Getting It Done with Gwenda Bond

Hack your process and achieve your writing goals in this 2-week workshop with NYT bestselling author Gwenda Bond

Your Instructor: Gwenda Bond (author of the Cirque American series)

Where: Online — Available everywhere!

When: This class is not currently enrolling. To be notified when it is offered again, Click Here

Enrollment: 20

Price: $199

Class Description

Have you struggled with setting writing goals and achieving them?

Changing your approach to better match your unique process and work through challenges mentally up front can be a game-changer.

In this two-week workshop, we'll go through a series of questions and exercises that will help you set writing goals and make a plan that will see them to completion. We will discuss: how to understand and accept your writing process, since the best goals come from an honest understanding of this, the most important thing in your toolkit; how to identify and address challenges to meeting your goals; the principles for setting realistic larger goals and then setting the microgoals to get you over the finish line. We’ll also cover how to know when to move on from a project or change a goal (and forgiving yourself when that happens), the role of identifying dreams and career milestones you'd like to reach, and how those differ from goals within your control.

Participants may have a goal or goals in mind or develop them as the class progresses.

GETTING IT DONE: HACK YOUR PROCESS AND ACHIEVE YOUR WRITING GOALS is taught by Gwenda Bond, the New York Times bestselling author of Stranger Things: Suspicious Minds, the first official Stranger Things novel. Her novels for young adults and children include the Lois Lane and Cirque American trilogies, and the Supernormal Sleuthing Service series co-written with her husband Christopher Rowe. She also created Dead Air, a serialized mystery and scripted podcast written with Carrie Ryan and Rachel Caine. Her next books are two fantasy romantic comedies for adults, Not Your Average Hot Guy and The Date from Hell, forthcoming from St. Martin’s Griffin starting in Fall 2021. Her nonfiction writing has appeared in Publishers Weekly, Locus Magazine, Salon, the Los Angeles Times, and many other publications. She has an MFA in writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

What This Class Covers

WEEK 1 – Understanding Your Process, Challenges, and Setting Goals

Understanding Your Process: We’ll talk about what different processes look like and you’ll go through a series of questions to help you better understand yours. Often, we set goals in a way that creates obstacles to achieving them, without a realistic grasp on how we work. And if your process isn’t working, then trying some different approaches can help figure out what will help you do your work. Whatever the case, we’ll leave this week with you on the path to accepting and working with your process, not against it.

Identifying Challenges Up Front: What challenges get in the way of your writing? Challenges are important to identify, because sometimes we have to adapt our processes to work around those things; it’s not ideal, but it’s possible. And it may affect the kind of goals and timelines you can set.

Setting Goals: This is where we discuss how to set yourself up to succeed, not fail. We’ll talk about rules of thumb for setting goals and how to use what you’ve learned about your process and challenges to your advantage. This is where you’ll identify the larger writing goal or goals you plan to tackle.

*There will be a short lecture and writing assignment for this week.

 

WEEK 2 – Using Microgoals, How to Move on and Dealing with Failure, and Identifying Dreams and Career Milestones

Using Microgoals: Where a lot of writers run into trouble is not with larger goals. It’s in the smaller goals that actually get us to the big one: microgoals. The danger is in focusing on the destination instead of the process. Monthly, weekly, and maybe daily micro goals can help keep you on track. This is where your process actually happens. We’ll work through a series of questions you can ask yourself routinely as your proceed toward your goals to stay on track.

How to Move on and Dealing with Failure: Setbacks happen. Not every project turns out to be the right one at the right time. While most of you will probably be focusing on one main project at a time, it’s important to remember that no one project is your entire writing life. We’ll talk about healthy ways to deal with failing to meet a goal or facing rejection.

Identifying Dreams and Career Milestones: Sometimes we get into trouble because we treat dreams and career milestones outside of our direct control as goals. We’ll discuss how to avoid that trap and use dreams and career milestones as motivation.

 

*There will be a handout and short lecture and writing assignment for this week.

Goals Of This Class

• Learn about your own process and determine how it’s working
• Identifying challenges to meeting your writing goals
• Leave class with a clearer idea of how to set realistic goals, how microgoals get you over the finish line, and of how to balance setbacks and dreams
• Get help setting your goals and coming up with a plan to achieve them from your peers and a bestselling author

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