Getting to My Goals

I have made myself a goal of writing a million words of fiction. What doesn't count: poetry, non-fiction, work I do for others, or notes. Fiction prose only.

However, I'm not a very patient person. If I continue at the rate I have been, I won't reach 1 million words for six years. I set this goal so that I will improve my writing, and after that I can really push and experiment with stories. Six years is a long time to wait, just to really begin writing.

Therefore, my new sub-goal is to write 50,000 words a month for 12 months, for a total of...(grabs calculator) 600,000 words. That, added to the hundred thousand I've written since making this goal would put me very close to my overall goal.

So far, I'm not doing so good. December crapped out for me at 15K, but January is looking okay. In two days I'll be over the 15K that took me a whole month to do before. I have to write every day without procrastinating (I love procrastination! It's my favorite country) or letting my emotional turmoil or schedule get in the way of sitting down and getting it out.

The first thing I have learned about setting myself goals is that I need to make them just over realistic bounds because I always fall short. But falling short of 50K means that I got some writing done. In the end, that's all that counts.