As I sit here waiting ever so faithfully for my laptop to finish charging (when you plug it in at night, it helps to make sure the cord is actually plugged into the wall), I’ve been thinking about my goals for the next month. I’m hoping/expecting the next 30 days are extremely productive ones — I’ve been rolling recently, and don’t see a reason why this would stop. To top it off, I’m taking off a couple of days this month (to go along with the fact that I’m off today), and with no major plans I expect to focus almost exclusively on my writing those days.
So I figure that I should be able to easily reach my base goal — 2,000-3,000 words per week (and plan on being on the higher side of those, so ~12,000 words for the month), plus, given three extra days of writing this month, I should be able to do 15,000 words in the next 30 days. That’s an average of 500 words per day — nothing overly cumbersome. So my first goal for the month is 15,000 words. Depending on my progress during the month, I may add in a stretch goal, but that has yet to be seen.
My second goal is one that has been eluding me for quite some time — the title. I have yet to come up with something that really strikes me as an appropriate title, but I also haven’t really spent time sitting down and really just thinking about it. I’m not sure that I’ll be able to come up with even a working title this month, and that’s okay. My goal, however, is to spend one hour each week thinking about it, even if nothing comes to fruition.
500 words a day (average) is a good, manageable goal even for people with busy lives. However, be care to not engage in binge writing. The first time you have a good day at 1,200 words and use that as an excuse to skip the next day… is the day that you’ve failed before you’ve even started.
It isn’t high word counts that get a novel finished. It’s consistency.
Good Luck to you. Don’t look back.
The only time I ever finished writing a novel (I’ve started many) was when I had the specific goal of 1,000 words a day. I didn’t go back and edit, I just wrote! Of course, the ending of that novel still needs a good rewrite (maybe I need a rewriting goal too? heh), but I felt good that I had accomplished a solid rough draft.
I always struggle with titles too. That novel I mentioned has had several. Most of my short stories have titles filched from song lyrics.
Ken — binge writing used to be a problem of mine: I’d write 10,000 words within a couple of weeks, and then I’d stop writing for weeks. Now, I force myself to write something just about everyday — the occassional days off come on the weekends when I don’t always get on a computer at all.
Lindsay — the title thing has been bugging me for awhile. Knowing me, one of my beta readers will suggest a title that’s perfect, after I’ve been unable to come up with one for a year.
I totally agree about the title thing. I have had the hardest time getting something I think is just right. Even now, I still have two options and I don’t know what I like best.
Hi. My name is Lisa and I am a binge writer. I will sit down and write for days. Then I dry up for weeks and months at a time. That’s why I blog. Actually, several blogs. It keeps me writing, but I still bog down at times.
However, I also procrastinate and have set myself up to finish projects at the last minute. Which isn’t effective either. It drives me crazy and is a habit I am trying to change. I am going to the spring writer’s conference, so I am trying to get as much done so that I actually have time to let it sit. I can then go back with a fresh mind to read and edit.
Keep on writing. I can’t wait to “hear” how you are coming along.