In my last video in this series, I’m talking about writing goals: how to make them and how to meet them. Setting goals is especially important in the period of your career where you’re not working with an agent or publisher and need to give yourself structure. Even after you are working with professionals—unless you are on a very tight book-a-year schedule—there will be long stretches where you need to hold yourself accountable and keep yourself motivated when no one else is around.
Now, a word about writing goals in 2020. Somewhere around April or May when it became clear that this disruption was with us for the long haul, my therapist told me to just double the time it was going to take to doing anything this year. I’ve spent many months internally rebelling against this idea, and it has nonetheless turned out to be completely true! So, I’m giving you that same advice now. Seriously, this year has been a garbage fire, take it easy on yourself.
On that note, whatever your life circumstances, I think it’s always good advice to make your writing goals as practical and concrete as possible. Nebulous goals aren’t motivating and don’t create any built-in accountability. For an ambitious goal like writing a book, you need a workable and efficient road map.
As much as I think we should all temper expectations this year, I want to also acknowledge how inspiring it can be to chase the big dream. Writing may be one of the few things you have a modicum of control over in your life right now, and if leaning into it feels good, by all means, go for it.
I originally did this particular video series for NaNoWriMo and though I’m aware it is no longer November: I think there are some great takeaways from NaNoWriMo about goal setting:
1. Sometimes a lofty goal can be motivating in itself. 50,000 words in a month is a lot for most of us, and I think what makes NaNoWriMo fun is the audacity of it. Even if you get halfway there, you have 25,000 words! That’s a third of a novel!
2. Momentum matters. Having a big, concrete goal encourages forward-momentum which is everything when you’re writing a first draft. The big word count of NaNoWriMo forces you to keep moving and getting those words on the page with no space to second guess every paragraph.
3. Create accountability, even if you don’t have a ‘deadline’. Members of the NaNoWriMo community are constantly posting their word counts and talking about their progress, breaking big writing goals into smaller ones and reporting your progress (even if it’s just to yourself in a notebook) will help make it manageable.
4. Cultivate community. Whether it’s by connecting online or in-person (sometime in the future obviously when in-person is a thing we can do again!) finding fellow writers to form a support system is essential. I advocate for finding people who are in roughly the same stage career-wise to keep these relationships feeling even-keel. (For more on that, see this video I did with MY writer-friend Courtney Maum).
The biggest piece of advice I have about goals right now is to not beat yourself if you don’t meet them. If you’re constantly finding that you’re unable to meet your targets, take a step back and reevaluate, but the most important thing is to bounce back and keep going. Writing is a career of ups and downs: beyond talent and work ethic, resilience is the single most important quality for success, however it is that you measure it.
This week’s exercise: Reflect on your month of writing. What went well? What didn’t? Figure out your goals for next month and those to come.