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’Tis the season to be making goals and resolutions about our health, relationships, and careers—and that includes writing! Whether you look at writing as primarily a hobby or a career path, creating goals can help you stay on track and motivated. Without a goal, it’s easy to forget that writing is important to you. For me, goals provide a really helpful trajectory toward what I want to accomplish.
One thing we often forget, however, is that not every goal is created equally. When it comes to setting goals for writing, it’s really tempting to just throw something on the page, like “Become a bestselling author.” I mean, that’s the ultimate goal, right? For some, yes, it is, but it’s actually not a great goal to set. It’s a worthwhile achievement, of course, but the goal itself isn’t smart. One person cannot control becoming a bestselling author. Hell, if you’re looking to be traditionally published, you can’t even control if a publisher wants to put your book out into the world, let alone how many copies it sells! So what should you create as your writing goal? I’m not here to tell you what your goal should be, but I am here to tell you a bit about what makes a good goal in the first place.
The SMART goal structure is quite popular, and many people are taught this technique in work or school (I know I was!). It still holds up. Even now, it’s great for helping you determine if you have a good goal or not. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. A good goal should be each of these things, ensuring that you’re in control of achieving your goal.
Specific
Your goal must be specific enough to determine when it is complete. “Become a bestselling author” is not specific enough to be a good goal, because it doesn’t clarify what bestselling list you want to land on. Do you mean The New York Times Best Seller list? USA Today? Amazon? Something else entirely? Likewise, “Finish my novel” is a more specific goal, in that it has a final end point, but you may need to define what that end point really is. Do you just want to complete a first draft? Do you want a completely final draft, after editing and proofreading? And what novel? Ideally, you’d replace “my novel” with a specific project name. There should be absolutely no questions as to what project you’re working on, or what the achievement of that goal will look like.
Measurable
Your goal must be able to be measured and tracked. “Become a bestselling author” is not trackable. You would not be able to see any progress if you were to pursue this goal. It will just happen all at once at some point in time, but you won’t be measuring it along the way. (Before you tell me that some magical number of sales will get you there, do some research. The numbers bandied about on the internet aren’t finite or exact, and not every sale counts equally. Check out this great article from the Self-Publishing School about how The New York Times Best Seller list actually works.) “Finish my novel,” on the other hand, could be tracked in multiple ways—word count, page count, chapter count, tasks. You’re far more likely to keep plugging away at your novel if you can observe progress along the way. Choose your measure of progress based on what makes most sense for you and your project. If you’re writing a novel that’s a bit open-ended in that you don’t know how long it will be, word count may be the best option for you. If you’re working on a collection of essays, the number of chapters or essays might feel better. There’s no right or wrong here, so choose what works for you.
Achievable
Your goal must be able to be achieved. To me, this is really saying that it’s in your control. “Become a bestselling author” requires a serendipity of sorts—the just-right number of sales at the just-right time with the just-right book in front of the just-right audience. While you can write a fabulous book, that alone does not mean you’ll achieve this goal upon publication. It requires so much more than that, as well as a little luck. Sure, the more prolific you are, and the more you cultivate an audience, the more likely you are to hit the best seller list, but even then, it’s not a guarantee. It's not necessarily achievable. On the other hand, “Finish my novel” is black and white, cut and dry, with a clear ending in sight. You can break down the completion of your novel into a set of steps that you can then complete one at a time, eventually achieving the goal. It’s all in your power.
Relevant
You goal must be relevant as far as your higher-level goals and values. Does it align with the other things you hope to achieve? Does it make sense for you to achieve it based on your existing set of values and morals? Ideally, you want your goals to build upon one another, always in service of your values, so if you create a goal that goes against any of these, you may find friction and a lack of motivation. If you’ve decided that your other goals this year include less screen time, full-time travel, or a less sedentary life in a big way, is it even possible to achieve these goals and your writing goals? Finishing your novel might actually require more screen time, less travel time, and a more sedentary lifestyle. So make sure that your goals are compatible, and if they’re not, consider any ways you might adjust them before you just toss one of your goals in the trash. Perhaps you extend the amount of time you’ll need to write your book in order to account for a slower writing pace. Maybe you’d rather handwrite your novel during the week, then transcribe it on the weekend when you’re getting in a little screen time already.
Some SMART goal teachers use “realistic” as the R word instead, and I actually think that I prefer this one a bit more. Your goal must be realistic in order to be achievable. “Become a bestselling author” is likely not realistic for most of us (especially if you’re only working on your first novel!), and in some cases, “Finish my novel” might not be either. If you’re about to give birth to your first kid, now might not be the time to try a goal like, “Finish my novel,” which will take a significant amount of time that you probably won’t have. There’s nothing wrong with adjusting your goals based on your current life circumstances, and it’s actually smart to do so (pun intended).
Time-Bound
Finally, your goal must be finite. There has to be an end in sight, at which time you can say that you’ve achieved the goal. Not only that, but you should be able to attach a reasonable amount of time to said goal. “Become a bestselling author” cannot actually be time-bound because it might be achieved with your first published novel, or it might take years and years to finally happen. For some, it might never happen at all. On the other hand, “Finish my novel” can be assigned a timeline that works for you. For some authors, this might be writing the full novel in a month (à la NaNoWriMo), and for others, it might take a year or more. Do whatever is right for you. To determine the length of time needed for your goal, consider listing out the tasks and/or milestones that will need to occur during the course of the project. This might help you see the full scope of the goal, and determine a realistic timeline.
Now that you understand how to build a good writing goal, go forth and set your New Year’s resolutions—just be SMART about it!