I’m a huge believer in telling you to set word goals. Each day, you should have a writing target. If you’re writing a novel, it’s not too hard to say, “Most novels in my genre average 85,000 words. I want to finish this book in 90 days, so I need a goal of 944 words a day.”
Goals (according to productivity and leadership guru Michael Hyatt) need to be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Risky, and Time-Keyed (Your Best Year Ever, pg 114).
I’m not going to go through the acronym – I just suggested a book that will teach you how to implement these principles. Notice the Time Keyed. Hyatt is fond of saying, “What gets scheduled gets done.” The corollary is of course what does not get scheduled is left undone.
A specific goal (finish my novel) of 85,000 words (measurable) can be scheduled (achievable) to finish (risky – 99% of authors never finish a novel) by 90 days (Time Measured).
Goals poorly formulated are goals easily forgotten
Michael Hyatt
Before I came up with a system for writing, I wrote zero novels. If I continued to follow the way I did things, I’d still have zero novels written.
All the studies on productivity (and writing is producing) tell us that continuing to do the things you’ve always done will get you the results you’ve always gotten.
What usually separates good writers from bad ones (and often, published writers from unpublished ones) is a strong work habit. That’s it.
the editors of Writers’ Digest, Crafting Novels and Short Stories, pages 3-4)
I examined my system after I wrote my first novel, and instituted a shorter deadline. I wrote my first novel in 31 days. My goal became a S.M.A.R.T. goal after that.
I can – when I set specific, measurable, achievable, risky and time keyed goals – accomplish a HUGE amount of work at once. Right now I’m procrastinating on editing my novels because I hate editing. Once I stop and set my self with S.M.A.R.T. goals for my editing, I’ll get a lot more done.
I believe the first draft of a book — even a long one — should take no more than three months.
Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Every time I put that quote on Twitter, someone objects. So here’s my statement on this – you don’t agree? Keep doing what you’re doing if it produces results. But look at these statistics:
- 600 words a day will produce a first draft of 85,000 words in just under six months. Add in editing time, and you’re looking at about one finished novel every 18 months. No problem, except if you’re signed to a contract, you just lost it by being six months overdue.
- 450 words a day produces a novel in almost eight months. When you’re expected to produce a publishable novel every 12 months, that’s a recipe for disaster.
- NaNoWriMo is designed to teach a novelist that if they set a word count and write daily, they CAN finish a novel – and finish it quickly – in just a month. Add in six months of edit time, and your book is publishable in the time it takes someone who writes 600 words a day. Now you’re a novelist who gets five months extra to promote your novel, and maybe get to go outside once in a while.
- Scrivener, WriteWay and SmartEditWriter all have a feature where you can set a specific deadline to produce a result, and they measure the progress. The A part is up to you.
Plan your work, work your plan. Proper planning prevents poor performance.
I have only found one book on how to write a novel where the author suggests “take your time. You’ll produce what you produce.” That’s “Story Trumps Structure” by Steven James. Great. If you can successfully produce a complete first draft in 90 days, I don’t care how you do it. I just want you to do it.
I say it all the time. Your writing system has to work for you. But let’s examine the first part of that sentence.
Your writing system has to work.
Mine works. The results I give works. The system of setting deadlines is recommended in just about every book on writing novels. It’s recommended by almost every published author.
But if you haven’t completed five novels yet, or five screenplays yet, examine your system.
Is it working? If your system is different, I’d love you to list it here! I’m not too old to learn! Teach me!
