Someone asked me this question recently. While I’ve always known what it was and seen it around as a trend, I’ve never had a number in mind myself. So, this question stumped me a bit: What would my life be like if I had a target of writing a fixed number of words each day?
It seemed rather unsavoury. The horror of racing towards a number of words every single day, the looming possibility of failure each night, the self-loathing that comes from punishing myself when I fail — I was beginning to thank my stars for never jumping on this bandwagon.
Unless, I’m thinking of writing targets rather narrrowly.
For the last 10+ years, I’ve been writing hundreds of words almost everyday. Because these words don’t add up to one single thing — like in the case of a novelist, for instance — I’ve never thought of it as achieving one goal. That doesn’t mean they’re not writing goals, does it?
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I have goals for the number of articles I would like to write each month, often connected to a revenue target.
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In 2019, I set myself a target for a number of film essays I wanted to publish, this helped me get back the mojo.
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At The Whole Works, for instance, the goal is to publish everyday (though I write them in batches).
In a way, I’ve always had (ambitious) writing goals and they’ve propelled me to the next step in my journey. As a writer, it’s my job to write everyday, no excuse. While I wasn’t setting daily targets, I still have goals that worked for me.
Do you set everyday writing goals? Or any goals at all? Talk to me.