Comments on: “He shoots…he scores!” (or, writing goals)

By: Cricket

Cricket — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 22:04:34 +0000

I need to come up with more concrete goals this year. My most productive months are ones where I have a grid with almost all my daily and weekly tasks. I notice, though, that the same squares never get filled in. Anything to do with practice, or starting a large project that requires concentration is skipped. At least when I have the grid going, I can prove productive procrastination.

One goal this year is to notice when I’m bored and going to the internet rather than doing something productive. I usually claim I’m not able to concentrate well at that point, and OD’d on housework, but I need to increase my concentration ability. More details belong on my own blog, which is the subject of two conflicting goals: More entries, and less time using the internet to procrastinate.

By: The WritingCast

The WritingCast — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 14:23:46 +0000

[...] is a crib sheet on Campbell’s Hero’s Journey available here. You might find this or this helpful for setting writing goals for this [...]

By: philangelus

philangelus — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 18:33:00 +0000

I haven’t really defined my own writing goals yet this year. I kind of know what I want, but it’s very nebulous, so I need to actually quantify the what when and how often.

6 weblog entries per week
renew membership in writing group
novel finished by april (hah — start the novel first)
short stories and humor pieces for publication

but again, it’s just cloudy right now and impossible to measure. I like John’s plan above, but I’m going to do mine by word count (1000 words a day minimum, for example) and measure by a ticker in the sidebar so you guys can mock me relentlessly if it doesn’t move for a few days.

Or post an excel spreadsheet like the one I did last time on the weblog.

By: tallgirl

tallgirl — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 18:16:51 +0000

Thanks for this. It reminded me that I need to set a specific goal for my own writing this year – because otherwise I’ll let everything else get in the way as I have in the past. Reading this, it also struck me that the personal goals I set are usually not measurable – which might explain why I have such a hard time meeting them.

By: John Desjarlais

John Desjarlais — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 17:38:16 +0000

I’m big on setting goals for writing, especially since I am always at work on a novel. For such a long project, I’ve found I need intermediate goals and deadlines to keep myself on track. Since I generally aim for 20 chapters of 20 pages each (a 400-page goal), I’m able to calculate how much work I must do each week to meet the goals. I allow for some down time and expected delays – a family trip or something like that. I like to aim for a completion date with some significance – by a certain conference where I can pitch to an agent, something like that. I have found that my production pace is about two pages a day when the coffee is good. So I can push out ten pages a week and 40 pages a month. So I know a 400-page ms will take me about 10-11 months. Considering what I’ve written so far, that means that my current ms could be done 9 months from now – sheesh, like a baby – sometime in late October. But since I expect some interruptions, I’m aiming for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, December 12. That way, I can ask her for a little extra help!

I also set spiritual goals regarding my devotional life, church involvement, and works of charity. But I won’t go into those here.

Grace and peace to you in the New Year.