YES, you should have writing goals. But here’s why they don’t (actually) matter that much. And it’s going to blow your mind. Enjoy.
Join Rachael’s Slack channel, Onward Writers!
Transcript:
Rachael Herron: [00:00:00] Welcome to “How do you Write?” I’m your host, Rachael Herron. On this podcast, I talk to authors about how they write, what their process is and how their lives fit together. I’ll keep each episode short so you can get back to writing.
[00:00:16] Well, Hello writers! Welcome to episode #233 of “How do you Write?” I’m Rachael Herron. I am so happy you’re with me today. This is kind of going to be a bonus episode. No, it is a bonus episode. I am going to read to you an email that I wrote to my writer’s list. This is for two reasons, one big, one small. The small reason is if you’re not on my writer’s list, this is an example of the email that I send to you. You might like to be on my email list for writers. It really is a place that I put time and energy into and my job is to encourage you for free, just sign up and let me encourage you to do your writing. You can always get to that by going to RachaelHerron.com/Write. But the second reason I want to read this particular email to you is that I think it’s maybe one of the most important things I’ve ever said about writing, and our goals of writing. So we’re going to get into that in a moment, but, what’s going on around here? I want to thank new Patreon supporters. [00:01:21] Thank you. Thank you so much. Donna Ryan, Jenny Clark, Vivian Tee, and Helen Conway. Thank you so much for being here with me, supporting me. It means the world. Thank you to all of my current Patreon subscribers as well. It really does make a huge difference in my life. So, how is the move going, Rachael? Well, the room is a little bit emptier, boxes around us. I’m glad we started when we did, we still have a bunch of really big things to get rid of, like my beautiful desk. I still have not managed to clean out this desk. It is not because I haven’t had time. It is because I love this desk so much. I don’t want it to go. I even got out of box and filled the box with all of the things that I will need on a daily basis to have on my desk for the next six months or so things like my planner and my favorite pens. And oh, what else is in there? My headphones, my favorite coaster. And put them all in the box so that I could empty the desk and then take a picture of it with all of the empty drawers as a roll top. It’s big, it’s old. It’s wonderful. If you’re in the bay area and you want it, let me know. You’d have to pick it up. And in the last five days, all of those things have just crept back onto my desk because I just don’t want to let it go. [00:02:38] I want to hug it, hugging it here, virtually on the podcast. So someday, perhaps I’ll listen back to this and think, oh, remember that beautiful desk. Isn’t it amazing that I have a new, beautiful desk that I love? That will happen. So we have been alternating fits of panic and joy, but the panic is subsiding and the joy is setting in. We had an amazing conversation with our friends, Mona and Damian, who you may, you’ve heard me talk about Mona MacDermid before she is a poet and writer. I just adore her and she and her husband have moved to so mentee in so many places all around the world internationally. And they gave us a little pep talk about how to move and how to do it in a sane manner and a sensible, responsible, joyful manner. And here’s some of the talking points that I took away from our conversation. Have and do your good goodbyes. So we are making a list of things that we love, not just people, but the things like the restaurants and the places and the particular lawn where I like to eat an ice cream in San Francisco. It is Dolores park, by the way, buy right ice cream across the street. That’s on the list. I would not have thought about doing that. [00:03:56] Of course, we’re going to be able to come back to the states every year or so and see things, but an intentional good goodbye makes so much sense to me. Number two, throw the party, throw yourself a party. I’m going to throw a party and invite all the locals that I love to come say goodbye. Hopefully they’ll be back as unaided. I don’t know where we’re going to throw it, because at some point we won’t have this house to throw a party in, and I want to throw it as late as possible but that’s going to happen. Number three, this is huge. Get excited about the destination. I have this strange brain tendency to try to put off joy. If I’m often, if I’m reading a book and it is incredible, I will put it down and walk away for a few hours a few days, sometimes a few weeks, never even finished lonesome dove for this reason. Because I want to prolong the joy. So, or like put it off because that feels delicious to me. It is something that pleases me, however, it’s okay just to like watch the movies, watch Wellington paranormal, read the travel guides, watch the vloggers on New Zealand and on this place, we’re going to go and get really excited about it. [00:05:04] So that is something we’ve been doing, amazing. When we get there, they said these are two things I would not have thought of doing, present gifts to your new neighbors. Love that. I want them to love me. I want friends, I want my neighbors to know us and to wave at us and to chit chat on the street. Like we do here. We have an amazing little neighborhood community on our cul-de-sac in east Oakland and it is so great. So I’m going to bring like little gifts from home, Ghirardelli chocolate bars or something like that. And then this one, I love make yourself a regular somewhere. This is something I do when I travel. Normally, if I’m in a place for more than a couple or three days, I tend to try to do that, but being intentional about it, walking into this coffee shop, where we want to become regulars and saying, as someone I knew did, and as I did once in a coffee shop that I loved and it worked saying, Hey, I’m here. I’m Rachael, I’d like to know all of your names. We’re going to be here every day. And then it becomes friendship and it becomes awesome. So we’re going to do that. Thank you, Mona and Damien for taking that time. It was amazing. Also, thank you to Emma from Australia who made a move like this from the UK with her wife and Emma sent me this email that made me cry. [Read more…] about Ep: 233: Why Your Writing Goals Don’t Matter That Much!