Do you set goals for your writing?
Some writers do, some don't – and personally, I don't think you have to if you don't want to!
If you do have specific goals, though, what can you do if you're not (yet) reaching them?
It's easy to think that you need to "work harder" or "set up better systems" or "write faster" ... but if the problem lies with your goals themselves, then you could end up working really hard without necessarily making much progress.
Instead, I think that if you're struggling to meet your weekly writing target, or not seeing the progress you want, then it's time to take a step back and reassess your goals.
Ask yourself these three questions:
#1: Is This Goal Under My Control?
If you've self-published a novel and your goal is "sell 1,000 copies", that goal isn't fully under your control. You can certainly influence it ... but other people's actions are also involved.
While I'm not going to say you shouldn't have that goal at all, you might find that on a day to day basis, it's better to have a target that you can control to work on: something like "set up two new ads on Amazon each week" or "finish reading that book on writing a great blurb".
#2: Is This Goal Realistic for Me, Right Now?
If your goal is to "write 5,000 words a week" but you only ever manage 1,000, then the problem may well be with your goal rather than with you! Perhaps you have a busy day job, or you're in the middle of moving house, or you have young children to care for.
It's really important here to think about whether your goal is realistic for you and at this point. Writing 5,000 words a week might be more than realistic for someone who's been writing for years and who has all day every day to write, but it might be a real struggle for you. Also, a goal that might have been realistic for you at a different stage on your life (e.g. before you had kids / when your day
job was less manic) might have become unrealistic now.
#3: Is This Goal Something You Actually Want to Work Towards?
If you do have sufficient time available but you're finding yourself failing to use it, then it might be time to question whether you actually want to work towards this particular goal.
You might well want the end result (e.g. a finished book), but if the process of getting there is exhausting or boring to you, then either ditch the goal or look for a different way to achieve it – for instance, you could pay a ghostwriter, or you could write an entirely different book.
Setting goals can be a great way to stay on track with your writing ... but if those goals turn out not to be right for you, don't be afraid to modify them, or even give up on them completely.
