Tips for Writers: Setting Goals

Today, June 20, is the first day of Summer in the Northern Hemisphere.  School is out. Work schedules are relaxed. Football season is a couple of months away, so there’s nothing good to watch on television (apologies to baseball fans). Time to get some writing done.

In fact, I know a lot of writers who can only write during the summer because of their teaching duties. I don’t teach, but it still seems as though I have fewer demands on my time in the summer (except for lawn and garden, which need constant attention). So today seemed like a good day to talk about goals.

I think some writers don’t think in terms of goals. They write as much as they can, when they can, and watch the words, paragraphs, pages mount up. But I like a little more pressure than that. I like to have something to shoot for, and because I’m at the beginning of a new novel project (although I confess I’ve got the rough draft I did during Nanowrimo last year, and that’s a decent guide for where I want to go in this book), I’m keen to look forward and see where I’d like to be on Labor Day weekend, 10 weeks from now.

Goal: 5,000 words a week, 50,000 by Labor Day.

That’s only 1,000 words a day, and should be doable. What’s your goal?

About the author

I am the author of three novels--THE LAST BIRD OF PARADISE, OLIVER'S TRAVELS, and THE SHAMAN OF TURTLE VALLEY--and three story collections--IN AN UNCHARTED COUNTRY, HOUSE OF THE ANCIENTS AND OTHER STORIES, and WHAT THE ZHANG BOYS KNOW, winner of the Library of Virginia Literary Award for Fiction. I am also the co-founder and former editor of Prime Number Magazine and the editor of the award-winning anthology series EVERYWHERE STORIES: SHORT FICTION FROM A SMALL PLANET.

Comments

  1. Im in the write when I can camp but its a creativity issue more than a temporal issue. I have attempted 1000 words a day only to find myself banging my head on the keyboard in frustration when they dont come.
    I do though constantly prepare away from the keyboard, often in a running visual sometimes oral dialogue in my mind. In that sense the echanical

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