I set myself the goal of reading and reviewing 52 writing guides over 52 weeks. The initial year has sailed on by, and my last post was so long ago I couldn’t find it on my dashboard.
I want to finish the project, though, and only have 7 books left. So I’ve renamed it simply 52 Books, and here is book 46.
Goal Setting for Writers by Sandra Gerth is really the first book in a short series of writers’ guides. I should have done these last two the other way around and, to be honest, the books have probably been released in the right order, particularly as book 2 builds on what you’ve already learnt in book 1. (See my review of book 2 here.)
Once again, this book is aimed specifically at writers, and once again it’s presented in a logical order, starting with setting your goals in the first place, in 17 easy steps. It then runs through achieving and then evaluating those goals, and changing them if necessary.
One of the first thing the author advises is that the reader reads this book one chapter at a time, stop, digest the information, do the task at the end of that chapter, and then move on to the next.
I said that book 1 was the best book on time management I’ve ever read, and this one is another of the best writing books I’ve ever read. It took me a while to set up a routine based on the advice in this book (my fault for procrastinating), but now it’s there, I’m sticking to it pretty well and being productive again.
If you’re keen to learn more about the nuts and bolts of writing, I’d highly recommend this entire series. The individual books don’t cost the earth, they’re in easily readable and digestible chunks, assuming that the readers are very busy writers, and they’re based on the experience of a regularly published writer.
I already have three of the books from this series, and I’ll be adding to my collection shortly. That’s how good a writer I think Gerth is – and English isn’t even her first language.
Goal Setting for Writers is currently only on Kindle, but as some of the others have been released in paperback, this one may too. In the meantime, it’s available (at the moment) for £1.99 ($2.48).
