January Progress on Writing Goals

Just shy of a month ago, I sat down and set myself a few writing goals. I set a goal for word count and a goal for submissions. A perhaps foolhardy goal for publications too I set. During January, I chipped away at these. Let’s make an update of where things stand.

I’ll share some screenshots of the tracking sheet I am using for each goal, on which I wiled away a good hour perfecting formulas and colors. I will also share reflections from how these goals are impacting my writing work and suggestions for others who are thinking about setting writing goals.

The three goals that I set for myself this year (or at least the first two) are loosely based on the SMART Goals structure, which I outline in this post.

Word Count

My word count goal for 2021 reads…

I will draft at least 7,000 words per month, January-December of 2021, for a yearly total of 84,000.                    

How did the word count goal go in January?

Because the first part of my January was consumed by traveling safely back to Norway, I found that I had written fewer than 1000 words at the halfway mark of the month. I doubled down during my morning writing sessions during the last two weeks of January and was actually able to reach my 7000-word benchmark for the month with a few days to spare.

Reflections

Impact of the goal on writing

I recognize a change in my writing because of this word count goal. The positive way to look at this change is that I am pushing back against perfectionism, letting ideas pour out onto the page with relatively little of the self-censoring backspace. In the words of Twitter’s #WritingCommunity, I am embracing the “shitty first draft.”

The potential downside here is that I may be more on the pantsing side of the pantsing-or-plotting dichotomy than ever, and the work will undoubtedly require much more revision than otherwise. In the first scenes of this project, which I wrote before my goal-setting began, I recognize a closer intentionality. In later work, I have much more volume, and there are undoubtedly gems here, but I have wondered if I am truly moving towards my vision, or am I writing only to meet my goal?

At the same time, as I have written about goals before, there is no doubt that I am more prolific, that I am getting down to business more quickly and consistently. I am reminded of the story of photography professor Jerry Uelsmann, who famously one semester graded half the students purely on quantity of work produced (as many photos as possible would be submitted, no matter their quality, and the more submitted, the higher the grade) and the other based only on quality (only one photograph would be submitted, and the better it was, the better the grade). Uelsmann found that the best photographs in the class came invariably from the quantity group, that the repetition allowed these students to hone skills more effectively than the quality group, who theorized more about perfection but had little practice. Read a more developed discussion of this idea (and its implications for our lives) here.

What counts as words?

I have chosen not to include blogging in my word count totals, a shame perhaps, as many of these posts end up being a thousand words or more. But my focus is on fiction, and the purpose of the goal is to keep me pushing forward on that path.

But the question of what is counts is an important one: I recognize that the word count goal may keep me focused on particular kinds of writing work. While I prioritize drafting, how will I incorporate revision, which is more difficult to measure? What about poetry, whose fewer, denser words would barely register on my spreadsheet? I chose 7000 words per month to be a relatively small goal for this very reason: to keep myself from over-emphasizing drafting. The question is, did I do enough?

Submissions

You might have noticed in my word count spreadsheet above that my grand total for words so far in February is… zero! That is because my mind has been focused on submissions. I participated in February 3rd’s #SFFpit event on Twitter, which was exhausting but led to lots of good engagement with other writers and one “like” from a small press.

Word count alone is not enough for my writing goals, after all. I am trying to bring my work to readers, and so my completed stories I am sending out to literary magazines, and my novel manuscript I have restarted querying.

I set the following goal:

Each month of 2021, I will send out at least 16 submissions or queries (for a yearly total of at least 192).

How did submissions go in January?

I met my goal, with a couple of submissions to spare. Here are the data:

Reflections

I feel more unambiguously positive about this progress. I know now from a couple of years’ experience with submissions that volume is important. Last year, I went in spurts and droughts, sometimes going a month or more without a submission, particularly when I was feeling down about my chances. The goal is helping to keep me on track and to keep me sending out work.

I recognize as well that not all submissions are the same. Conventions for a short story submission and a novel query are such that while a short story can be sent off usually within ten to twenty minutes (confirming submission guidelines, writing a short cover letter), querying for a novel requires substantial research, preparation, and personalization. In a daily one-hour writing session, I can reliably send off three short stories, but a query for the novel might require two or more hours.

This all means that the goal will slant me towards short story submissions, and perhaps it could be worth making a special goal for novel queries. That said, the more goals, the more unwieldy things become. I think that for now, I am happy where I am.

And… Publications

The publications goal is the real gamble of this year. The SMART Goals paradigm says that goals should be attainable. That is, they should be within our power to achieve. Ultimately, I can control how much I write, and I can control how much I submit work, but it is agents and editors who will determine if I receive a yes or no.

By the end of 2021, I will place three more stories in literary magazines.

On Friday, I received a personalized rejection from a high-level literary magazine. It was affirming. I glowed for a moment inside. I also crumpled. I slapped my palms against the table. I looked away. To come so close, but ultimately without that yes–I’m not sure how this year will go in terms of publications.

And yet, having this goal keeps my focus on the ultimate end: not only to produce work, but to reach people. To share my perspective on this universe hopefully in a way that impacts readers for the better. I know that this publication goal is only partially in my hands. It is perhaps an entreaty to the world more than anything, a wish to be seen. We’ll see how things go.

Last thoughts

It is February now, and the snow of last week remains. We made it out ice skating and skiing in the last week–an incredible winter that I will remember for a long time.

In the coming week, I am not teaching. It is mock-exam week for the second-years, and friluftsveka (Outdoor Week) for the first-years. They will be away from campus skiing, exploring nature, and bonding with one another. I will hopefully get a lot of writing done, and we will cook and do house projects and prepare for upcoming lessons.

What goals have you set for writing this year? How are things going? I apologize that I have been so bad recently at responding to comments. I will go back through posts sometime soon and write back. Thank you to those of you who have left messages. It is greatly appreciated.

Best wishes for this week,
Jimmy