I used to always set writing goals for myself, but lately I've been so up and down that I've pretty much abandoned them. Now, after watching my friend Heather's amusing but informative guest vlog on revisions (something I'm far, far from) featured on Lip Gloss Lit, I've decided to give them another go.
Amidst her great advice on revisions she talked about goals and I was reminded that goals and deadlines are hugely important in writing, especially when we have to be our own taskmasters. I should know this since I'm self-employed and struggle with the exact same problem in my other work - self-motivation.
So... what is my writing goal going to be? Hm.... Normally it would be at least 1000 words a day (which used to be cake) but I'm almost afraid to commit to that right now since my daily word count has been all over the place. On the other hand, it might be exactly what I need and 500 words seems too little.
Okay, I'll commit to 750 words a day and see how it goes for awhile. If I can stick to that then I'll keep challenging myself and up my goal count. I'm thinking about doing a Wednesday Word Count post each week too so I can track my weekly progress. We'll see! I'm hoping to get back up to the 2500+ daily word count I used to keep.
Feel free to add your own writing goals in the comments and we can try to keep each other going!
In other non-writing related news, we found out on Monday that we're expecting a little boy! Now I'll have one of each and I couldn't be more thrilled. This should be the last one for us so I'm trying to soak up my final pregnancy (which isn't always easy) and can't wait to have an infant again (which certainly isn't easy.) I just wish they didn't grow so fast. My daughter is turning two next week!
**Update** I have 1200 words written so far for today! I might write more later but now I have some cleaning to do, yuck.
9 comments:
First off -- CONGRATS on the baby boy! That's so exciting! Now you can have the mother/daughter bonding and the father/son. I always thought that was neat. :)
I set a writing goal several weeks ago and I'm ashamed to say I haven't been sticking with it AT ALL. I'm supposed to write about 560 words/day if I want to be done by February but I'm very, very, VERY far behind in that goal. Eek.
Thanks for the congrats Stephanie!
Maybe you should consider a weekly word count goal. Sometimes they are easier to meet because you can write more on some days and less on others.
I might even turn my daily goal into a comparable weekly one just for that reason.
Maybe I will make that weekly word count post so we can share our progress (or our misery) in regards to our goals. What do you think?
Sounds great! I'm always up for accountability partners! I actually have a weekly word count goal (it's in the 3k range) but it broke out to about 560/day. I'm not a remotely fast writer so I wanted to spread it out over the days and make it seem more doable. Ha! Maybe I should just go back to the weekly so I don't feel horrible if I miss a day.
CONGRATULATIONS! On the baby thing! A little boy! I have one of each (though my boy is older). It's priceless. I am so happy for you!
On writing goals, I have a loose goal of 1000 words a day during first draft mode, though I aim for 1500-2000. That way when I have a slow night, it doesn't matter.
Revisions are so much harder to set any kind of goals on. Number of words cut? Number of words added? Pages revised? So I pretty much don't set any concrete revision goals at all.
I'm curious what other people do as far as goals during revisions go.
A BOY! EEEE! Boy's are so much fun!
A wed weekly thing sounds cool. I'm in. My goal for next wed -- I have to be halfway through. So roughly 100 pages revised.
Congratulations on your soon-to-be new baby! How thrilling!
And yeah, I usually go for a weekly writing goal, particularly with children. Because you never know what will happen during your writing time. Yesterday, it was a mouse stuck in a 2-liter bottle. Lord only knows what today will bring. ;)
Congrats--what wonderful news!
Now that the kids are back in school, it's time for me to sit down and consider my goals. I'm a very goal-oriented person and tend to wander all over the place without them in place. I'll check out that link you mentioned.
Congrats!! When is he due?
Now that my daughter's sleeping a bit more, I've been toying with getting back to a writing goal. But her schedule is still too sporadic and since she's still not sleeping through the night, there are days when I'm just too exhausted to write. So the most I can commit to right now is making up a new publishers' list for one of my existing picture books and getting it back out there. That should be doable.
Thanks for the reminder!
Thanks for all the congrats and kind comments! Our little boy is due December 30th. New Year's baby? If my daughter is any indication he'll probably be born late, within the first few days of January.
I've just put up the Wednesday Word Count post so feel free to add your goals!
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