By Angela Burke Kunkel

I started bullet journaling in mid-2016, the same year I began seriously pursuing writing for children. In my mind, the two are absolutely connected. Admitting that I wanted to write was a big thing to say out loud, and committing the steps to paper made it real.

If you’re not familiar with the bullet journal method, it’s a “DIY planner” but also a mode of thinking developed by Ryder Carroll. And while there are millions of Pinterest and Instagram posts of pretty bullet journal pages, the essential thing is that a bullet journal is a place to think intentionally about your goals — to track, reflect, and plan in both the long term and the short-term. (I’m indebted to Kate Messner’s fantastic post on how she uses a bullet journal as a children’s author, which you can see here).

One of my earliest goals was to get over my fear of perfectionism by sending out work and accumulating 100 rejections a year (inspired by this post by Kim Liao). In case you’re wondering, I got lucky and only made it to 33 before I signed with my agent. And yes, I tallied up those rejections in my bullet journal:

And you know what? It was honestly great. It kept my mind focused on that goal of getting work out there, and as I was marking off rejections in my bullet journal, I was also collecting bits and pieces of feedback from agents. It was a message — and a written reminder — to keep going.

As I built my bullet journaling habit, I also began thinking in more concrete terms about writing goals. Mapping my writing journey on the page helped me to reflect on progress I had made, what I wanted to do next, and what was left to be done. It also helped me let go of things and shift goals. And, importantly, it’s helped me with writer’s block. Once I signed the contract for DIGGING, my old friend perfectionism reared its ugly head again, and I had a very hard time moving forward with the necessary edits. In my bullet journal, I made a mental map of all the tools I had at my disposal:

Did I use them all? Of course not. But articulating what I could do helped me get unstuck. And, when I inevitably got stuck again, I’d return to this page and try another revision method.

While I now use a Passion Planner (mostly because I was wasting too much time my bullet journal pages pretty), the idea remains the same. I keep a weekly habit log where I track how often I’ve written and how many picture books I’ve read. I have a space to write and reflect on monthly goals and projects, and I also have running lists in the back — a Gantt chart (thanks again, Kate Messner!) for ongoing projects, a running list of random writing-related things I need to take care of, ideas I want to research and/or pursue, and more. Here’s a page from my Gantt chart, marking off all of the steps I need to take before I feel ready to show a manuscript to my agent:

And, starting in 2020, I’m structuring my goals slightly differently, inspired by the book The Art of Slow Writing by Louise DeSalvo. Like most authors, I have a full-time job and family commitments in addition to writing, and I do, indeed, go slowly. In her book, DeSalvo recommends two practices I’m instituting in the coming year: first, a “ship’s log,” rather than a goal, is a place to record what you actually accomplished during your writing session that day. Can I say how much I love this? Because as much as bullet journaling has been helpful for me, it’s sometimes been a hindrance as well — I sometimes make so many lists that (once again) the perfectionist in me freezes and can’t decide what to tackle next. A ship’s log asks the brain to stop and recognize and reward the accomplishment of the moment, the work done — rather than speeding on to checking off the next thing on the list.

The second practice I’ll be borrowing from DeSalvo in 2020 is approaching goals in twelve-week increments. A few weeks ago, I brainstormed a giant list of writing-related thoughts. I then circled what was most important to me, looked for connections or themes, and tried to separate goals out by 1) actual craft/writing goals, 2) publicity and “author” duties for my debut year, and 3) ways to keep my creativity flowing that may (or may not) involve actual writing. I broke this down into a five-year, one year, quarterly (twelve week), and monthly goals. And, because the list is long and lofty, I’m layering this with the ship’s log. Will I accomplish EVERY single thing I wrote down, EVERY month or EVERY twelve weeks? Probably — almost certainly — not. Do I need to acknowledge, record, recognize what I DID and what I WANT to accomplish? Absolutely.

I also fully expect those goals to shift, and that’s OK. Reflecting on what went well, what didn’t, how I can refocus my time, what I want to let go of, or what I want to work more on — it all counts. Here’s to a productive — and positive — relationship with our writing goals in 2020. Happy New Year!

Angela Burke Kunkel is a school librarian, picture-book author, and stationery enthusiast. When she’s not reading or writing, you can probably find her walking her dogs or looking for the perfect planner and pen. Her debut picture book with illustrator Paola Escobar, DIGGING FOR WORDS: JOSÉ ALBERTO GUTIÉRREZ AND THE LIBRARY HE BUILT (Random House/Schwartz & Wade) will be published in September 2020.

Follow author Angela Burke Kunkel: 

Website: angelakunkel.com
Twitter: @angkunkel
Instagram: @angkunkel