Perhaps one of the most difficult aspects of being a writer is how much it relies on our ability to manage time and make sure we sit down and do the work that needs to be done. There's no time card to punch, no boss evaluating our work, no paycheck handed to us at the end of the week. It is easy to let the days slide and get little, if anything, done, especially in this day of internet distractions. There's a discipline in being a writer that must be learned. One of the best ways to learn this discipline is through setting goals. Goals not only help a writer become more disciplined in his or her writing habits, but are also a way to gage our progress. They are especially useful to new writers who are not only trying to learn the discipline of writing, but often also need to grow their writing muscles. New writers are learning to sit down each day and write, they are learning to work their writing in around the rest of their lives, and they are learning to expand how much they get done in a day. Goals help provide a target to aim for and show us when we're ready to push ourselves to do a little more.

Many writers say that goals are depressing -- they don’t meet their goals and end up with negative feelings about themselves and writing in general. I think some of this comes from a misunderstanding of how to use goals and how to set them. Goals should not be a straightjacket. They are guidance. They create a path for us to follow, and reaching the end of that path is not always required. They need to be based on our current abilities and time. If you know you can write 1000 words a day, then a good goal would 1250 words a day. This kind of goal pushes you to do more as a writer, but isn't so far out of your comfort zone that it becomes impossible to reach. They should cover the basic aspects of writing: new words, revisions, submissions. If you're a part of a critique workshop, you may also want to include critiques on the list. They also need to be goals for things you can control. How much of your work gets accepted is out of your hands since you can't control what an editor will like, so attempting to make a goal for acceptance rate is setting yourself up for failure. The first key is balance: a balance in time, a balance in ability, and a balance in what you try to achieve.

How often to set goals will depend on the writer. I set a yearly word count goal, weekly goals that cover all my writing and activities, and create a to do list each day based on those weekly goals. Others set yearly and monthly goals. Still others set their goals by the project and, using what they know to be their usual pace, create target dates for completion. Each writer must experiment with goal setting to discover what works. Which leads to the second key: use these goals as a way to guide your progress. You must allow them to be flexible enough to account for changes and disruptions, but firm enough that you don't ignore them. Use them to determine what you will do each day, but don't beat yourself over the head if you miss the mark. Perhaps they were set too high. Maybe life got in the way. Maybe you need to adjust how you set your goals. Whatever happened, don't kick yourself for not making your goals, but applaud yourself. You may not have reached the target you wanted, but you reached for something, and that is more likely to lead to success than reaching for nothing.