Realistic Expectations

Expectations? What are they? How do they work? Everyone has them, and sometimes the one who has the most unrealistic expectations is you.

I set goals for myself, a chapter a day, 15,000 words per week. It shouldn't take long to get to the 80,000 word mark, right? I forgot the things that make up my day, my life. When I started writing my novel I was working 40 + hours a week, raising a highly energized child, dealing with an immature husband who I neglected to tell I was working on a book to sell and not just fan fiction...needless to say, my expectations of myself did not get met.

So here it is nearly two years after I started my novel and I've learned that goals are great, they help me get on track, but they aren't my written in rock statements. So I set my goals with a more realistic idea in mind. I've got four hours a day I can get onto the computer without an interruption, and in those four hours I can get a fair chunk of work done.

I'm okay with that. Four hours gives me more work done then no hours, and I'm not forgetting the rest of my life. I still have time for my son, my husband, the cat, the fish, the housework, and the rest of my obligations.

So, I guess its not so much what you believe needs to be done, as what you know you can do. It's been a learning curve for me that's taken me months to really grasp. Now, I think I've got it.