Tips for Reaching Writing Goals

November 18, 2009

Writing goals are good. Staying on track and reaching your goals is very fulfilling. They’re good if you’re a freelance writer and if you’re a fiction writer, and they’re also good if you write as a hobby as well. Whether you need to meet monetary goals, want to hit word count goals for a personal challenge (such as NaNoWriMo), here’s some help:

Write it Down

The first step to meeting writing goals is setting them. What is it that you’re after? If it’s freelance writing for pay, you might have a dollar figure per month that you want (or need) to hit. In that case, once you break it down by day, it becomes easier. If you’re trying to write a whole 50,000 words in the month of November, you’ll have to figure out how many days you want to dedicate to writing and what the word count per day you should strive for. Setting big goals is good but setting manageable goals is better.

Here are some helpful tips:

  • Write it down. Tracking goals on a piece of paper or spreadsheet and then tracking your results is a good way to measure your success. Rather than just keeping a number in mind, many writers feel something is more concrete if it’s actually written down. If you’re a Gmail user, there’s a handy task list you can use to set reminders and to mark things off as they’re done.

  • Turn off the distractions if you’re lagging. You probably know what your biggest potential distractions are. Everyone has them. For some it’s Facebook, for others it’s MSN, and for some it’s the phone or television. Buckling down and avoiding temptation is the best way to meet your goals.

  • Add a buffer. If you know you can complete 5,000 words in a day you might set your goal at 4,000 so that if you have unexpected things crop up, you can still manage to meet your goals and if you go over your goal number, you can pat yourself on the back. The same applies to money. You might set a primary goal of a dollar amount but add a stretch goal and plan for a reward if you hit that number.

  • Give yourself a pat on the back or a small reward (such as: chocolate, a glass of wine, a fancy new pen, a night out, etc.) when you reach goals

  • Give yourself a break once in a while. Setting aggressive and challenging writing goals is good but don’t burn the candle at both ends for too long or you’ll extinguish your energy and creativity!

Feel free to share your goal setting (and goal reaching) tips. Are you doing NaNoWriMo this month? If so, how are you doing?