How to Set Writing Goals

5-min. read

The first of January is less than a month away. If writing is your profession or your passion, you may be setting a New Year’s Resolution to write more frequently, create another piece, or publish a work-in-progress. Like me, you may love setting goals and feel eager to map out your next adventure—first, though, I encourage you to set aside some intentional time to reflect on where you see yourself at this time next year. Consider where and how your resolution fits into your ideal writing practice. Evaluate whether or not you have chosen meaningful goals.

The goal-setting process is a means to an end (your writing goal). Some people think goal setting is fun in and of itself. I also enjoy meeting a challenge for the sake of meeting a challenge, but it is important to understand what kind of work matters if your goal is to be sustainable. You’re expecting too much of yourself (or too little, depending on your perspective) if you want to be consistent about working toward a goal that simply isn’t consistent with you. Look at your goal in a big-picture sense and figure out whether it supports the individual you’d like to become next month, next year, or longer.

Are you ready to get a better handle on your writing goals? Let’s look at some best practices for goal setting.

Goal-Setting Best Practices for Writers

Be Specific About What You Want to Accomplish

Instead of setting a goal to “write more,” set a goal to write for x number of hours per day or to reach x weekly word count. You can determine x by tracking your average for a predetermined time span and then adding a 5 to 20 percent increase.

Decide How You Will Measure Your Success

There are a variety of ways to measure your writing goal, but two of the most common metrics include word count and number of hours invested in your writing practice. The main advantage of tracking word count is that this method emphasizes output rather than input factors, which means you assess yourself against results instead of effort. On the other hand, input factors assume a link between effort and results, which is usually but not necessarily true. The benefit of tracking your hours at the laptop is that this method is more forgiving if you have an uninspired day and may give you permission to focus on quality over quantity in your manuscript. You are the best judge of which method is more compatible with your existing writing practice.

Give Yourself a Deadline

A deadline can be one date or an interval, such as what must be done every week, depending on whether you want to reach a key milestone or achieve a change in lifestyle. Even if it is the former, I suggest scheduling daily, weekly, or monthly check-ins to make sure you are on track. I have found that checking in with yourself daily gives you a good rhythm, but weekly deadlines afford more flexibility and forgiveness if you anticipate missing a day or two per week or leaving weekends open. You might also consider monthly check-ins, which work especially well for writers who have other major commitments in life and write for fun or as a side gig.

Block Out a Set Time to Work on Your Goals

Some people work well on a flexible schedule. That said, for others, having a specific time block of two or three hours to work on Goal A encourages them to make a little progress every day. A time block might give you permission to tell yourself (and others) that in this daily time slot you plan to write without any distractions. You may also find yourself needing to cut out time-wasting habits or reduce your involvement in another project in order to focus on this one. Good time management looks and feels different for everyone, but make sure you manage your time intentionally rather than arbitrarily.

Have a Daily Ritual

Every day I update my bullet journal with new ideas and progress toward my goals. This has multiple benefits. For one, the act of writing and reflection keeps me accountable. For two, on the bad days when it feels like I’m not making progress, I can look back on how far I’ve come and maintain a sense of perspective. If you are more visual, you might consider making a collage or drawing on grid paper. It’s okay (and probably ideal) if your ritual is very simple and quick, as long as it helps you with perspective taking.

Tell People About Your Dreams

Some writers haven’t told anyone they write (or even publish). Especially as a new writer, you may feel very resistant toward subjecting yourself and your goals to others’ judgment because you don’t want to risk looking silly. Vulnerability goes hand in hand with anything worth doing, so this is understandable. In fact, I think it’s healthy to establish some boundaries around when and with whom you share your writing goals. That said, talking to a good friend or mentor about what you want to accomplish can open doors for you that you couldn’t open on your own. It’s fine to exercise discretion about who is and is not a good confidant, but don’t be afraid to reach out to the right people.

Know the Difference Between Important and Urgent

Important tasks are the heart of your writing practice, meaning they need to be done well to keep your audience happy. Think content creation. Urgent tasks are time sensitive, meaning they need to be completed fast for the sake of a deadline. Think life admin or business admin. Both types of tasks (which are not necessarily mutually exclusive) have a place in your time management, but you don’t want to fall into the pattern of doing urgent tasks to the neglect of important ones. This will make your day feel productive but your year less so, because you are always doing things but never getting anything done.

Track Your Progress

Keep track of your goals on a monthly calendar, in your planner, or with an online system. You can analyze what works and what doesn’t, understand when you are most likely to hit or miss your goals, and develop better strategies for managing your time and energy. Bonus: Make a plan for when you get off track.

Approach Goal Setting in a Healthy Way

It is important to differentiate healthy goals—that is, goals that improve your performance and support a daily work routine that leaves you feeling productive, engaged, and happy—from unattainable demands on your time and talent. Unhealthy goal setting may lead to poorer results than no goal setting at all. In this situation, you are given limited support systems and under constant pressure to do perfect or very well. On the other hand, a healthy goal is time-bound, has clear objectives, and pushes you without paralyzing you. Writers who give themselves opportunities to fail and remove the shame around failure often get more done and do better work than those who dwell on every missed benchmark.

Final Thoughts

You are now ready to tackle goal setting as a writer! One last note: It is best practice to revisit your goals every six months. You will probably need to re-evaluate any goal longer than one year as you go to make sure your plan is still 1) what you want and 2) the most strategic next step for you. If you change your goal, make sure it’s for a good reason, such as discovering something new about yourself or the world around you, not because you are running low on interest in the short term. Everyone will have moments of self-doubt or periods when the well of creativity is lower than usual, and in these times, it is often more fruitful to re-evaluate your methods than to set a new goal. Don’t give up too soon or too easily, but give yourself permission to revisit your goals from time to time and consider whether they reflect the individual you are becoming.

Did I miss anything? What are your biggest writing goals? Let me know in the comments!

Thanks for reading!

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