Kickstart your Writing

I taught a workshop last week and together we wrote three writing goals to help us focus our writing.

Try it for yourself.

Goal One: What is a weekly writing goal that you’d like to achieve?  Be realistic and specific as you write your goal.  Perhaps writing every day for an hour is impossible, but could you write for an hour every Saturday?  Maybe a word count would be more helpful to you – could you write 1000 words a week?  More?  Less?

Goal Two: What is a writing goal you’d like to achieve over the next six months?  Would you like to send a story to a magazine?  Or perhaps finish a draft of your novel?  Again, be realistic and specific.

Goal Three: What is a writing goal you’d like to achieve over the next year?  If you’re telling yourself you want to be a bestselling novelist in a year, then remind yourself it takes most writers a lot longer than that – it doesn’t mean you can’t do it, but perhaps you should think of goals that help you reach your dreams rather than goals which might make you feel like you’ve failed if you don’t get there.

And remember, you can always change and reassess your goals at any time.  I hope they help you get out of a writing rut.