Guest Blogger – Armand Rosamilia
Armand Rosamilia
When I say writing goals, I’m not talking about goals like ‘I want to be rich, I want to date Alyssa Milano because my writing is so damn brilliant, I want to win a big award and have that bitch from third grade wish she’d kissed me in gym class.’ Actually, they are all great personal goals, but I’m talking about goals on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
I used to look at a story and think it was going to be 30,000 words and then start writing. And quickly realize it was a lot of words and it would take me a lot of time to write it. So I started breaking it down into bite-sized chunks I could manage. 2,000 words a day is my daily goal, which translates into 14,000 per week and approximately 60,000 a month. If I try to just write 60k in a month it looks like an uphill battle, but 2k a day is cake.
I wondered what other authors I knew thought, and what their own goals were. So I asked a few.
Billie Sue Mosiman (http://www.amazon.com/ALABAMA-GIRL-Memoir-Writer-Part-1-ebook/dp/B00AWVTNXC/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1363280278&sr=1-1&keywords=GIRL+mosiman) doesn’t have a goal. “Being my own boss and being creative, I write through the Muse. It may be old-fashioned and I don’t recommend it for anyone else, but I write when the mood strikes. Luckily it strikes often and I’m prolific and generally can produce fast, cleanly written work.”
It’s the same for Author Suzi M (http://www.amazon.com/Suzi-M/e/B003TTLGP2/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1). “None at all. I don’t limit myself for a couple of reasons, the first and foremost being that I hate limitations and I hate missing a goal. No goal, no expectations. No expectations, no pressure. So I may write 10,000 words in a day or I may not write any at all. Ultimately what counts is the deadline.”
And also Jaime Johnesee (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B008D2VVXC). “I do not keep to word count. I wish I could, but whenever I write without being in the mood to I hate what I produce.”
Vincent Hobbes (http://www.amazon.com/Khost-ebook/dp/B00AA46MJE/ref=sr_1_1_bnp_1_kin?ie=UTF8&qid=1363636444&sr=8-1&keywords=khost) is vague in his approach. “I have a daily word count goal. I think writing is like exercise, if you don’t do it on a regular basis it gets tougher and tougher to get back into that routine.”
So, who has an actual word count of those I asked?
Kat Yares (http://www.katyares.com), for one. “I try for 1,000 words a day, Monday through Friday. I take the weekends off to spend with the better half, doing other things, like talking about new projects or making movies. Of course, occasionally those 1,000 words may be book or product reviews or Facebook posts.”
Todd Brown (http://twbrown.blogspot.com/) adds: “I target 2,000 words per day, but do not stop if I reach it. However, I do stop every 1,000 words (even if I am in mid-sentence… thanks OCD!) and take a break to clear my head. That is usually when I will walk the dog or do some house cleaning. The why is simply my own marker that I set for myself because I am very much a goal setting type of person. When I do not reach my numbers, it really has a tendency to derail my train. Then, on the editing side, I simply work in 5 page increments. I edit 5 pages and then either take a break or, as is often the case, I am editing more than one project, I switch. That really helps keep me focused on editing and not getting sucked in to the story so bad that I stop doing my job.”
So who is right? All of us. And you, too… the secret to writing (and eating popcorn) is to be comfortable with your own skill set and goals. You need to stay positive and just get your ass in the chair and start writing. We all have great days and wasted days, but the goal is more great ones. Good luck!
Armand Rosamilia (http://armandrosamilia.com) likes to talk in third person. Because he is cool. And he eats too much. And he wastes time writing blog posts and not writing his next book, but he is comfortable with that. Jimmy likes Elaine.
