We’ve all set writing goals, but how many have we actually completed? It doesn’t feel good to fail—I know, I’ve done it—so that’s why I want to help you reach your writing goals and feel good about it.
The creative process may appear and feel chaotic at times, but maintaining clear goals and timelines are essential to a writer’s success. The key to making writing goals you’ll actually complete is using an organization system or schedule that works for YOU. Then when you finish those goals, you’ll smile and feel amazing as you see tangible progress toward realizing your writing dreams. Sounds pretty great, doesn’t it?
The Benefits of Self-Imposed Deadlines
Like many, I’m not a lover of deadlines, but they are part and parcel to the writer’s life. I’m learning that the sooner I learn to set and meet deadlines, the more successful I will be in a career as an author. The hard part is finding a system of organization that works for me.
Once during a writers conference panel, literary agent Dan Balow was asked about what organization system a writer could use to stay on track with their writing goals. I’ll never forget his answer: The best system is the one that actually works for you.
So, a writer’s first task is to find the system that works for them.
At this point, you may ask, “Does a writer really need to conform to self-imposed deadlines and an organization system? What happened to following my artistic creativity?”
The answer is yes, you need some sort of system or schedule to keep you on track.
As Dan Balow pointed out, agents, editors, and publishers will all give you deadlines. If you can set and meet deadlines for yourself now—before they are imposed on you by others—you will set yourself up for success.
Having a writing goal to complete in a specific timeframe also forces you to practice writing when you are working with little to no inspiration. Writing in this state strengthens your skills and creativity to push through boundaries.
Another benefit is you’ll never again be guessing if you’ll ever finish your first draft, next round of edits, or what have you. Setting deadlines and meeting goals builds confidence by helping you confront the doubts, fears, and procrastination associated with deadlines.
Set Goals Like a Story Character
A system doesn’t work without clear goals. Those can be challenging to set, but it’s fun when you undertake the process as if you’re a character in a story. Let me explain.
When beginning to plot a character’s journey, an author must consider goals, motivations, and conflicts.
Goal < Motivation < Conflict
First, the goal. For a story character, it would be something like attaining their true love or defeating their lifetime enemy or stopping the apocalypse. For you, maybe it’s finishing the first draft of your novel, starting your author website, or getting through another round of edits.
ACTION STEP:
Make a short list of your immediate goals. Start simple—you don’t want to overwhelm yourself.
Now, motivation. Why do you want to reach the goal? For a character, it would be because they long to be loved, married, and start a family; preserve their life or legacy from someone who would wish to destroy it; or to save the lives of those they love, the world, and innocent bystanders.
You need to figure out the reason WHY you want to attain your goal. Is the motivation to publish (and why)? Leave a story for your children or grandchildren to enjoy? Grow a following of interested readers for your current or future stories?
ACTION STEP:
Write down the motivation for each of the goals in your list. The WHY.
And finally, conflicts. Throughout a character’s plotted journey, they will run into conflicts: external, internal, and interpersonal. A person, thing, group, event, injury, or state of mind impedes or blocks their path so that they must find a way through or around whatever lies between them and the thing they want (the goal).
This is where our organizational system comes into play, to navigate through the conflicts of our lives—a system to keep us taking steps toward our goals despite life events, schedule conflicts, brain fog, self-doubts, anxiety, and lack of inspiration. There will, of course, be unexpected things in life that surprise us and are impossible to plan around. But if we have a system, we can reassess, adjust, and get back on track with speed and efficiency.
Are you struggling to write every day, or need a little help sitting down to write? This free workbook will guide you through creating a simple writing routine that works for your life. You’ll thank yourself later!
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Finding the Organization System That Works for YOU
There’s no one-size-fits-all system. Like Dan Balow said, there’s only what works for you. If you don’t already have a system, I suggest poking around for organization system ideas to see what speaks to you. Ask your goal-accomplishing friends how they keep on track and organized. Web search common life organization strategies. Ask ChatGPT for suggestions.
Once you find an idea you like, it’s time to test it out.
Give yourself time to test and adjust your system. Be patient in your journey to find what works for you and get into a good rhythm. Don’t be surprised if the process takes weeks or months, or must be adjusted to accommodate different stages of life. Honestly, this is the hardest part for me. I easily get discouraged at the slightest mishap in my system. It’s hard to tell myself “it’s okay” and adjust to try again. But it really is a learning process, and we need to give ourselves a little grace as we are in the trial and error phase!
The Organization System I’m Using
After saying the best system is the system that works for you, Dan Balow was asked to share what system he uses to meet deadlines. He said he uses a spreadsheet. He lists everything he needs to get done in every aspect of life—work, church, family, etc.—and assigns each task a deadline. Some tasks are recurring daily, but for the most part, there is a set deadline for each task. Each day he follows his spreadsheet, and at the end of his workday, he reassess the dates on his spreadsheet, familiarizing himself with the tasks he needs to finish tomorrow. He said he’s been using this system for a long time. It works for him, but it doesn’t have to work for everyone.
I’ve started to adapt his system for my own uses. I’m still figuring it out, testing new things, and learning, but let me share what I’ve tried so far.
First, I created a spreadsheet with all the tasks I need to do for the next few months. This includes work tasks, volunteer tasks, family birthday celebrations, and anything else for which I need to allot time in my day. Beside each task, I estimate a deadline. This is a tricky part, because I’m still learning how long it takes me to complete certain writing tasks. I try my best to give a realistic deadline and meet it, but I’m also flexible to adjust the date if I realize my time estimate was unrealistic. Learn, improve, and move on.
It’s important to note that on my spreadsheet, I don’t just list deadlines to big projects. I take a big project, break it down into individual steps, and each step has its own line on the spreadsheet and its own deadline. This is crucial to keeping myself from feeling overwhelmed, and helps me assess a realistic deadline that aligns with my workday and other obligations.
In addition to that spreadsheet—what I call my “Master Checklist”—I’ve begun experimenting with setting aside chunks of time in my day for writing, called “protected time.” I work remotely at home, so it’s extra important for me that I have structure in my day, because I can easily get derailed by unexpected tasks, appointments, and things to clean at home. On my digital calendar, I’m blocking out chunks of my day and dedicating that time to writing and writing-related tasks. This keeps me moving forward even when life gets crazy.
The third thing I’m doing is planning a finite amount of writing work each day. For the longest time, I’ve been working on the mindset of “Let’s see how much I can get done today!” While fine on the surface, this mentality has wreaked havoc on my mental health. I never feel like I’ve done enough, and I can never relax because I’m never “finished” with writing work. Now I’m trying to plan out exactly what writing tasks I need to do a day—a finite amount.
So, I have a set word count or set amount of time to draft or edit. Each blog post draft, edit, or formatting process to publish has its place in one of my protected periods of work time. And when I finish the finite amount of work, I can actually rest in the evening because my work day is done. I don’t need to think about what else I could have gotten done or wonder if I should work late into the night. It’s all done. And that has been wonderful!
Set Goals You’ll Actually Reach
I hope this post serves as a helpful jumping off point for you in your journey to complete your writing goals! I can’t wait for you to plan goals you’ll finish, and feel amazing as you watch yourself take tangible steps toward achieving your writing dreams.
RELATED BLOG POSTS:
- 4 Quick Steps to Create Your Own Writing Routine
- Word Count Calendars: What They Are and How They Help Writers
I’d love to hear from you in the comments below—
What’s your biggest obstacle when it comes to sticking with your writing goals? Let’s talk about it.
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S.J. Siedenburg is a thriller & fantasy novelist, an editor, and a bibliophile with a passion for stories and helping writers finish their novels. She’s the author of the guidebooks Character Presentation, Before the First Draft, and the How to Write a Novel online course. Six of her short stories have been published through writing contests. Sarah lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and their Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” —John 1:5