 8,000 words a week, every week, for the next three months. (I’ll reevaluate this goal in April for writing the second draft.)

What are your resolutions for the new year? What strategic goals do you set for yourself to accomplish your dreams?

The following books are highly recommended for the career novelist:

• THE NOVEL WRITER’S TOOLKIT by Bob Mayer
• WHO DARES WINS by Bob Mayer
• THE CAREER NOVELIST by Donald Maass
• WRITING THE BREAK OUT NOVEL by Donald Maass