Word Count?

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JES0428

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Hello all :)

I am trying to set a word count goal for myself - I do better with hard deadlines - but I also don't want to set myself up for failure. I have a full time job (not writing) and two small kids at home (5 months and 2.5 years). Would you all suggest a daily, weekly, or monthly goal? What has worked for you??
 

Mary Love

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All three. If you have a daily of 500, but miss a few days, you can always work harder on the weekend to makeup your 3500 weekly goal. Same for monthly. My most productive week is always the last one of the month where I tally what I need to do each day to make my monthly goal, then work my butt off getting it. Good luck!
 

Esmae Tyler

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Hello! Welcome!

Littles make it super hard to concentrate on writing, don't they? I have one that is almost 4, and then two that are 14 months, so I feel your struggle. The gold standard of goals is just butt-in-chair-time, really. Right now just finding a way to carve out time, whether it's an hour you can magic up to dedicate to trying to make words, or three fifteen minute blocks that you trade for bribes of goldfish and apple juice (shamelessly) if you can conquer getting the discipline to write even a little bit, every day, you're light years ahead of where you would be without that discipline. I mean, today is Day 258 of 2017. If I'd managed to sit down and write even 100 words every day since January that would be 25,800 words that I don't have now because I didn't manage to write every day for most of them.

But what's a realistic goal for you? 100 words a day? 200? 500? Aim for something manageable (think doable, not easy) and reward yourself with that feeling of awesome productivity when you get a chance to blow past it. In theory then you can multiply that daily word goal and get a weekly target number and a monthly target number so if you have days when you don't write anything (or don't write enough) you know how much you owe the word bank to be on target for your personal deadline. Or you get halfway through the month and realize how far behind you are and just how far you have to step up your game to meet your goals...

But just getting in the habit of writing every day is a good place to start. And a hard one. It's one I still trying to master.

Aside from that I've found that the community here is good for positive peer pressure. There are several active threads for monthly writing goals, and sometimes the accountability of having to show up and post "today the page won" can be motivation enough to write something instead of nothing.
 

JES0428

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Hello! Welcome!

Littles make it super hard to concentrate on writing, don't they? I have one that is almost 4, and then two that are 14 months, so I feel your struggle. .

Yes! I hate giving up time with them, especially when I work all day! But I keep telling myself it would be worth it if one day I could be home writing full time. Thank you for the great advice. Right now my goal is 500 words per day, 6 days a week
 

JES0428

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All three. If you have a daily of 500, but miss a few days, you can always work harder on the weekend to makeup your 3500 weekly goal. Same for monthly. My most productive week is always the last one of the month where I tally what I need to do each day to make my monthly goal, then work my butt off getting it. Good luck!

Thank you for the response! That is about what I am doing right now. My goal is 500 words a day, 6 days a week. So 3000 a week. I will add a monthly goal as well so I can get a more big picture idea of where I will be in a few months :)
 
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