Intro
Setting concrete writing goals, I’ve found, is one of the best ways to keep my writing on track. If you have a clearly defined goal for the day, week, or month, you can easily break the bigger problem of finishing a whole project down into more digestible chunks. This is good for a variety of reasons, such as giving you a smaller, more specific task to work toward, and making the overall writing process feel less daunting. And, of course, there’s always a nice rush of satisfaction when you see that you’ve reached your goal, which is great for keeping up your confidence and morale. All of these things help me keep my projects moving forward.
But writing goals can also be a double-edged sword. Setting goals and then failing to achieve them, either because life happened or because they were realistically always beyond your reach, can have a negative impact on your confidence and motivation. Which, of course, is not so great, for writing or for anything else. So it’s important to make sure that your goals are realistic, and that, even then, you’re willing to be flexible about them.
With all that in mind, how do I decide what goals to pursue? Well, that’s what I’m going to be sharing in today’s post.
How I Pick a Goal to Pursue
Obviously, the right goal depends on the writer in question. Some people have their days wide open, with plenty of time to write, while others have to try to cram it in between other tasks and responsibilities. And, regardless of the amount of time you have, some people write faster, while others write slower. None of these make you more or less of a writer, but they can be a strong indicator of what goals are the most achievable to you.
I usually have both a daily writing goal and a weekly writing goal. My weekly goal—which I consider the more important of the two—is a milestone one, something like “Get to the final battle in (insert project title here),” or “Get to the point in (insert project title here) when the protagonist first meets the antagonist.” My daily goal is mostly just to make sure that I’m making steady progress toward that weekly goal, so it’s usually “Work on (insert project title here) for 2 hours.” I consider my daily goal to be the minimum of what I want to get done, though, if I feel like it, I often end up writing longer.
Which brings me to the point of making sure that your goals are well within your ability to achieve. I’m not saying you shouldn’t be ambitious, but you should be realistic; don’t shoot for goals that you know, logically, are going to be almost impossible for you to achieve. If you know you’re a slow writer who also works a full time job, don’t set yourself up for failure by setting a goal to write 1200 words a day. Make it something that works for you. It doesn’t necessarily have to be easy—though it totally could be, if you just want to make sure you’re making steady progress—but it should be something that you’re confident you can manage on an average day. Maybe it’s to write 100 words a day, or to write for 30 minutes every day. Whatever you think is within your capabilities on an average day. Not on your best day—a lot of writers make that mistake, and that’s how they wind up setting goals that do nothing but frustrate them. An average day.
But what if you don’t know how much you can typically manage in a day, or a week, or a month, or whatever you want your timeframe to be? Well, then you experiment. Spend a few days/weeks/months—whichever your goal is for—just keeping track of your progress in whatever way you plan to in your goal (word count, time spent writing, whatever), without actually trying to hit a specific goal. Write it down somewhere so that you remember and can compare it to other days/weeks/months at the end. The main point of this is to figure out what your averages are. Once you feel like you’ve identified them, you can set a goal based on them and test it out. If you find that the goal is too hard for you to achieve, or that you feel like you can raise the bar a little, you can always adjust it as you see fit. Using a strategy like this, you’re sure to find goals that work for you.
Stay Flexible
Even after you find a goal that seems to work well for you and your life, it’s important to recognize that there are probably still going to be times when you aren’t going to accomplish it. Life could get chaotic, or you could suffer a nasty period of writer’s block—there are countless things that could slow your writing down, or bring it screeching to a halt. What’s important is that you don’t let yourself get put out about it.
The best way to do this is to be flexible about your goals. They aren’t set in stone, and you’re free to change them whenever you think it’s necessary—such as when your writing time is limited or when the words aren’t coming easily. For example, when I’m going through a rough patch in my writing but still want to make sure I’m making some progress in my projects, I usually change my daily goal to something simpler, like “write for 1 hour.” This way, I still have a goal to work toward, so I know I’m still making progress, but I don’t have to drive myself crazy trying to force myself to do more than I can manage. Your fallback goals might involve significantly more or less writing than mine, depending on what your usual goals are, but that’s totally fine; all that matters is that it’s something easy for you, even on a rough day.
And, of course, there are going to be days when you’re too busy or unfocused to do any writing at all. That’s fine too; it’s good to have breaks. Sometimes they can even help get you out of a writing slump, if you’re burnt out or need to recharge, so they can be beneficial to future productivity.
Outro
The point of setting writing goals is to make sure that you’re making steady progress in your projects, not to create unnecessary pressure that’ll ultimately slow you down in the long run. Obviously, the right goal for you depends on a variety of factors, such as how much time you have to write and how much you can typically write at a given time. But, once you know what your averages are, you shouldn’t have much trouble finding the perfect goal for you.
As always, thanks for reading!
