Write Every Day Part 5: Set Targets
In the previous blog posts in this series on how to write every, we talked about scheduling your writing time. Today, I’ll talk about how to set targets.
Word Count
One of the most important targets you need to set is a word count for the day, week and month. Every writer has an optimum number of words they can write each day. It depends on experience, on the type of book, and on the kind of writer. Some authors aim to write perfect text, while others are more interested in putting down ideas and correcting the work later. It’s worth noting again that the first draft is never perfect. Every writer’s work is edited, corrected and proofread.
The word count you can achieve also depends on what you are writing. Below is a rough guide to the word count of various types of books:
• Short story: under 7,500
• Novella: 17,500– 40,000
• Novel: 40,000– 90,000
• Nonfiction: 20,000+
The definition of a book changes all the time. We are living in a fast, digital world, which means that short reads are increasingly popular. A few years ago, Amazon introduced categories for ‘Kindle Short Reads’, listing books according to the time it takes an average reader to finish them, rather than their page counts. Here are the categories of Kindle Shorts:
• 15 minutes (1–11 pages)
• 30 minutes (12–21 pages)
• 45 minutes (22–32 pages)
• 1 hour (33–43 pages)
• 90 minutes (44–64 pages)
• 2 hours or more (65–100 pages)
You can set your targets on an Excel spreadsheet, note them down in a diary, or even on a blackboard in your office. Whichever way you choose, make sure you can easily update them and enjoy the sense of satisfaction you get when you achieve your daily goal. I am a novelist, so I write long form. I add my target words to a tab on the document I use to chart the plot and the characters of the book.
The benefits of setting a daily word goal are many.
Firstly, you will be able to plan when your launch should be. You can book editors, the cover and layout designers, and even plan advertising for the launch. You can start ‘warming up’ your audience, whether on social media or through your email list. You can tease your readers with snippets of your writing or give them an exclusive cover reveal.
The word count also introduces accountability to your writing routine. Treat the spreadsheet, or whatever you use for your target word count, as if it was your agent or publisher. You’ve promised them a finished manuscript on a certain day, and if you can’t make that day, you have to have a very good excuse for being late.
Above is an example of a word count plan for one of my recent books.
How many words?
Every writer varies in how many words they can write each day. My target is at least 1,000 words per session, but often I get 2,000 words down every morning. If I’m having a bad day, I can allow myself just 500 words, but those days are getting few and far between.
Every writer is different, and certainly the more experienced you become, the more your daily word count increases. You also become more used to plotting your novel or planning the chapters in your nonfiction book, which increases the speed of your writing. The more you write, the better you become at the craft of writing. You are less likely to spend time searching for the right word, and you become more skilled at writing dialogue, building character and describing landscapes and scenes of any kind.
Don’t set unachievable goals
When setting your daily word goal, don’t forget that you do need to fulfil the targets you’ve set. I know this may sound silly, but I have often fallen into the trap of making fantastical plans, only to tumble at the first hurdle when I couldn’t fulfil these ambitions. Success comes when we recognize our own abilities – and limitations. So set achievable targets. Remember that these are personal to you – only you will know if you can write 100, 500 or 10,000 words a day. How many words you manage each day is hugely individual. While you’ll notice that your speed increases the more you write, don’t try to write too much in a day. Working too intensely one day can often have consequences for the following day or days.
I have learned to temper my ambitions. It may seem ridiculous, especially if you are new to writing, but I try not to write too much in a day. If I have a whole day, when all I have to do is write, I can get up to 10,000 words. But the next day I am completely empty. I can hardly add 100 words to the manuscript. For me, personally – and, again, I can’t stress enough how individual this is – my ‘sweet spot’ lies somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 words. If I notice that I am going over 3,000 words, I stop, knowing that it will impact my creative energy for the next day or days.
It’s also wise to set targets lower than you think your word count should be. If you think you could write 1,000 words a day, set your daily goal at, say, 750. It’s hugely satisfying to have met the target at the end of the day, and it will give you an upbeat start to the next day’s writing marathon. When you know you are ahead of the game, you tend to do better. There is nothing more depressing and demotivating than having to start the day with a negative balance.
New writers
If you are just starting out and don’t have any idea how many words you are able to produce, start with a target of 500 words. Many authors, even quite well-known ones, have this as their daily goal. If your plan is to write, say a novel of roughly 70,000 words, you could get to a first draft manuscript in 140 days. That’s just over four and a half months. With this kind of pace – writing every day – you could easily produce two books a year. You can see from my word count schedule that it takes about a month and a half for me to get from the first draft to the published novel. Together with the first draft writing time of four and a half months, this means six months in total.
Wouldn’t you love to publish two books a year? With 500 words a day, this is entirely possible. Just think how many titles you could publish if you doubled that daily writing goal.
Write Every day Out Now
How many times have you heard a bestselling author say the route to success is to write every day?
In this inspiring book, the author of several bestselling titles, Helena Halme, reveals the secrets of how writers train themselves to work every day. She discusses why writing every day brings success, as well as gives you tips on how to motivate yourself to turn up to work at your writing desk every single day.
Some of the topics covered in this handy guide are:
Why does writing every day bring you success?
The real reason why you’re not writing
Why the more you write the more you thrive as an author
How to turn off your inner critic
Why making writing a daily habit is easier than you think
How plotting your novel or planning a nonfiction title makes daily writing easier
Experienced, prize-winning author
Helena Halme is a prize-winning author of 12 fiction and three nonfiction titles. She is a former BBC journalist, a translator, and a magazine editor, and began writing fiction after gaining an MA in Creative Writing. Her true love story, The English Heart, is a bestselling novel and has been downloaded thousands of times on Amazon.
In Write Every Day, Helena shares her experience on how to motivate yourself as a writer. Using her knowledge gained as a coach and an author who's often had long gaps–sometimes lasting years–in her writing career, Helena shows you how easy it is to write every day.
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