I’ve recently received more than a little flack from writers on Twitter for setting daily word counts for myself, which mystifies me more than I can say. When I observed that it’s difficult to count your progress in daily words when you’re editing instead of writing new material, someone commented, “It’s easy if you don’t track progress at all!”
I’ve got many years of writing experience under my belt and I’m pretty comfortable with my process, so I didn’t have any problem answering him, “If I did that, then I wouldn’t make any progress at all,” and continuing on with my day. But if I’d received that sort of advice as a new writer, unsure of myself and what I was doing? Just the idea makes me shudder.
I thrive under the pressure of a deadline. Give me a goal, even an insane one, and I’ll be stepping up to bat trying to figure out a way to accomplish it before you’ve even finished speaking. I once tried to write 50,000 words in a day, just to see if I could. (I made it to 16k and decided I wanted food and sleep more than I wanted to achieve some arbitrary ambition) But without a goal to propel me and keep me typing away?
I web surf. I catch up on my TV shows. I knit. What I don’t do is write. I need that pressure to keep me going, keep me moving forward, keep me choosing to write when there are so many other ways to squander my time that require much less effort.
The prevalence of this attitude that tracking progress, setting goals, and keeping yourself accountable is a bad thing has bewildered me since I first encountered it, but I ran into a situation today that I think may be what people fear when they give this advice. Things snowballed on top of one another for me this morning and before I knew it it was almost lunch time and I hadn’t written a word. Every time I thought about writing my chest clenched a little bit tighter and another burst of adrenaline clawed through my system. I was staring at the clock practically hyperventilating in my seat, and every time I started to think about putting words to paper, all that came to mind was, “Oh God, I have to write three thousand words a day for the rest of the month in order to finish this book when I want to. It’s 10am and I haven’t written anything. I will never make it. I’m not going to make it today, and I’m not going to finish this book on time, either. It’s too late. It’ll never happen.”
It’s a truly awful state to be in, and if this is what people are imagining others devolving into when they give the advice not to set goals, I can understand it at least a little. It’s not a productive state of mind, and does far more harm than good. But it’s not a reason to not to set them.
The problem comes, I think, when people get in a mindset where they can’t reevaluate goals. When I realized the state I was getting myself into, I didn’t try to force myself through it. That would have done more harm than good. I took a step back and said. “Okay, you know what? Sanity is more important than word count. I’m giving myself the day off.”
Gnothi Sauton. Know thyself. That’s is the part that’s important. Not the setting or abandoning of goals, but the ability to look at what you’re doing and evaluate whether it works for you or not, instead of stubbornly forcing yourself down the road you think you ought to take, when all it ever does is lead you to a dead end. I know that goal setting is vital to my process the same way I know that phase drafting, which everyone seems to be getting excited about these days, would be lethal to it. Does that mean that every time someone mentions the technique, I suggest that they’d be better off pantsing it?
Of course not. There are as many ways to write a book as there are people writing them, and what works for me may not work for everyone else, or even anyone else. It’s my process — that’s all.
I think a vital part of learning to write is learning what works for you, and what doesn’t, and too the ability to reevaluate when circumstances change. And it’s just as important that we let others do the same. One True Way-isms hurt more people than they help.
You've said better what I've been trying to tell those same Twitter #writegoal naysayers.
A good friend of both of us pointed out something the other day that makes a whole lot of sense. Something these naysayers seem to forget, making me wonder if they're truly serious about their craft.
When a Writer becomes an Author and gets their book published, thats just the beginning. Another book must be written, written in a timely manner to keep readers interested.
Authors work on deadlines.
So write goals are just self imposed deadlines, ones I'm sure literary agents will like seeing. Its a reassurance a Writer who wants to be an Author can work, and work well, under the pressures of the publishing worlds deadlines.
Do your goals, girl. Shout when you've reached them, moan when you don't, and be proud of your process, because it works for YOU.
Definitely, Brittany. Although I hesitate to tell anyone that they should have goals. It could be just as damaging as telling someone they shouldn't. The important part, I think, is to be self-aware and have the ability to recognize when something isn't working for you, and adapt. Following advice blindly just because someone says you should do something is dangerous, and could do an awful lot of harm.
totally agree, Alli. Learn your own process, and thats what matters.
Yep! It's like what we were talking about last night. "Don't stop 30k into a book to go work on a new one" is pretty good advice for someone still trying to get their writing legs underneath them — but doing that is a vital part of my process, and if I took that advice just because someone gave it to me, I would end up miserably banging my head against the wall with stuck WIPs, instead of letting my process run its cours and coming back to them once my subconscious has had time to percolate. It works for me, and that's what you've got to do — find what works for you.
The trick is to figure out what works for you and what doesn't.
I've known for a long time that goals are essential for me. I know this because I haven't really used goals in the past, or if I did employ them–I didn't really make an effort to met them.
But IMO– what is as import as setting and fullfilling goals, is finding a writing habit that works for you. Whether you write at night, or in the morning– or just write on weekends and really go all out. You need to have a system that will allow you to make your goals.
It's when you combine your goal with your system that you really see progress.
Of course, as Aislinn said, being able to readjust your goals if you need to is essential as well. Life is seldom static, things happen, and you have to be fluid enough to adjust your goals accordingly.
My 2 cents anyway