This is awesome. It's like paying taxes quarterly so you're not overwhelmed come April 15. I recently had an idea I'm obsessing about for an action comedy screenplay so I'm adding that to my list. So much comedy so little time. 😉 Looking forward to your humor challenge.
So much comedy so little time is true and that sounds like a great one to work on. I think sometimes I just have to prioritize the ideas I'm obsessed with.
I love it! Right now, I have no goals as life is a shitshow, so maybe it's a good time to sit down and plan for the next two months.
In addition to your other workshops - I would love to get some inspiration and advice on how to write funny when you are struggling for the funny. I lost my funny when Trump took office in 2016 and I FOUGHT to get it back and I don't want to fall into that pit again. So how do you keep your funny?
Once upon a time my entire purpose for writing was to find the funny in motherhood (yay post party depression) as a means for coping, and I'd love to get it back, but it still feels a little broken.
I get all this and I think it is hard when things are a shitshow. I think it's fine to just take a break (I definitely need to). But when you are up for it, I think just trying to channel the anger/shitshow feelings into humor can be good. It usually makes me feel better if I can pull it off (and that helped me manage some parenting frustrations too). If I can't get there on my own I also just try to read humor pubs/writes to see what how they are finding the humor in not funny times.
This week I feel like I am just needing to take a break from a lot of news/social media and one I want to try to focus on getting some writing done. I went back to look at a list of old humor ideas I had and some of them were making me laugh so maybe I'll work on them even if it's just to distract myself a bit.
I just finished serializing my action horror here on Substack and now feel like I’m lost, wandering in the woods. But slowly editing it to release next month as a standalone on Kindle. Still want to publish twice per week here but that may have to be ratcheted down depending on my next long form project.
That makes sense and I read another recent Substack post about compiling shorter Substack posts into a longer standalone piece and am thinking about possibilities with that (in addition the 5 million other things I keep wanting to do)
I like that. I’ve also been thinking about turning my essays about Wisconsin into a kind of humor-memoir to release wide. That said, I’d have to unpublish here I think which I don’t want to do (to avoid duplicate content ban).
Thank you so much for this post! I've been racking my brain on how to squeeze everything on my to-do list and never thought about setting Quarterly goals! Looking into this ASAP :)
This year I have my publication settings toggled on correctly and plan to participate in whatever challenges you throw out there.
I like your cadence of quarterly goals, which mimics the corporate world and provides a little more wiggle room from month-to-month.
It's been an unusual year for me, in a good way, so I spent most of this summer figuring out my "content strategy" for this fall and into next year. Some specific goals are:
1) Reach 10K words on my current novel.
2) Post daily on Notes, Threads, and LinkedIn.
3) Remember to have fun, and not stress, about this absurd enterprise I've chosen to pursue.
These are all great and I especially appreciate number 3. I feel like I go through spurts of doing number 2 and then fall off for a while because I find it hard to focus on other things when I'm posting on social a lot. I'm trying to still post periodically (except for LinkedIn which I know people really like but I just have never managed to keep up with very well).
In any event, I know you've got a big wiritng year coming up with the novel too!
I am a former corporate writer and marketer. I’m TRYING is to tamp down my corporate brain and turn up my boho, Mother Earth creative spirit. Perhaps quarterly goals intertwined with manifesting, reiki & sound baths is what I need!
I’m so glad I found you, Julie! I just read your piece about camping with twins in McSweeneys. As a parent of twins (+1) I can confirm this is exactly what our camping trips are like. Very demure, very mindful. And goals! Omg well just getting on Substack has been a big deal for me in the last month. Now I’ve cracked open the creative part of my brain again, who knows what could pour out! 🤞
Oh thank you -- that is so nice to hear! Yes, camping with kids is always so mindful and demure. And welcome to Substack, I feel like it has a great community and has been good for my writing creativity so hopefully that will be true for you too.
I'm scared to look at my to-do list! I already started a list of possible things to work on in January (when I'll supposedly have more time) 🙊 If I keep my goals sensible, I'll say:
-Revise two picture books and turn them in to my agent for consideration
-Draft an early reader
-Pitch 2 or 3 essays (drafting one now)
Lots more but I know these projects could get put on hold as soon as something that pays comes along!
Those are all great goals! I've actually been mulling an idea for a picture book that I think might be good but I always have too many ideas and trouble prioritizing what to work on first!
Thank you! I actually took a picture book writing class and was in a critique group pre-pandemic and then it fell apart in the pandemic and I got distracted by other things, but we just started up again so feeling like I may try to get back to it (in all my free time, ha!)
These are great goals! And I love seeing what other writers do behind the scenes. What sort of writing related merch are you envisioning? Are you talking about something like Etsy?
Yeah, something like Etsy or Shopify although I am partially getting hung up on what site it would be best to do it on. I'm thinking funny stuff as I know some other humor writers who've done that with merchandise and it seems worth trying out possibly. I've got some soical media content that I think I could spin into merchandise potentially. Have you done anthing with merch?
I have just barely started down this exact path myself, trying to figure it out, which is why I’m curious and so excited to see what you do! My bare bones start so far is Printify design that publishes to Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SnuzzlesBySarah/
This is so great to see! I have gotten as far as Printify seems a good place for fulfilling but still debating Etsy vs Shopify although maybe leaning toward Etsy. Do you feel like it was fairly easy to set up the shop?
Yes, relatively. I think it took me a couple afternoons? But I figured it out, and the now the process seems streamlined and simple. Although I'm still figuring out what exactly I want to do here, and thinking of focusing on cards and stationary maybe, poetry and humor. And very curious to see what you're going to offer!
Yes, I was thinking about cards too and hadn't thought about bookmarks, which is smart! Maybe mugs and t-shirts but I need to look at them. I think step one is for me to try to design some stuff in printable (on the to-do list).
These are great! I think the pitch/ submit 5 times is a good goal for me too. I know what you mean about the kids in the next couple months! My kids don’t have even one full week of school this month. I always think I’ll get more done in spite of that but… 🤪
I know! My kids have Monday off and they just had Monday off two weeks ago. Half of November and December are always off. In any event, I think we can hit the pitch/submit 5 times goal still -- I may even try to get something submitted today :)
Argh! I planned to revisit my quarterly goals and dropped off after the first quarter. If I were to start over and pick one, it would be to get on the podcast train (I've been meaning to pitch more as guest and possibly start my own) or make a clear decision to skip it for 2024.
Oh I love that you are considering starting a podcast! I feel like part of my quarterly goal setting also involves being real about what annual goals I probably need to toss out for the year. But I get that starting a podcast is a big endeavor that might be worth bumping off (I need to put off some of my "optional" goals but debating which ones.
This is awesome. It's like paying taxes quarterly so you're not overwhelmed come April 15. I recently had an idea I'm obsessing about for an action comedy screenplay so I'm adding that to my list. So much comedy so little time. 😉 Looking forward to your humor challenge.
So much comedy so little time is true and that sounds like a great one to work on. I think sometimes I just have to prioritize the ideas I'm obsessed with.
Finally publish my debut novel. I’m in the editing stage now and will have a physical book by Dec ‘24. Nearly there!
That's an amazing goal -- congrats! What is the title?
The Stars Whisper at Night. You can read the first little bit on my page under the tab at the top.
I love it! Right now, I have no goals as life is a shitshow, so maybe it's a good time to sit down and plan for the next two months.
In addition to your other workshops - I would love to get some inspiration and advice on how to write funny when you are struggling for the funny. I lost my funny when Trump took office in 2016 and I FOUGHT to get it back and I don't want to fall into that pit again. So how do you keep your funny?
Once upon a time my entire purpose for writing was to find the funny in motherhood (yay post party depression) as a means for coping, and I'd love to get it back, but it still feels a little broken.
I get all this and I think it is hard when things are a shitshow. I think it's fine to just take a break (I definitely need to). But when you are up for it, I think just trying to channel the anger/shitshow feelings into humor can be good. It usually makes me feel better if I can pull it off (and that helped me manage some parenting frustrations too). If I can't get there on my own I also just try to read humor pubs/writes to see what how they are finding the humor in not funny times.
This week I feel like I am just needing to take a break from a lot of news/social media and one I want to try to focus on getting some writing done. I went back to look at a list of old humor ideas I had and some of them were making me laugh so maybe I'll work on them even if it's just to distract myself a bit.
I just finished serializing my action horror here on Substack and now feel like I’m lost, wandering in the woods. But slowly editing it to release next month as a standalone on Kindle. Still want to publish twice per week here but that may have to be ratcheted down depending on my next long form project.
That makes sense and I read another recent Substack post about compiling shorter Substack posts into a longer standalone piece and am thinking about possibilities with that (in addition the 5 million other things I keep wanting to do)
I like that. I’ve also been thinking about turning my essays about Wisconsin into a kind of humor-memoir to release wide. That said, I’d have to unpublish here I think which I don’t want to do (to avoid duplicate content ban).
Yeah I wondered about that duplication thing. Someone mentioned setting posts to behind a paywall but I wasn’t sure if that would be enough.
Yeah, I worry about that being enough.
Thank you so much for this post! I've been racking my brain on how to squeeze everything on my to-do list and never thought about setting Quarterly goals! Looking into this ASAP :)
Oh good -- glad it was helpful! I definitely feel like it works better for me.
This year I have my publication settings toggled on correctly and plan to participate in whatever challenges you throw out there.
I like your cadence of quarterly goals, which mimics the corporate world and provides a little more wiggle room from month-to-month.
It's been an unusual year for me, in a good way, so I spent most of this summer figuring out my "content strategy" for this fall and into next year. Some specific goals are:
1) Reach 10K words on my current novel.
2) Post daily on Notes, Threads, and LinkedIn.
3) Remember to have fun, and not stress, about this absurd enterprise I've chosen to pursue.
These are all great and I especially appreciate number 3. I feel like I go through spurts of doing number 2 and then fall off for a while because I find it hard to focus on other things when I'm posting on social a lot. I'm trying to still post periodically (except for LinkedIn which I know people really like but I just have never managed to keep up with very well).
In any event, I know you've got a big wiritng year coming up with the novel too!
I am a former corporate writer and marketer. I’m TRYING is to tamp down my corporate brain and turn up my boho, Mother Earth creative spirit. Perhaps quarterly goals intertwined with manifesting, reiki & sound baths is what I need!
Yes! Perhaps you can cirlce back to your Q4 goals while doing an end of year Chakra meditation?
Haha! While wearing a kaftan and a headset! 😄
I’m so glad I found you, Julie! I just read your piece about camping with twins in McSweeneys. As a parent of twins (+1) I can confirm this is exactly what our camping trips are like. Very demure, very mindful. And goals! Omg well just getting on Substack has been a big deal for me in the last month. Now I’ve cracked open the creative part of my brain again, who knows what could pour out! 🤞
Oh thank you -- that is so nice to hear! Yes, camping with kids is always so mindful and demure. And welcome to Substack, I feel like it has a great community and has been good for my writing creativity so hopefully that will be true for you too.
Finish first draft of current novel (18,000 words left, doable).
Revise the previous novel after feedback from editor (next month, depends on finishing previous goal).
Sell current books (out of my hands, it's down to people to buy them!)
These are all great ones -- and I know sometimes the goals are out of our hands but good to have some that we can control too.
I'm scared to look at my to-do list! I already started a list of possible things to work on in January (when I'll supposedly have more time) 🙊 If I keep my goals sensible, I'll say:
-Revise two picture books and turn them in to my agent for consideration
-Draft an early reader
-Pitch 2 or 3 essays (drafting one now)
Lots more but I know these projects could get put on hold as soon as something that pays comes along!
Those are all great goals! I've actually been mulling an idea for a picture book that I think might be good but I always have too many ideas and trouble prioritizing what to work on first!
Your voice would translate so well to a PB! When the time is right! 😁
Thank you! I actually took a picture book writing class and was in a critique group pre-pandemic and then it fell apart in the pandemic and I got distracted by other things, but we just started up again so feeling like I may try to get back to it (in all my free time, ha!)
These are great goals! And I love seeing what other writers do behind the scenes. What sort of writing related merch are you envisioning? Are you talking about something like Etsy?
Yeah, something like Etsy or Shopify although I am partially getting hung up on what site it would be best to do it on. I'm thinking funny stuff as I know some other humor writers who've done that with merchandise and it seems worth trying out possibly. I've got some soical media content that I think I could spin into merchandise potentially. Have you done anthing with merch?
I have just barely started down this exact path myself, trying to figure it out, which is why I’m curious and so excited to see what you do! My bare bones start so far is Printify design that publishes to Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SnuzzlesBySarah/
This is so great to see! I have gotten as far as Printify seems a good place for fulfilling but still debating Etsy vs Shopify although maybe leaning toward Etsy. Do you feel like it was fairly easy to set up the shop?
Yes, relatively. I think it took me a couple afternoons? But I figured it out, and the now the process seems streamlined and simple. Although I'm still figuring out what exactly I want to do here, and thinking of focusing on cards and stationary maybe, poetry and humor. And very curious to see what you're going to offer!
Yes, I was thinking about cards too and hadn't thought about bookmarks, which is smart! Maybe mugs and t-shirts but I need to look at them. I think step one is for me to try to design some stuff in printable (on the to-do list).
These are great! I think the pitch/ submit 5 times is a good goal for me too. I know what you mean about the kids in the next couple months! My kids don’t have even one full week of school this month. I always think I’ll get more done in spite of that but… 🤪
I know! My kids have Monday off and they just had Monday off two weeks ago. Half of November and December are always off. In any event, I think we can hit the pitch/submit 5 times goal still -- I may even try to get something submitted today :)
Argh! I planned to revisit my quarterly goals and dropped off after the first quarter. If I were to start over and pick one, it would be to get on the podcast train (I've been meaning to pitch more as guest and possibly start my own) or make a clear decision to skip it for 2024.
Oh I love that you are considering starting a podcast! I feel like part of my quarterly goal setting also involves being real about what annual goals I probably need to toss out for the year. But I get that starting a podcast is a big endeavor that might be worth bumping off (I need to put off some of my "optional" goals but debating which ones.