How to Craft Writing Goals to Keep on Track

Well, Jagged Emerald City is out in the world, but that’s not the end of Fairian’s journey by far. Book 2 of the Obsidian Divide series needs to be finished, and now that I’m *officially * an author, I should do things like make deadlines and build discipline to make sure I meet them. Thus, I’m diving into creating writing goals for the next several months.

To be fair, I do have a decent chunk of book 2 written, even before JEC came out. So I’m a little ahead of the game. But it’s still so easy to fall behind and get out of practice, and with my brain having been living in book marketing world for the past several months, I want to return to actually writing with gusto.

Famous last words, I know.

But here’s where I’m at: I chose the publish date for JEC based on the new moon (because it holds relevance in the books). I really like the idea of sticking with that theme. So to give myself plenty of time, I want to aim for the last new moon in 2023, December 12th. There’s a cool symmetry in that too; the first book on the first new moon of the year, the second book on the last new moon of the year.

Making A Timeline

Since March is, like, tomorrow, that gives me 10 months. More like 9. Which seems like a lot until you start sectioning off how much time things take.

I want to aim to have 6 weeks cushion between being done and the publish date, based off of what I learned getting JEC into the world. That puts us at end of October/beginning of November.

I’m guesstimating two months for a round of beta readers, and a month after for revisions based on feedback, so that eats up October, September, August. As long as I am organized and have beta readers ready to go, that shouldn’t be outside the realm of possibility.

I’d like a chance to do my own revisions beforehand as I always learn things in the drafting process… total guess, but I think a month. However, the manuscript will definitely have to sit for a bit after drafting so I can have a fresher head coming into it (2 weeks minimum; a month is better). I’m nervous I’m over-promising myself, but I think that will be about 2 months all together. That takes up July and June.

So that gives me 3 months to draft (March, April, May). There’s the first part of my writing goals. Phew.

Calculating Word-Count Goals

I have about 60k words done on Book 2 just based on tidbits written here and there over the years, and over the past few months when I desperately just needed to write damn it during JEC’s debut.

Actually, I guess technically I’ve already writtenbook 2… like 5 years ago. But I’ve scrapped that totally and this is basically a completely new book. Though there are some similar elements. (Like werewolves. Spoiler!) This also gives me a leg up, because I know my overall story, and I’m actually using a tool to plot out the beats so I know where I’m aiming as I draft. (I’m using the Save the Cat method.)

JEC originally clocked out at 130k words. Revisions took it to 160k. (Then spent a long time getting it right back to 130k, but we won’t talk about that.)

I’m going to *guess * Book 2 will be about similar length. (Though who actually really knows, right?)

130k – 60k = 70k words left to write. 70k divided by 90 days is 777.7777-(into infinity). So I’m going to round that up to 780 words per day.

Ayyyyy, that doesn’t sound so terrible, does it? Definitely way less than NaNoWriMo’s 1,666 words per day goal! If I’m able to sustain 1.6k words a day, I should be able to do 780. And, if I’m being anxious about progress (which undoubtedly will happen) I’ll probably up this to 1000 words per day at some point. Just to be safe.

Note: if this had calculated out to be 1000 or higher, I probably would have had to seriously consider pushing back Book 2’s publishing date. I’m not trying to stress myself into burnout this early in authorlife.

There you have it

And that, friends, is how I’ve established my writing goals for the next… entire year. But there’s one final point I want to be sure to mention:

Stay flexible.

This plan may be blown out of the water in a few weeks because of some unknown element. But something I’m learning to practice in both this industry and just personally, is to not cling so tightly to expectations.

A, it sets you up for disappointment. B, you might miss something even better if you’re obstinately focused of one particular thing. Creativity needs room to breathe!

That’s not to say to throw out the goals or timeline or whathaveyou. Especially for someone like me, deadlines and goals are motivating, and getting rid of that leaves me at a standstill. But who knows what the future holds, and you gotta roll with it.

So now I must ask: what are your writing goals for this year? Do you have a process or plan? Do you work better just “winging it”?