How often have you set the New Year’s resolution to write more? Whether you’re plugging away at the novel that never seems to reach The End, or starting a bright and shiny new writing project in order to switch things up this new year, perhaps it’s time to take the worn old advice to heart: make goals, not resolutions. But what steps can you take to set realistic writing goals? And how to achieve your writing goals once the new year’s fireworks have faded?
These are the five steps I follow in order to lay out my annual writing plan every new year. Setting realistic writing goals can help you stay motivated for your projects through February and beyond. But there’s more to making a year-long writing plan than simply deciding: “This is the year I’m going to get published.”
It all starts with one, simple question:
Step 1: Uncover your WHY?
All of us write for different reasons. Some of us are desperate to see our books piled high on the tables of our local bookshop. For others, perhaps it’s not so much about publishing a book, but rather about getting our experiences and emotions down on the page. Figuring out WHY you write is the first step to making realistic writing goals that feel exciting, even when your motivation wanes.
So take a moment to freewrite while meditating on this one simple question: why do you write? If the answers don’t come easy, then think about why the story you’re working on feels important to you. Don’t stop there — when you get an answer, keep interrogating it. Ask “why?” two, three, or even five more times to really dig deep into the heart of your own motivation.
My why: I write in order to imagine a better world.
Once you have your why, write it down somewhere that’s easy to refer to when the writing gets tough. Next, we’re going to take a look at how your writing treated you last year.
Step 2: Take Stock
Before you make a plan for going forward, it’s always helpful taking a moment to look back. That’s what celebrating the New Year is best for, after all. This is the perfect time to reflect on your accomplishments so far. There have also likely been a few disappointments (and to be completely honest, I’m happy to see the back end of 2022 myself). But looking back now means you can start planning your next steps and reflect on what you’ve learned to make this next writing year that much better.
So your assignment, if you choose to accept it, is simply this: set aside a couple minutes for each of the following questions:
- What have I managed to achieve with my writing in 2022?
- What was my biggest writing accomplishment of 2022?
- What was my biggest disappointment in 2022 when it comes to my writing?
- How can I avoid the same disappointment this year? What do I wish I had done differently?
- Finally, what did I do well? What do I want to take with me going into 2023?
For a more comprehensive list of questions to guide your past year’s retrospective, get in touch with me and l can send you my full goal-setting worksheet, which will hopefully help you in setting realistic writing goals moving forward.
After taking stock of last year’s successes and failures, it’s time to start sketching out your intentions for what comes next.
Step 3: Define Success
It’s hard to know which direction to go if you’re not sure where your destination is. So here’s the part where we start setting concrete goals and defining ways for us to measure success. The key is to ask yourself what a good writing year would look like for you.
Notice I said “writing year”, not necessarily “publishing” or “marketing” year. When thinking about what you want to achieve with your writing, it’s best to focus on things that are under your control. Getting an agent, being offered a six-figure deal, making it to #1 on the Amazon bestseller list — those are all things with elements that are hugely dependent on other people, as well as on luck, taste, and timing.
Instead, think about how to measure the success of what you can do. Think of concrete goals that are fully within your control. Finishing a novel and preparing it for submission or Kindle publication, writing a short story every month, or planning out a collection of poems and devoting yourself to a poetry challenge to write and polish them all by the middle of the year are just a few examples.
My Big Goal for This Year: I’m going to finish a polished draft of my adult fantasy saga and prepare it for submission.
Other goals might include joining a local writing group, or sending out a query or submission every day in January. But if you do that, try your best not to be tied to the outcome of putting yourself out there. You can’t control the response of every single reader. Instead, focus on the process: what can you do to enrich your writing life?
Now that we know where we’re going, let’s figure out how we’re going to get there.
Step 4: Break Down Your Writing Goals
“A goal without a plan is just a wish,” claims the author of The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It’s not enough just to know where we want to go — most of the time, the trouble is in figuring out how to get there. Once you know the successes that would define a good writing year for you, try breaking those big goals down into smaller milestones and more manageable tasks.
Some people go all out with this, planning their tasks down to the day, or even the hour. There’s no need to go that in-depth. But if you have a year-long goal of writing five or six short polished short stories and sending them out for submission, then you know you’ll need to finish a draft every two months or so.
If that’s the case, how long will it take you to plan the stories? Will you write the first draft of each story all in one sitting? Whose feedback do you want on your work, and how long does it usually take you to edit a draft until you’re happy with it? As well, are there any specific markets that you think would be a good fit for those stories? Make a list of them!
On the other hand, if you’re working on that novel and you want this to be the year you finish it, then at the very least, you should know which draft you’re aiming for. That will determine how many words and editing hours it’s going to take you to get there! Meanwhile, If you struggle to work without deadlines and structure, use milestones to help keep you motivated. Challenges such as NaNoWriMo or even writing contests by reputable publishers are great for that!
But no matter how meticulously you plan, there’s always life to contend with. Which brings us to my last point…
Step 5: Revise and Revisit
Life is chaos. So when things go sideways, don’t give up. Remember that big WHY we tackled at the very beginning? There’s a reason you should keep it somewhere easy to refer to. When things get crazy and you wonder how you’re supposed to finish a novel by the end of this month, or whether this one poem is worth editing yet again, remind yourself why you’re writing.
And if the work you’re doing isn’t serving that WHY, then maybe it’s time to experiment more. Play with a new form or genre, or to find another path to success. Perhaps you can even set a brand new goal. At the very least, it’s a good idea to check in — either with yourself or a writing buddy — every month or so. Take stock of what kind of progress you’re making, and change course if you need to.
What are Your Writing Goals?
So there you have it, a five-step plan to setting realistic writing goals for the year. I’d love to hear what you’re planning to tackle in 2023. And if you’d like to see how a professional editor can help you achieve the goals you set for your writing, don’t hesitate to get in touch!
