In Today’s Journal
* How to (and How Not to) Set Goals: Part 2
* A Writer Emailed Me
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
How to (and How Not to) Set Goals: Part 2
Please read Part 1 of this post on Substack or on the Journal website.
Let’s pull up our big-kid pants and face it: In any endeavor, defeat absolutely sucks.
“Failing to success,” when it spurs you to greater heights, can be a good thing.
But when it serves as a catalyst to accept or even expect that you “can’t” do something…. well, as my mama used to say, “‘Can’t never accomplished anything.”
So as I wrote in Part 1 of this post, WHAT you write—the individual story or novel—isn’t important. It simply doesn’t matter.
What matters is THAT you write, and having a daily word count goal reinforces that thought.
Strictly for example, say your goal is to write 3000 words per day of publishable fiction. If you can carve out three hours per day to sit in the chair and write, you can write 3000 words of publishable fiction per day.
After all, 1000 words per hour is only 17 words per minute.
So say you add only 1048 words to your novel today because it wraps. Or maybe because it’s in a place where it slowed down or was “stuck” for whatever reason.
But say you also write a 2842 word short story. In that case, you’ve exceeded your daily word count goal by 890 words. You wrote 3890 words maybe without even realizing it because it doesn’t matter where the words go.
Tomorrow, of course, your word count automatically resets to zero.
So what do you do then?
You trust the characters, you Just Write The Next Sentence, and you add another scene or two to your novel. Or if your novel wrapped yesterday, you start a new novel or you write another short story (or do both).
Now, say you added only 2654 words to your novel and it wrapped. Or say you wrote a 2654 word short story, and you know that’s it for the day. Maybe you’re tired, or maybe life happened and you have something else you have to do.
Well, you didn’t quite reach your 3000 wpd daily goal, but: So what? You were STRIVING to reach it, and that’s what matters.
Still, you “failed to success” but in a good way, because even though you missed meeting your goal for the day, you still have 2654 more words of fiction than you had the day before.
And the next day, again, the word count goal resets to zero, and you get to take another shot at it.
The Point Is
- an appropriate goal or challenge isn’t something to dread or something at which you’re certain you’ll fail.
- The appropriate goal or challenge is something to look forward to, something to have fun with and realistically attempt to achieve.
If you dread your goal or challenge every morning or wake up wondering whether this is the day you’ll fail, you’re actually inviting failure. Usually that’s because your goal is set too high or your challenge is unrealistic.
Of course, the 3000 words per day stuff above is only an example. You can set your own daily goal to whatever you want. Just be sure it makes you stretch or reach a little. Otherwise, what’s the point?
If you can easily write 500 words of fiction in a day because you can only manage to carve out a half-hour of writing time, set your daily goal at 600 words (six more minutes in the chair), or 750 words (another quarter-hour in the chair).
Again, make yourself stretch.
If you can routinely turn out 1000 words per day, set a daily goal of 1250 (another quarter-hour in the chair) or 1500 (another half-hour in the chair).
I recommend setting your goals in graduated increments. When you are able to comfortably and routinely reach your goal each day, I recommend you revise it upward.
Do that—push yourself a little at a time—and you (and your skills) will continue to grow.
And for goodness’ sake, anticipate Success. When failure does occasionally come along, nod at it, grin and know it’s all right because your goal will reset to zero tomorrow.
PS: Again, be sure to see the repeated posts in Of Interest today. In the third post, Dean seems to bear out what I wrote above.
A Writer Emailed Me
I found your YouTube video and found it very helpful.
I am a new to the Writing [Into] the Dark method. I’ve written three books in the past that I am in the process of preparing to re-publish with new covers the beginning of the year.
Two I felt okay to republish as written, but one it was clear to me that the beginning lacks enough depth to drag the reader into the story quickly. The idea “do not rewrite” when using the Writing into the Dark method had me stalled at that point.
But in your video, you said “bring the work up to your current skill set as a writer” and then publish. My ears perked up at that bit for sure.
I know how easy it is to get caught in the “rewriting trap” as been there for years, but I am going to try to add some depth to that first chapter without falling into its clutches. 🙂
I love talking with writers about Heinlein’s Rules and WITD and cycling. With three novels, this writer is at the beginning of what will be a wonderful journey.
I envy her the epiphanies and realizations that will come from simply putting new words on the page.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
Audible Royalty Changes: What Authors Need to Know
(Repeat) Update on My Last Year’s Challenge
(Repeat) A Fun And Powerful Saying
The Numbers
The Journal………………….. 910
Mentorship Words…………….. 0
Total Nonfiction…………………. 910
Writing of Blackwell Ops 53: Jack Striker | The Next Level
Day 1…… 2035 words. To date………… 2035
Day 2…… 2217 words. To date………… 4252
Day 3…… 3751 words. To date………… 8003
Day 4…… 2218 words. To date………… 10221
Day 5…… 2181 words. To date………… 12402
Day 6…… 1673 words. To date………… 14075
Day 7…… 1972 words. To date………… 16047
Fiction for December……………………… 16047
Fiction for 2025…………………………… 770694
Nonfiction for December.………………… 13600
Nonfiction for 2025………………..……… 278730
2025 consumable words………………… 1041855
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 18
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 36
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 122
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 310
Short story collections……………………. 29