I’ve had an off-and-on relationship with writing goals over the years.

There have been years when I set incredibly specific writing goals for myself. In January, I will do this. In February, I will do this. And so forth for the entire year.

There have been other years when I’ve set zero writing goals. At the time, my life was a chaotic, unpredictable mess, and I thought, “If I set goals, I’ll fail. That will just frustrate me.”

Some years, I’ve limited myself to only setting goals that were 100% in my control and that I could achieve on my own. Other years, I’ve written down things like, “Get a new contract,” or, “hit a best seller list,” neither of which are entirely under my control.

And this is why I’ve decided to share several different methods for setting writing goals rather than just one. I don’t believe there’s one perfect system for setting and achieving goals. What has worked for me may not work for you, because sometimes what worked for me five years ago doesn’t work for me now!

While I do think goals are valuable and I believe whole-heartedly in setting them, I think they’re incomplete on their own. A goal is a “what.” It’s what you want to achieve. The real growth happens in the “how.” If you determine what your goal is but not how you’ll achieve it, that will likely lead to frustration. I adore how James Clear states this in Atomic Habits: “Winners and losers have the same goal.”

He uses the term winners and losers because he’s talking about sports and making the point that having a goal of winning a gold medal, a national championship, a race, etc. isn’t by itself what helps the athlete or team to achieve this. Winners and losers have the same goal.

In the same way, most writers who write a novel have a goal of being published someday. But those who are published aren’t published just because they had the goal. Those who achieved the goal of being published also answered the question of how they would achieve this goal. They have what James Clear calls “a system” for working toward their goal, and he says, “You do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.”

With that in mind, let’s talk about three ways you can approach setting writing goals before we talk about some ideas for systems.

Method Number One: The Long View

Consider what your dreams are and build goals around that.

For the sake of this article, let’s define a dream as something that you a play a part in, but you can’t do entirely on your own. Some examples of this are getting published, winning a Pulitzer Prize, having your book be on the New York Times bestseller list, working with a specific publisher, having your book turned into a movie, and so forth.

These aren’t things you can achieve on your own, and you might do all the “right” things and still not end up with a Pulitzer. But just because you can’t control everything doesn’t mean you control nothing.

Let’s use the example of the dream of writing a book that shows up on the NYT list. You can start by looking up your category on the NYT list. Some of the lists are updated once a week and some once a month, so you might set yourself a small goal of checking the list every week or two and taking notes on what kinds of books show up on there. Another small goal you could set is to read books that show up on the current NYT list.

While you do this research, you’ll likely notice patterns that can provide helpful information. Maybe you’re a YA writer, and you notice that the 10 bestselling YA books are dominated by fantasy. As you consider which of your WIPs to focus on, this could be helpful information! It might also be useful to notice how the books are described or who the publishers are.

Something you’ll definitely notice is there are zero unwritten or partially written books on the NYT list. For you to have any chance of achieving your dream, you need to finish writing your book. Yes, you’ll still likely need a literary agent and an editor at a big publishing house and many other things that aren’t completely in your control, but you have to finish your book if you want any of that to happen. Finishing a book should be high on your goal list if you haven’t done that yet!

Method Number Two: The Short View

Consider what you want your day-to-day life to look like and build goals around that.

For some of us, looking way in the future is more intimidating than it is inspiring. Maybe you don’t really know what—if anything—you want to accomplish with writing. Maybe all you know is, “I enjoy writing, and I would like to do more of it.” That’s fine! You don’t need some grand life plan to make goals worthwhile.

If this is you, you can consider setting a goal like, “Writing a thousand words every week,” or “Writing for an hour every Saturday” or “Writing for 30 minutes 3 times a week.”

I typically prefer weekly goals to daily ones because it keeps me from getting derailed if I miss a day. Having a goal of “a thousand words a week” is much better for me than a goal of “200 words everyday.”

Method Number Three: The Midrange View

What would you like to say you’ve accomplished at the end of the year?

If you’ve ever done any kind of “vision casting” for your life, there’s typically an exercise where you’re supposed to imagine the eulogy being spoken at your funeral and consider what you would like to be said about you, and then use this to guide decisions about your life.

There’s nothing wrong with that exercise, but I prefer an alternative that Laura Vanderkam shares in her book Juliet’s School of Possibilities. Her suggestion is to think about attending a party at the end of the year, the kind of party where you’re with people who you haven’t seen in a while so you’re catching them up on how you’ve been spending your time. In this scenario, what would you like to say you’ve been doing for the last six to twelve months?

I find this to be a much easier question to answer than the eulogy version. Maybe you’d like to be able to say that you found a good writing community, or you edited your novel, or you’ve been sending out queries to literary agents. If you can come up with a few ideas like this, it’ll be easier to identify some ways to take action on achieving these goals.

Don’t forget to answer the question “how?”

Once you’ve identified what you want to achieve, it’s time to figure out how you’re going to go about this. At minimum, your goal will need some space on your calendar or on your to-do list.

Here are two examples:

Goal: Find a good writing community.

Ideas for how: Join local writing group at the library and attend monthly meetings. Research joining SCBWI and find out if there is a local group. Follow other aspiring writers on social media and comment on one post a week.

Goal: Finish novel by end of the year.

Ideas for how: Write 5,000 words a week. Get up early MWF and write on Saturday after chores are done.

If you want to make progress on your goals, don’t skip this step! Adding the “how” to your goal is where the magic happens!

Have you set writing goals for yourself?

Stephanie Morrill writes books about girls who are on an adventure to discover their unique place in the world. She is the author of several contemporary young adult series, as well as two historical young adult novels, The Lost Girl of Astor Street and Within These Lines. Within These Lines was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection, as well as a YALSA 2020 Best Fiction for Young Adults pick. Since 2010, Stephanie has been encouraging the next generation of writers at her website, GoTeenWriters.com, which has been on the Writer’s Digest Best Websites for Writers list since 2017. She lives in the Kansas City area, where she loves plotting big and small adventures to enjoy with her husband and three children. You can connect with Stephanie and learn more about her books at StephanieMorrill.com, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.