Goal Setting for Writers: Ending the Year with Clarity and Focus

How, how is today the last day of September!? It feels like I blinked, and the month was over! 
So considering we are facing the last three months of the year, let’s talk about how to make the most of them because we can either make excuses or we can make an effort!

How to Set Achievable Writing Goals for the Last Quarter of the Year

Last week, I was chatting with my client about how to approach drafting their book this quarter. They'd just finished working through the story development phase and felt so excited, so ready to go. They were on fire, which is fantastic!

So much so that they said they want to finish their first draft by the end of the year!

To which I said, "Yes! I love the energy, but let's make sure that's really a reasonable goal for you."

Because if our goals are unrealistic then we set ourselves up for disappointment. 

We've all been there. We're fired up. We are going to do this thing full out, and then…life happens, and we don't meet that lofty goal.

Sometimes—-okay lots of times, we feel like crap about it. I call it the “another year and no book” blues. 

Sometimes, we say things like, "Well, at least I did XYZ, so I'm proud of myself for that," but in truth, that statement is more of a consolation prize.

Doing the Math Without a Reality Check

Now I'm going to get really granular, so don't hate me for pointing this out, but there are only ninety-two days left until the end of the year. 

Ninety-two days to meet those writing goals!

It might sound like a lot (or maybe not). But either way, it’s not an accurate number. There are not ninety-two writing days left in the year. Not if you subtract weekends and holidays.

For me, there are more like 52 possible writing days. But I'm not a full-time fiction writer. I have another job or two, and I don't write every day. 

That's my reality. What's yours like? 

If your reality is similar to mine, how can we set ourselves up to make reasonable progress given the constraints of our lives, avoid disappointment, and make some room for when things go haywire?

My answer: Be very clear about the size of the bite you can realistically take to achieve your goals. Then lower the bar.

Case in point: My client, whom I mentioned earlier, is drafting a contemporary YA, which, all said and done, should land between 65K and 85K words. So for ease, let's split the difference at 70K, and I'll walk you through the math we did together on our last coaching call to make sure the goal of drafting her book by year-end was reasonable and attainable.

So, 70K of fresh words in NOT 92 days.

For this writer, it was also more like 52 possible writing days. 

That's 1,346 words a day—which actually doesn't sound horrible. It's less than Nano's 1,667 words per day…if they write every single one of those 52 days.

But here's the problem: the lens of reality is missing.

Like most of us, this writer doesn't write every day. There are lots of other things going on in their life–work, family, living. 

They typically have three writing sessions per week. 

So, we redid the math given the constraints of life. 

Three writing sessions a week x 2.5 months (9ish weeks, remember we took out all weekends and the fall/winter holidays) = 27 total writing sessions for the remainder of the year.

Now divide 70K by 27, and that's 2,600 words per writing session. OUCH.

That's a steep ask, even for a seasoned writer. And we are not taking into account the days where SHIT HAPPENS or the days when the words won't come.

What does a reasonable and achievable goal look like when the lens of reality is applied and we add a buffer for the “shit happens” days?

Here's the new math my client and I did:

There will be 27 writing sessions over the next three months; let's make it 24—give ourselves a little padding for the "I didn't wake up early enough," "I'm sick," " Nah… don't wanna today," and the really sucky one "I sat there for an hour and nothing happened" scenario.

So, 24 writing sessions.

If you're a word count person, Consider how many words you write on average during a typical writing session. Don't know because this is your first novel? Just lowball it and say 250-500, but keep track.

Then multiply that by your number of writing sessions.

So, let's say my client averages 500 words in a 45-minute writing session. 

That's 12K words, about 20% of the book considering their genre.

That is the lens of my writer's reality. 

And every time I sit down with a drafting writer and do the math on what's realistic, their eyes get pretty big. Like, oh, shit. Really, I didn't realize. 

Given all this, we decided the smarter, more achievable goal would be to draft the first act of the story by the end of the year.

That is doable. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if my writer blows that out of the water… but how good will it feel to be ahead of the game vs. scrambling and not making it to the first mile marker. 

Apply Your Reality to Your Writing Game

So writer friend, set yourself up to be successful by being very clear about the time you have to work with and factor in the "this is hard" and “life is unpredictable” parts so that you will achieve what you're aiming for. Not only that, you'll probably make it happen faster than expected. That's gravy. 

Setting writing goals that factor in the constraints of your life and planning for off days is how you avoid disappointment and discount the work you did.  

Doing the math through the lens of reality isn't a foolproof method, but it will help you set realistic writing goals!

But what if you: a) hate math and b) don’t give two winks about word count?

I get it. No worries. 

Maybe word count stresses you out or you are not in the place where word count is a realistic marker to measure because you’re noodling, getting back into a story, or you just don’t like the idea of measuring your progress that way. 

Totally understandable. And perhaps your reasonable goal is just to spend time on your story. 

If that’s the case, consider using a manuscript time block to set goals and measure progress. 

Figure out how many potential writing sessions are available to you over the next three months. Factor in a buffer for when life happens.(Sorry, I guess there’s still a little math)  Then, the goal just becomes making those writing sessions. It doesn’t matter what you do at this time; you can be writing a backstory, noodling over the plot, doing character sketches, or research. 

It all counts as writing and progress, and YOU WILL GET THERE!

What is your Q4 writing goal?  What does your math or non-math look like? Send me an email and let me know!