How to Set Writing Goals
Or how I failed NaNoWriMo. Inspired by Struthless, Atomic Habits and Claire Fuller.
Reading time: 9 min
If you decide to purchase something through our affiliate link, we’ll get a few pence in our bank account and you’ll get a big thank you!Intro
Today it's the 1st of December, which means that, if you don't have a 50,000 words manuscript saved on your preferred cloud storage service, you have failed NaNoWriMo. You've set a too ambitious writing goal and for some reason, you couldn't deliver. Just like me.
What is NaNoWriMo, you ask? For a comprehensive explanation of their beautiful initiative, may I suggest you head over to their website and have a read. In case you can't be bothered though, here it is my—very biased—description.
NaNoWriMo is hell.
It's a merciless race that takes place every year in November; when you strive to write 50,000 words between the 1st and the 30th of the month. Let me do the math for you. It's 1,666.67 words a day, with no day off. Talking about ambitious goals, right? And yet, it works so well for so many people, thousands across the globe, while other writers suffer from an itchy rash at its very spelling.
How is that possible? Well, this is because goals are extremely subjective and, sometimes, hard to set.
Which brings us to the point of this article: how to set your writing goals.
I'll divide this into three sections: Why setting goals at all, What to write for NaNoWriMo next year and, finally, how to set goals all year round. Feel free to skip, peak, or mix up sections as you prefer. I don't mind.
Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash
1. Why Set Goals at All?
“I only write when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes at nine every morning.”
To also quote Struthless, who inspired this article; setting goals is fun. And someone might argue that the world would be a better place with your novel or memoir in it, or even with a slightly more fulfilled version of yourself.
But, leaving aside these wishy-washy existential reasons on why you should do anything at all rather than just wait for the thermal death of the universe; a goal helps a writer (or, more generally, an artist) produce on a schedule. It forces you to stop relying on that mischievous entity we call inspiration, or muse, or, in ancient times, genius. (For more info about the Genius, please watch this Ted Talk. Thank you, Elizabeth Gilbert!)
It's about time we bust the myth of the artist who creates exclusively out of inspiration and bad wine. If you want to produce something, you need to work. Sometimes a goal, even an unrealistic goal, can make the difference between a finished novel and a bunch of half-written, half-outlined first chapters. Believe me, I've been there. Some people don't need a goal, I'll grant you that much, but some others do. If you struggle to understand why your work is never finished—or started—maybe you need a goal too.
“If you work, inspiration will come.
If you wait, inspiration will too.”
2. What to write next year for NaNoWriMo
I tried NaNoWriMo for the first time in 2020. In the middle of the pandemic, working from home full time, I thought I would easily meet the target and finish the year with an additional novel under my belt without even breaking a sweat.
I abandoned after three days.
What went wrong? I had a brilliant first chapter already drafted and I thought I'd just keep on writing from there, see where the characters would take me, like a pantser (which I'm not), or like Stephen King (which I'm definitely not).
So, this year, I thought I'd prepare. To be fair, my plan was to cheat. For the entire month of October, I planned the ways I was going to re-write 45,000 words of an already written novel, stuck in the middle of its second act, which was turning into something I didn't like. I planned, and planned, and planned, and 3 days before November the 1st, I knew I was heading nowhere.
Here comes the first lesson I learned from this torture: writing should always be fun, especially if you're under a tight schedule.
I've got an hour in the morning to write, full stop. I also have a job, a dog, a pregnant wife and, believe it or not, some sort of social life to attend. I can't stick to ambitious goals if I'm not excited about them; so, I followed the fun.
During those frantic 72 hours before NaNoWriMo, I made peace with my mind and followed 5 simple and repeatable steps:
I thought about what I was consuming (films, books, articles, podcasts...) and I identified, among my favourite stories, which one I most wanted to make my own.
I thought hard about what I wanted to write. In the past, I'd always started with a plot idea and then, only later I carved characters out of it. This time, I really wanted to experiment with a specific character I had in mind. Which then became 2. Which then became 3.
I exhumed an old setting idea from my idea cemetery which made me super excited.
I outlined the plot one third of the way, then I took tons of notes about everything else; from characters' backstories to worldbuilding, to major themes, to ideas for sequels. Right now, I think that the 1/3 I outlined can be turned into roughly 80% of the first book of a trilogy. Fingers crossed. For the outline, I followed the suggestions of Damon Wakes in this article about record cards.
I started writing.
And it worked! Not as much as I wanted to, I'm still 30,000 words short, but in the entire month, I skipped only one day of writing; which is a fantastic achievement when compared to the 9 lost days of October. The only difference: I was excited about what I was writing.
I also think a big part of having a successful NoNoWriMo is managing your expectations. Yes, I might not have 50,000 brilliant words ready to submit to an agent, but I have a project, and a drive, and 20,000 damn words of a story I like and which I can't wait to bring to a conclusion.
It seems a bit like stating the obvious; but if you focus on such a high output, you can't be too fussy about the quality of your work.
I was fascinated by what Claire Fuller said during her speech at the Hampshire Writing Society. Apparently, between the first draft of one of her novels and the published version, she re-reads her manuscript forty to fifty times. Many of which, out loud.
If a world-class author such as Claire spends so much time re-writing, editing, re-reading and polishing her work, you can't expect to finish the challenge with a ready-to-go masterpiece.
Be clear about what you want. As we say in Italy; you can't have the keg full, and your partner drunk.
Photo by Charl Folscher on Unsplash
3. How to set writing goals every month of the year
And this brings us to the last section. How to set your writing goals in a way that benefits you, and not some arbitrary word counter on the internet.
First, define what's important to you/what you're struggling with.
Claire Fuller, in her amazing HWS speech, describes herself as a "rolling reviser," which simply means that she’s continuously revising what she's already written, making it quite challenging to advance the story, especially because she doesn't plan her plot beforehand. This was liberating, at least for me, because I tend to do the same and I always thought that writers were supposed to jot down a crappy first draft and then review it once it's all out of their head.
I thought this was the rule. It turns out, there is no rule.
When asked about how she gets to the end of a book, she kindly shared with us her personal goal. She said she allows herself to revise as much as she wants during every writing session; as long as she also writes something new.
That's a perfect example of setting the right goal.
“Rowing harder doesn’t help if the boat is headed in the wrong direction.”
Find the right goal
Just because the members of your writing group are writing 1,500 words a day Monday to Saturday, it doesn't mean that you should do the same.
Maybe you're like Claire Fuller.
Maybe the hardest part for you is to sit down and start. In this case, just aim at one word. Only one. Easy, isn't it? But to write that single word, you must overcome your obstacle, and once you've done it, I bet you can write a second. And a third. And a thousandth.
Maybe you don't know how to progress your story. Your goal, then, could be to just think about an exciting scene—it doesn't even need to be included in your book—and write that one. Inspiration comes with practice. Get practice going with easy or exciting stuff.
Maybe you hate editing, and you just want to punch your keyboard as fast as you can, bringing to life your story all in one breath. This, my friend, sounds perfect for NaNoWriMo!
Anyway, you get the gist.
Track the right data
Finally, a quick word on tracking your progress.
An offset measurement can easily send you spinning off in the wrong direction. Like a journey to become healthier can turn nasty if the only measurement for success is weight-loss; (muscles are heavy, people!) just aiming at a word count might put distance between you and your published novel.
As James Clear says in Atomic Habits;
“...nonscale victories can be effective for weight loss. The number on the scale might be stubborn, so if you focus solely on that number, your motivation will sag. But you may notice that your skin looks better or you wake up earlier or your sex drive got a boost. All of these are valid ways to track your improvement.”
Change weight loss with writing and here you go.
Remember what success is for you and tweak your goals and trackers to better pursue it, not the other way around.
Just because you can measure something, it doesn't mean you should.
Photo by Ryan Stone on Unsplash
Alla prossima
