Message in a Bottle

 Since I no longer go and work in a partition every day, I’m reinventing myself as a writer.

Aside from pitching for articles (and a couple of other projects), I’m also writing two books- a chick lit manuscript and an Astro book. I’m a new writer, and have no contacts in the publishing industry so have no advances. In other words, I am writing in a sort of “build it and they will come” way.

Not only does that take a lot of faith and optimism, but also a huge commitment to the task/s ahead. Being so heavily influenced by Jupiter and Neptune, I have plenty of the former. Being so weakly influenced by Saturn, I have a multitude of problems with the latter.

As a Piscean not only does it not occur to me that this won’t work, but the reality of what I like to call the “message in a bottle” syndrome also didn’t occur to me- you know, when you feel like you are on a desert island throwing bottles with messages into the water, hoping that the tide will take one to someone who needs to read it.

So, how do I do it? How does someone like me tackle a 85,000 word piece of fiction or a 20 chapter non fiction project when there is absolutely no guarantee of success at the end of the day?

The “just keep going” or “keep your eye on the prize” or “one foot in front of the other” does not work for me. When it comes to goals, for me to succeed two things need to happen:

·      My Saturn is in Aries, so I have to keep deadlines within short sight and celebrate every single short-term achievement. Aries doesn’t have the patience to maintain the focus unless the end is in sight. Lots of little beginnings work.

·      Use the best of your opposite. My Sun is in Virgo, so I break the goal down. In terms of my writing goals, I set a deadline for the completion of the first draft of my fiction, decided how many days a week I would work on it, and then did the maths to get a daily target.

How do you manage goals? Do you have a mantra or an image? Do you relish the suffering or give up at the wall? I’d love to know…