I feel like I go through this every single year. I set a writing goal. Then I hem and haw over whether I should change it. Last year, I was afraid the fact that I was steadily meeting my goal meant it was too easy and wanted to increase it. (I eventually did since I met the original goal with time to spare.)
As regular readers know, I set a goal for 2011 of 500,000 words by the end of the year. This was part pie in the sky number, part “I should be able to do 50,000 words NaNoWriMo style every month or at least all but two months out of the year!” Consider that last year’s goal started out as 500 words a day or 182,500 for the year  and realize this year’s goal was almost 3 (2.7 ish) times bigger.
At first, I was all about this goal. The main attraction was that it was truly a challenge as I was never, ever caught up and that made feel like it must be a good challenge if I wasn’t hitting it easily. Then I *was* caught up and even ahead for a while and I felt like a writing superhero. Then I went on vacation and, even with writing while on vacation, I feel very far behind and never caught up again.
I worked my butt off to do as much writing and editing as possible to try to catch up. My hands stopped working properly? I used the voice program. I had too much work at the day job? I stated up extra late to write. I feel like I gave it every possible effort but never got caught up again, though I got very close.
So, after being very stressed about this for a while, I sat back and did some introspection. After all, what is the point of setting a goal like this in the first place? To make myself write and edit more. OK, check and check as I was working like a maniac. But did I really need to increase last year’s writing goal by 3 times to achieve that? Couldn’t I just double it?
I decided no one would fault me for reducing my goal for the year to 1,000 words a day or 365,000 for the year. And, lo!, I was all caught up. Too caught up. I was kinda really ahead actually. Crap. Maybe I should up it again?
You see the problem. Well, actually, let me show you this:
(Yes, I graph my writing progress. You should see my spreadsheets.) The blue line is what I’ve written so far this year in total words. The top diagonal line is where I should be if I were on track for 500,000 words by the end of the year. The lower diagonal line is 1000 words a day.
Here’s what’s messing me up. I’m *way* ahead of the 1k a day goal. If I call that my goal, it feels unsatisfying as a challenge because it’s too easy as I’m already ahead. I’m also, looking at the line, writing at a words per day rate that should put me on pace for the 500k goal but it’s still not enough that I’m caught up. Should I keep shooting for that 500k goal even though it’s discouraging to be so far behind since it’s obviously possible if I work my butt off or should I just be zen and shoot for 1k a day?
I finally decided to leave both lines on the chart. I have to stay above the 1k line but I’m not ruling out the 500k goal either. I’m not going to stress the heck out of myself if I don’t hit it, however. But which do I show in potato? I decided to stick with 500k. That’s what I’d promised myself I’d write this year, after all, so I might as well stick it through even if I’m afraid I won’t hit it.
Here’s where I am as of 2 AM Saturday night:
And I’m not sure how to feel about it.
If it were you, what would you do? How do you adjust your writing goals as the year progresses?
Hillary DePiano is a playwright, fiction and non-fiction writer who loves writing of all kinds except for writing bios like this.
