How to Create Writing Goals in 3 Important Steps

Sunfire

Introduction

There comes a time early on where an author begins to realize the scope of what’s involved in writing a fantasy book. Far more work than he ever envisioned when he first started working on his newest project. That’s why it’s important to take a step back (and catch a breath by the way!) and focus on creating writing goals that work.

Writing goals help you take the overall picture of writing a book and break it down into smaller pieces that you can complete at a nice, steady pace. These goals aren’t just restricted to the actual process of writing the book; you can use them anywhere, even at the brainstorming phase.

Examples of writing goals are:

Complete the novel outline in a month.
Finish the first draft of the novel in one year.
Write one chapter each week.
Write 1500 words each day.

Notice how these goals have different timetables? Part of creating writing goals is to separate them by timeframe. Coming up with short-, mid-, and long-term goals give you something to attain for which help motivate you to keep going. And it always feels great when you successfully reach one, which spurs you to press on so you can hit the next one!

Writing a book can be a bit of a slog at times which is why when creating goals, you need to have realistic ones that work for you and manage your expectations accordingly. The worst thing you could do is come up with goals that seem impossible to attain in a short amount of time and you find that you’re unable to reach it then, which will sap your enthusiasm and before you know it, you won’t be writing anymore.

On one hand, creating and managing your writing goals expectations are important. On the other hand, it’s imperative that they be flexible. Things come up which can cause you to push everything back a little bit. The goals you develop should have some leeway in them so that you can deal with unexpected situations and still reach them in time.

This is the sixth article in the series revolving around writing a fantasy novel. For more articles, you can find them on our blog page.

Create Realistic Writing Goals

You can begin making goals whenever you like. Some authors like to do them right before they commence writing a book; others like to do them even earlier and some just prefer to freewheel it all the way through to the last page, never coming up with any at all. Make them when you feel like you’re ready to.

The first thing to do when creating writing goals is to compose realistic ones. That means, write ones that you can reach in a reasonable amount of time. Don’t make ones that are too lofty or too far-fetched like completing a 1000 page book in 3 months if you feel like you cannot handle it. While you want to push yourself, you don’t want to overwork yourself to the point where you wind up absolutely hating it.

How do you determine which ones are realistic and which ones aren’t? Simple. Write them all down, even the most absurd ones you know you have no way of reaching. Next, look at all of them and cross off the ones that you know are impossible. You’re left with more manageable ones. Look at them and consider which ones you can easily work with and winnow out the others. Keep winnowing them until only the ones left are ones that while they challenge you, they’re still easy to reach.

Writing goals are broken into three groups, which are as follows:

Short-term: usually 1-2 months or less. They include writing a set number of pages per week or month. These are the ones you’ll be hitting the most, so take great care to make them easily attainable which will fuel your motivation to keep going.
Mid-term: 2-6 months. They include writing a certain number of chapters in a set period of time. The short-term goals you created in the preceding paragraph help you hit your mid-term goals.
Long-term: 6 months to a year or more. Goals like finishing the manuscript in one year fall within this category. Both the short- and mid-term goals from the previous paragraphs help you reach your long-term goals.

When constructing your goals, begin with the long-term first and work your way backwards. Your short-term goals will flow into your mid-term goals and both will flow into the long-term.

Manage Your Writing Goals Expectations

Even though it’s vital to craft realistic writing goals, managing your expectations on reaching them is equally essential. Writing goals is easy, getting there is another story entirely. You want to develop goals that push you to keep going, even when you want to give up, not ones you have no way of achieving in the timeframe you set for yourself.

This is where you take the best tool you have at your disposal, which is yourself, and use it. Only you know your capabilities, how much you can do in a specified amount of time, whether it be a week or month or year. Only you can follow the goals you set for yourself.

The reason why so many would-be authors never finish writing their book is they set goals too ambitious for themselves and they push themselves to the breaking point, trying to reach them, only to be so discouraged they decide never to do it ever again. Writing a book is one of the hardest things to do and making goals impossible to attain only makes it harder.

When it comes to creating writing goals, compose goals that are easily attainable. For example, instead of writing two chapters each week, go with one chapter each week. The goals you pen down should help you, not hinder you or demoralize you.

Writing a book is a long journey filled with many ups and downs. There’ll be times where you feel like it’s not worth it or nobody will ever want to read your book. The goals you set for yourself will help push you through the tough times, so it’s key to choose the right ones to help keep you on the path to completing it in a reasonable amount of time.

Have Flexibility in Your Writing Goals

Yes, it’s important to have realistic goals and manage your expectations accordingly. After all, they make a significant difference between someone finishing his book or not. However, those two aren’t the be-all, end-all.

A key part of creating writing goals that doesn’t get as much attention as it should is making them flexible. While you want to develop goals where you can reach them in the timeframe you decided, you want to leave a bit of wiggle room for yourself in case an unexpected situation arises.

Everyone has busy lives. Whether it’s family, work, or something else, there may be times where you’ll have to direct your attention somewhere else instead of your book. That’s okay. These duties should go first since they demand your attention.

Ideally, you’d want to work on your book when you’re by yourself, either early in the morning or late in the day or whichever time works for you. Sometimes things come up like a dance recital or sports game or a work meeting that runs late. Those things can make rearranging your writing schedule tricky and occasionally you may have to write at a different time or write less that week.

This is why it’s so crucial to give your goals some flexibility. Giving yourself some breathing room helps mitigate the time you lose when you have to deal with unexpected situations. It’s also easier to get back on track since you’ve only fallen behind just a little bit, which makes it easier for you to keep your momentum going.

How do you make goals that are flexible? Go with ones like writing a chapter every two weeks or giving yourself more than one year to finish your book. Yes, the timetable may be longer but see how easily you can reach them, should you find yourself having to deal with life? Having flexible goals enable you to stay on schedule while taking into consideration that things can, and will, come up.

Tying it all Together

Writing a book is a journey that takes a lot of time which is why it’s important to create goals that take said journey and break it down into bite-sized piece. How you structure them can dramatically affect how you get there, if you get there at all. Therefore, go with goals that help you, not hurt you.

Goals are broken into three types. Short-term refers to two months or less. Mid-term goes from 2 to 6 months. Long-term goals are 6 months to a year or more. Thus, it’s imperative to craft realistic writing goals within each type and also flow into each other.

Don’t forget to manage your expectations accordingly in regard to your goals. The follow-through is equally important and only you are responsible for ensuring that you reach them in a timely manner. Knowing yourself is key, since you’ll be relying on your capabilities to attain the goals you set out for yourself at the onset.

Put some flexibility in your goals so that if things go awry like if you get sick, you still have time to reach them in the timeframe you settled on. Even better, they help minimize the time you lose when you’re not writing which means you can still reach them on schedule. In short, they enable you to stay on track and avoid being dispirited by not achieving them on time.

Creating writing goals is key to successfully writing a book, so what are you waiting for? Go ahead and jot them down!

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Thanks for reading this and until the next time,

Sunfire

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How to Create Writing Goals in 3 Important Steps

Sunfire

CONTENTS

Introduction

Create Realistic Writing Goals

Manage Your Writing Goals Expectations

Have Flexibility in Your Writing Goals

Tying it all Together

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