The final step in organizing your writing effort is periodic evaluation—measuring your progress and making adjustments. You may choose to evaluate monthly, quarterly, or annually. Just resolve to do it.

Review your intentions: Take a look at the goals you set for yourself. Did you accomplish any of the short-term goals? How are you progressing on the long-term goals? The more specific your goals, the easier it is to measure success. As an example, if you stated that you wanted to submit one article per week, this goal is easily measured by counting your submissions. At the monthly mark, you should have sent out four submissions. If you’re behind on your quota, you can make it up before the next evaluation date. Vague goals like “submitting as many articles as I can” aren’t easily measured. You can excuse a low submission count by citing distractions or unforeseen circumstances.

Revise the plan: If you submitted one article every week for one year, you sent out 52 submissions. Technically, you reached your goal. However, if you got no acceptances, you probably need to make some changes. It’s time to examine your marketing techniques, your adherence to guidelines, and even your writing itself. It could be that your timing was just not right for some of your rejected pieces. Perhaps you are concentrating too much on quantity and not enough on quality. Go back to the market guide to look for a better match. Or—revise and send to the same publisher. Keep trying to different tacks until you find a process that works for you and your genre.

Re-charge: When you make your original plans and when you revise them, spend some time checking with other writers about their goals and methods. And don’t forget to pray as you evaluate and make new plans. In previous posts, I mentioned Mark Porter’s The Time of Your Life: How to Accomplish All That God Wants You to Do. I’d like to share an excerpt from the book now. Porter says there are four ways to receive word from God. He calls it the Compass of God’s Guidance. “North” is Neighbor’s Counsel, the input of godly Christians. “East” is Events & Circumstances, those God-incidences that occur from time to time. “South” is the Spirit’s Promptings. And finally—“West” is the Word of God, the Bible. He says God uses each of these points to communicate with us as we seek God’s guidance.

 

More articles on goal-setting:

Did You Achieve Your 2009 Writing Goals?

Four Signs You Need to Re-Evaluate Your Writing Goals

Setting Goals That Work for You on the Way to Publication

 

This is the final post in the Get Organized series. See previous posts at by searching “Get Organized” in the search box anywhere on my Web site: http://emilyakin.com. This series was developed to accompany my presentation at Kentucky Christian Writers Conference 2010, “Get Organized and Sell Your Work.”