Writing Goals
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- jenni1607
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Re: Writing Goals
I give myself a goal of 3,000 words a week, rather than a daily word goal, as some days I write better than others.
- oliv101
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- Dream Catcher
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- moderntimes
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Seriously, it's good to set realistic goals. My first goal as a mystery novelist was to finish a full novel. That I did.
Next I wanted to sell that novel. Another checkmark, sold it!
So I wrote a second PI novel and sold that one, too.
Now my 3rd novel is in progress and I'm hoping to sell it as well, hopefully for more money than the first two, if possible. If not, to at least sell it anyway.
Long ago I set other writing goals... to be published somewhere somehow at all. That I did, at first contributing small articles and short stories, for which I received no money, but was paid by being sent a stack of the magazines.
Later I managed to actually sell articles and short stories, and slowly but surely, the money increased. I've been paid $1000 for articles, which is pretty good, eh?
Each goal takes time and hard work. You've got to keep trying, keep improving your skill set, and continue to learn the ropes.
If all you want to do is be published for free, that's pretty easy these days with the proliferation of e-zines. If you instead want to be print-published, that's a lot harder, because the publisher has to commit to spending real money to go to print for a magazine or periodical. Even more so for novels, of course. I mean, 1 short story in a compendium of 50 doesn't mean that the publisher is taking a huge monetary risk by including that one story. But a novel is a different level of commitment.
Regardless, setting goals is a good thing. You should do this, if only to challenge yourself.
But don't bite off too much or set your goals unrealistically. We'd all like to be #1 on the NY Times, right? But few will.
However, a more modest goal of just getting published at all, or of selling your writing for real money (even if 50 bucks), is doable.
Primary of all: Don't give up! **
** (However, you may, as a mark of maturity, need to reset your goals a bit lower if needed. If that's done, keep working anyway and then step up those goals a notch after a teeny bit of progress, okay?)
-- 11 Apr 2014, 20:43 --
Regarding goals related to quantity of writing per day, I've found that if I pushed myself to write a specific number of words, the writing was rushed and not of proper quality.
So I reset my goals so that I have a changing target depending on what lies ahead. Maybe I want to go back and review and revise the last 5-6 chapters of my new novel. That's a realistic goal. Or maybe I want to write a certain new sequence (or arc), and that may entail 2 or 3 new chapters. I never set a word count as a goal, ever. But maybe a story arc? Sure.
For a real example, earlier this week I had a particularly difficult transition sequence pending for my new novel in progress. It's the 3rd novel in my series of modern private detective novels. And I had a change of heart for my protagonist regarding someone whom he considered an ally if not a friend. But the friend put a big strain on the relationship by asking my PI protag to do something he didn't want to. So he needs to say "no" in the nicest of ways, and it's difficult for him, in that he genuinely respects the other man. So this "arc" of plot sequence is a major pivot in my novel, sending my PI off into a different direction. And therefore it took me some considerable time developing the mental gyrations that my protag goes through. I succeeded but it took me longer than I'd first estimated.
Nevertheless, this was a specific writing goal and I got it done. Now I can proceed to the next arc in the novel, this time an action-related sequence that I've already outlined. It should take me about 2 days for 3-4 short chapters.
And so on. Hope this helps.
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- moderntimes
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For my writing format I use 1.5 line spacing and 12pt Times New Roman, with plenty of nice margins all round.
With that particular format, a couple days ago I reached a fairly good mid-point in my new novel, over 40,000 words and about 120 pages. I can envision my novel being maybe 70-75,000 words minimum. Of course, again, I'm not writing for word count, but for telling the story no matter how many or few words are needed.
That being said, private detective novels tend to be a bit on the short side compared with other mysteries, as they usually have a single major story arc, such as "the PI takes a difficult case and it leads him into hot water" but that's generally told in fewer words than a fantasy thriller, simply because the fantasy takes more words to set up the scenes, as they're totally "cooked up" -- for a PI novel, you've got cars and houses and restaurants and bars and guns and such, all of which are within our normal modern purvey, so no words are needed to tell the reader what a "car" is. But with fantasy, the author needs to provide the background of the "kingdom" and its era, the citizens, clothing and weapons and so on, from scratch. Needs lots more words.
Anyway, I did hit a goal or marker point or whatever, 40,000 solid words, carefully reviewed and edited numerous times.
- randomcheerio
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- moderntimes
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- Vimtuous
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Major goals would be getting something published! And maybe one day living off of my writing
- moderntimes
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The late Robert B. Parker (creator of the Spenser private eye series) set himself the goal to have 5 finished pages per day. That's ambitious -- I write all the time and 2-3 polished and finished pages per day is about my speed. But whatever the goal you set, make it attainable. And make it in small enough "chunks" so that you can achieve those short-term goals.
Now vim's other goals are to be published. I want to emphasize this. Getting published should be the goal of ALL writers!
And by "getting published" I mean that someone else is the publisher, not you, self-publishing e-books or maybe paying some company to do a print run. It's not called "vanity publishing" for nothing.
As a writer, there's NOTHING better than getting a check in the mail that says "Pay to the order of..." (or an electronic deposit these days, the same) for something you've written! Now that check could be for $25 or it could be $1,000 (I've had both), and yeah, absolutely that thousand bucks for an article was gold, real gold to see as an author, no question about it.
But even if it's 25 bucks, it's the same great feeling.
Getting published, and by "getting published" I mean: "Someone publishes your novel or short story or article, and pays you for this" should be the goal of all writers.
This doesn't mean that you get all twitchy and refuse publication of a small essay or short story for which you're "paid" by 10 copies of the magazine. This sort of low-return writing is to be expected. I've got a pal who's a poet -- a good one -- and his "payment" for his last book of poems was being sent 100 copies of the book free, so he could sell them via local stores. And I've had articles and reviews and stuff published where I wasn't paid either. This is okay, so don't get knickers into a knot if that happens as you move up the "food chain" of publishing and marketing your writing.
vim has a goal of actually making a living, supporting himself (or herself) on writing. Well, sure. But everyone knows that is pretty damn hard to achieve. Nevertheless it's a sensible goal and a genuine target.
But in the meantime, work your way up. Try to first get published at all (without YOU being the publisher). Establish a "resume" with a legitimate publishing history, however modest. Hone your craft and continue to market yourself. Learn by doing, and set small, achievable goals along the road.
Per vim's goals, the stepping stones should be: 1- get published even if it's for free, 2- get paid real money for something you've written, and 3- make a living off your writing. Myself, I've been at #2 for several years now, but with my newly finished 3rd novel, I'm querying mainstream agencies and publishers, and have set the goal of making some "real" money this time around.
Regardless the goals, my recommendations are to take things stepwise and set reasonable interim goals.
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1. Write my journal entry for the day. I have a special notebook where I hand write one page per day.
2. Write 1000 words in any story or idea file. Sometimes I allow substitutions for this one. Specifically, editing. If I have a ton of editing to do, I will allow 30 minutes of editing to be substituted for 1000 words of new content.
- moderntimes
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Myself, I don't have a specific word count, because that can get in the way of either a very productive day or a so-so day. And the real world impinges, too. If my girlfriend and I have dinner plans, for example, the laptop stays shut down. And rightly so.
My targets are therefore flexible, and usually mean that I'm working to finish a difficult chapter, work out a tricky set of mystery clues, or maybe go back and edit / revise the last few chapters. There's no specific word count but instead a flexible and changing goal.
Each writer needs to set a series of goals nevertheless, otherwise nothing ever gets written.