- K. A. Meng
- 12 hours ago
- 3 min read
I can't take all the credit for this. My author buddy Teegan Loy helped with this post.
Everyone has different goals. If you don’t want to include publishing as a goal, that’s okay. The words can be personal like journal writing or writing for a few people. The goal is to get you to actually put words down and finish things. As you finish more things another goal is to improve your writing. We all need to remind ourselves that writing should be fun.
I even use this method in every day life, so you don't have to use it just for writing. The key is to break down your goals into something manageable. Because my goal is to publish books I released in 2025 - 2 books and 2024 - 4 books and 2 short stories. This year I plan on releasing 3 books (one from last year) and a short story while working full time. That is not an easy task. My author buddies and I do this to release 2+ books a year.
1. What do you want to accomplish in your writing for a year/quarter/month be specific? (For example, you want to write a book(s).)
2. How many words can you write in a week or a day? How many chapters can you edit in a week or a day? Overused words edited? Etc. editing? How long do you take to outline? Can you do more? Find your boundaries. Also add in how long the proof takes to get and ordering the books (if you sell them).
| Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
Word(s) |
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Chapter(s) |
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Total words written – Chapters edited –
Limit of words written – Chapters edited limit –
3. How long will it take you to accomplish your goal(s)? Be realistic, push yourself, but do not overdo it. (For example, a romance book is 60,000-80,000 words. If you wrote 1,500 words a day, you’d finish in approx. 40-54 days. 500 words a day 120-160 days. 5,000 words a week is 12-16 weeks.)
4. Give yourself wiggle room. In a perfect world, you could write the book in 40-54 days, starting on January 1st, but in that time frame you may have holidays, commitments, etc. You should put your book down before you edit it, so add that time in too. Also, add in how long your editor will take. If you outline, add that in too. There is NO WRONG answers. It is all about how YOU write.
5. If you need a break, take it! Life can and will get in the way. Push your goals back. Don’t fight it. Just don’t forget that you love to write! Does anyone have hard editing deadline(s)? I do. Yikes!
6. Don’t look as writing as a punishment. Reward yourself after accomplishing a goal, even if it is every day like you get to watch that TV episode you’ve been holding off on watching. I will not fund your rewards.
7. Setup a routine. It will make writing/editing easier on you. I do my own 13 minute sprints to try and reach a goal of 1,800 words a day. In 5-7 of them, I hit my goal.
8. Do not edit as your write. Trust your future editing self will edit the book along with your editor. You can do some, but if you keep editing, you will take much longer to write the book.
List your goals for the day, week, or month. Join me in an Update Wednesday. #updatewednesday on Tiktok, FB, and IG
Reflect on your goals. Did you make it? Did you not? Why or why not? Is there anything you can change or not? Can you do better or not?
-K.A.
