Making the Leap toward Serious Writer: Setting Goals

Writing is a lot like playing a sport. In order to improve at a sport you have to practice a lot. You have to put in the effort, learn techniques, and get assistance from a coach. You study the greats to see what they did. So with writing. Also like playing a sport, you have to set goals. If you don’t set goals (improve batting average, make two three-point shots in the next game, make the varsity team) then you might as well be simply standing still, dribbling a ball in place. Goals are a necessary process to improvement and to being our best.

In setting goals, you want to consider short-term, long-term, and middle-ground goals.

1.  Long Term Goals are far out, multi-step accomplishments that have to be met by progress over time. A long term goal could be to publish a book, get five stories placed in top literary magazines, or to write and promote a weekly comic strip. Your long term goals should be at least a year distant, but can be as far away as five years. The bigger the goal, the longer the time you allow yourself. If you accomplish your goal before the time allotted, you win. If it takes you longer, you reassess.
2.   Middle-distance Goals are the steps that help you to reach your long term goals. To determine your middle-distance goals, think realistically about what has to happen in order to reach your goal of publishing a novel. If you have yet to write said novel, start there. How much time might you need to write the novel? Does it require research? Will it have chapters? Realistically plan an outline and set goals for each step in the process. Giving each step a time limit is helpful, such as, complete first draft in 18 months. Complete second draft in 6 months.
3. Short Term Goals are the individual bricks that help you reach your middle-distance goals. Your middle-distance goals might need to be split into several pieces, and you might set daily, weekly, and monthly goals. You might need to create yourself a chart of some sort, or use an app, or find some other way to hold yourself accountable, such as reporting progress to a writing group.

As you begin to reach your short-term goals (or not reach your short-term goal) it is important to reassess. You might have decided to set out at a pace that is too strenuous for you, and you need to go from a goal of five written pages a day down to two written pages. Or, perhaps your goal of writing one poem a week is not challenging enough, and you already find yourself writing two or three first drafts a week. Perhaps you will change your goal to two first drafts and at least one revision.

Your goals should be challenging, but not impossible. There is nothing wrong with revising them. You must have some kind of accountability, whether that means self-review or reaching out to others. Making goals and reaching them is not an easy part of the process, but if you wish your writing to be something more than some scribbles in your private diar, then you want to commit to something bigger. Setting goals makes your dreams real. No longer are you a wide-eyed kid making up rhymes in your math notebook: you are a serious writer who wants to share ideas with the world.

Take the leap and set your goals high.