Goals for Winter 2020
I came across an old Word Document titled "Goals for Winter 2020" that I'd written over the summer. I’d written them in preparation for my last year of my MFA program...and oof did I forget about them.
Luckily, I'm not too late to get back on track (because winter has yet to begin)! Here are the goals, verbatim from the Word Doc:
Goals for this semester (Winter 2020):
Read 3 books per packet (3 Annotations)
Nail down the “why” – get in the habit of figuring out the why before starting or finishing a piece; focus on why the memories or moments are important and make sure that is clear throughout the piece; refrain from being anecdotal
Stick with a writing schedule that is flexible but consistent
For additional practice, post a blog once a week
Excitingly, I've been true to that first goal, even if I learned only a few weeks into this new semester that I'll actually be needing to read four books per packet. Each semester in my program is broken up into 3 packets and each packet includes between 2 and 4 annotations on books I've read, between 10 and 35 pages of original creative writing, a letter detailing my writing and reading processes from the last few weeks, and, in at least one of the packets per semester, a 10-page critical essay. It adds up.
I'm ashamed to say I was a little lazy last year, thus needing to annotate 4 books per packet for the rest of my time in my MFA program. It'll be a busy year, but like I said, so far I've been on track with my reading (check out what I’ve read since January here!). Plus, I’m a pretty fast reader.
As for the second goal - finding my "why" - this one I’m nervous about. I didn't realize until this last year of my program how difficult answering this question has been for me. Beyond the surface level of writing because I enjoy it and it tends to come easy to me, my why for telling a story is often lost on my readers, and then on me when they confess that while they enjoyed reading it, they don’t understand the point of the piece.
When I've written a story or a memory or even an essay on something I find interesting, when I get to the end, I'm not usually sure why I've written it beyond the fact that it was on my mind and I'm largely an external processor. Much of what I write in journals is 99% of the time just to get it out of my head and onto a page, where I can analyze it and figure out what I think about it. It’s how I think, but this has bled into how I write story and narrative. And, if I want to be an excellent writer (dear Lord, I do), the why is just as, if not more, important than good syntax and well-constructed sentences. It’s more than me organizing my internal monologues.
Of a recent piece, my mentor asked the dreaded question, the question I can't seem to escape: "What is the point of this essay?" I’m deeply concerned with my own inability to express my point, my why, within essays I've spent time and energy writing, mostly because I’m often not sure myself. But isn’t that funny part of it all? I’m sitting here hoping someone else will pick out the why in what I’ve written and I’ll be able take it and make it stronger in the next draft, without the work of discovering the why on my own in the writing process.
From here, the question is no longer "what is the point of this essay?" It becomes "what is the point of writing, for Kayley specifically?" And to tell you the truth, I'm planning on figuring that out this year. I'll have to let you know once I do.
My third goal is always a work in progress because I'm not a morning person and I like to read at night, so my prime real estate for consistency in anything is already taken. I recently got a job working for Maple Street Biscuit Company in Downtown Chattanooga while I look for something more permanent and in my field (hire me!), and biscuits are a breakfast food which means we're open at the buttcrack of dawn.
My prayer is that being forced into becoming a morning person will stick like the syrup on my jeans after a long hard day serving biscuits, and I'll morph my new morning skills into new morning writing skills.
And if not, my main goal is to just write more than "fun" writing every day - as much as I love general writing, I need to approach it more systematically. I mean spending time working on my technical writing skills, every day. I'm honestly excited about this goal, and I'm ready to start mapping out what that looks like logistically! I’m thinking I’ll give myself a technical writing challenge for each week and spend time every day working on that challenge, or something similar.
Finally, I have a goal of posting to this blog once a week. A tall order for such a short gorl. I haven't consistently blogged in years and I'm rusty - as you can tell from the few posts I've added so far. I forgot how personal blogging is and in my last few posts, I've kept myself at arms length from you, my dear reader. My mom even admitted to finding one of them boring and hard to follow - that's what I get when I try to remove myself too far from my own writing - there’s no authorial presence and words fall flat and dull. This blog is going to take some more practice, so I hope you'll hang in with me! And if not, that's cool, too. Check in again in a month to see if I've got my groove back!
Speaking of forgetting things, I had forgotten how inspiring it can be to set goals for myself. I've heard people say they find goal-setting constricting, and while that comment has always made me laugh at how ridiculous it sounds, I realized I'd been living my life (especially my writing life) as if I held the idiotic view myself.
Goals are great! If you reach them, hurray! If you don't, you still have something to work toward, something on the horizon. If you pass them, well look at you, being even better than you thought you could be!
As someone who absolutely loves getting excited about literally anything, I think goals to better my own writing and make my final year of my MFA program the best year of school I've had yet are wonderful things to be excited about.
'Til next week, stay motherflipping well (or else).
Kayley
