Have you ever promised yourself to accomplish your writing goals this time around? To finish writing your book within the next month, only for the days to fly by and you to realize you\u2019re no closer than you were weeks ago?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you ever wanted to make progress with your story, but felt unsure about how to give yourself a reasonable goal–and how to make sure to meet that goal?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s why today we\u2019re going to discuss how to set writing goals you can actually accomplish. I\u2019ve also created a goals sheet to help you with this process, and you can get it for FREE by joining my newsletter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you ever wanted to write but felt too busy? If only you could find extra time to write.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The truth is, you won\u2019t. If there was a way to just happen upon a few extra hours of time, we wouldn\u2019t need goals and deadlines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead, we need to make<\/em> time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If writing is important to us, then we need to set aside time in our schedule specifically for writing. This may mean watching less television or scrolling through fewer social media posts. It may mean going to bed 15 minutes later and using that 15 minutes to write. It may mean writing during lunch break, while waiting in line, or on the bus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is my first task for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, ask yourself if writing is important to you. Since you\u2019re reading this, I\u2019m guessing it is. If that\u2019s the case, then challenge yourself to set aside 15 minutes to write. You may find that once you carve out those first few minutes, it will become easier to carve out a few more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now that we know how to make the time for writing, how much can you actually write in one week?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Everyone\u2019s schedules look different. Some of us can easily write 1,000 words in a day, while some of us are lucky to get 200. Daily word counts will also look different when your goal is to edit versus when your goal is to write the first draft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Take a week and push yourself to write as much as you can. Think of it as a trial period. Keep track of how much you write each day, as well as what locations and times of day you wrote. At the end of this trial period, you\u2019ll know exactly how many words you can write on a good day, how many you can write on a bad day, and whether there\u2019s a certain location or time that helps you write better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, with the information from your trial period, you can figure out a realistic time frame for your writing goals. For example, if you wrote between 900-1,000 words per day during your trial period, then you know that over the course of a month, you can write 27,000-30,000 words. If your goal is to write 60,000 words, you\u2019ll need two months at this pace. If you try to force yourself to write all 60,000 words in only one month, you\u2019ll likely burn yourself out, miss your target, and feel disappointed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s the last thing we want. The purpose of this trial period is to know how much you can realistically<\/em> do, so you can set writing goals you can actually accomplish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before you cross the starting line, take a moment to write out WHY this goal is important to you. There is a section for this in my free worksheet, but if you opt not to use that, write it on a sticky note or an index card and place it somewhere you can see while you\u2019re writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why do you want to write this story? Why does it matter to you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I write because I want people to feel inspired by the fictional heroes I\u2019ve created. Because I want to share my struggles and the things I\u2019ve learned in a fantastical way. Because I love the way books can capture readers\u2019 hearts and imaginations by arranging words in certain ways to invoke feelings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why do you write?Having your why<\/em> down on paper will serve as a reminder for why you\u2019re doing this when the going gets tough. It can help sustain your motivation on your journey to accomplish your goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s important that we don\u2019t let ourselves make excuses. Excuses just give us a reason to not try harder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Through this process, we need to be honest with ourselves. If we know we can write 500 words in a day, but we\u2019re only writing 100, we can make excuses for ourselves, saying that we\u2019re tired or we\u2019re just not feeling it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or we can push ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pushing ourselves is always harder, but it\u2019s always more rewarding. It feels good to look back at all the words we wrote and say, \u201cI did that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even if our work feels subpar, having words on the page is better than having a blank page. You can\u2019t edit a blank page<\/em>. As long as we\u2019re getting words down, we can improve them. But without anything on the page, we have nothing to improve upon. All we have is a concept floating around in our imagination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No matter what, we must keep writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\nHow Much Can You Actually Write?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Why<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Push Yourself<\/h2>\n\n\n\n