Last Updated on by Michael Brockbank
As a self-published author, you have to keep yourself highly motivated and determined to finish your book, usually through goals and deadlines. After all, no one is standing over your shoulder tapping their feet. You want to get it published in a timely manner, right?
The hardest part is to keep yourself motivated to adhere to them. It’s incredibly easy to just slack off because you’re not really accountable to anyone except yourself.
Well, unless you have a following or fans who are eagerly awaiting the next book in a series.
Setting Up Book Goals and Deadlines
The important thing to remember is that any goal or deadline looks great on paper. I suppose, in this case, they look great on a computer or mobile screen.
It actually takes effort to see those goals and deadlines come to life.
The same goes for any writing challenges you decide to put on yourself. If you’re not pushing to see those plans through, then they become nothing more than elaborate pipe dreams.
Don’t get me wrong, dreams and aspirations are great, and they can help guide your path in any career you choose. Nonetheless, it takes a great deal of effort from you to actually reach them and see your plans unfold.
From the child who dreams of being a star quarterback for his favorite NFL team to the one aspiring a better life working the job he or she hates, it’ll take hard work and determination to see those things come true.
Now, this doesn’t mean you’ll be instantly successful by putting in the effort to change things. However, it will vastly increase the odds you’ll succeed as opposed to sitting around twiddling your thumbs.
There will be moments when you feel that you’ve failed. In those instances, dust yourself off, learn from your mistakes, and try again. Nothing is truly a failure as long as you learn and grow for the next attempt.
Not everyone is going to fall ass-backward into success, even though there are some people on YouTube and social media who make it look easy.
So, what are some realistic expectations for setting up the goals and deadlines for your book?
Estimating Book Length
First, let’s estimate the length of your book. Are you going to write a short novella, or are you cranking out an epic fantasy? Some books are obviously longer than others, so this part will be completely dependent on you.
A good rule of thumb is that the word count for most book genres ranges between 80,000 and 120,000 words, depending on the story and the author.
Knowing the approximate length of your first draft will directly impact any goals and deadlines you’ll want to create.
Now, I say “approximate” because there is a very good chance your book will actually be shorter or longer. For instance, my goal for Kingmaker was 80,000 words. By the time it was published, it was nearing 89,000. That’s because of the extra details, fixes, and changes I made to publish a much better story.
My goal for Shadows of Atlantic City was 75,000 words, but it was around 81,000 by the time I finished the first round of edits.
The bottom line is that your estimated word count is merely a guidepost of how much you want to write for your particular story.
Personally, I write until the story is told. And because I am self-published and don’t really have an editor on hand, I don’t worry about cutting scenes or shortening the book because one person says I should.
There’s nothing wrong with editors and making huge changes, like removing a whole chapter. But I’m going to write the story I want to write.
Once you have the estimated length, you can add it to the Reedsy writing app.
Estimating First Draft Completion
Next, you’ll want to figure out when you want your first draft completed. This is not the date you want to publish your book but when you want to get the story out of you.
Completing the first draft will have an amazing impact on your confidence. When you sit back and realize that you just wrote a book, it’s an incredible feeling that can stoke the fires of writing more.
After the first draft, there will be a ton of edits and adjustments to make so that you publish a polished story. But the first draft is to just get the story out in the first place. It won’t be perfect, and it doesn’t have to be.
No one publishes their first draft. At least, no one who wants to be taken seriously as an author.
In Reedsy, you’ll create the deadline and it will automatically adjust how many words you need to write per day. If not, you can always take the day of your deadline and subtract it from today. Most spreads will automatically use the julian date of the year and display the correct number of days.
In any case, this will give you the number of days until your deadline according to how many words you plan to write. Then, you take the estimated length and divide the number of days.
I know, math, right? That’s why it’s probably easier to simply add the word count and deadline to Reedsy or your favorite writing app.
Committing to Word Counts
Perhaps the most difficult part of sticking with goals and deadlines for your book is committing to the word count. Let’s say you need to write 1100 words per day to hit your goal. Are you going to actually write that many? What steps will you take to hit your daily goal?
A few things I do in order to reach my self-imposed deadlines include:
- Using time management apps (which I’ll cover in a moment)
- Setting aside blocks of time in the day (I usually aim for 2-hour blocks)
- Removing distractions from your writing space
- Using external relaxation and motivation elements (such as writing sprints)
- Sticking with the best time of the day to write
If you’re not able to commit to your plans for writing, goals and deadlines are essentially pointless. Sometimes, life will throw a wrench in the works, especially if you’re caring for family members or children. But you’ll still need to find your flow if you want to publish a book.
While I’m writing the first draft of a book, I can usually write around 10,000 words per week. I have a lot of things on my plate, so a 2-hour chunk of time each day helps me write 2,000 words while still being able to take care of things in both my personal and professional life.
Commit to a word count that fits your lifestyle. Everyone is different, and as long as you get that first draft out, that’s all that matters in the end.
Being Realistic with Yourself
Perhaps one of the most important aspects of setting up goals and deadlines for your book is being realistic with yourself. Too many people have delusions of grandeur and bite off far more than they can chew. This often results in those writers giving up on their manuscripts.
One of the main reasons why realistic expectations are vital is because failure will impact your confidence.
If you fail at a goal or deadline, you could start to feel like you’re not good enough. It can lead you down a relatively dark path that will derail your efforts to become an author.
This is often related to impostor syndrome.
For example, I know I can write 10,000 words per week because I do it consistently during the live writing sprints on the YouTube channel. Could I set a goal of 20,000 words? Probably, but I know that would take up another two hours of my day, which I can rarely afford at the moment.
I am realistic with my daily routines and know how much I can write with everything else that goes on throughout the day.
When setting your goals and deadlines, keep in mind your capacity to write every week. It’s much more difficult for, say, a single mother who is going to school to write a book than for most of us because of everything involved.
Of course, you don’t want your goals to be too easy. The point of a goal is to go beyond your normal expectations to achieve something great. Something that is too simple might take a bit away from the accomplishment on a mental level.
Not to mention the effect of not meeting your full potential.
Being OK with Delays and Adjustments
When you’re working with a self-imposed deadline, you have quite a bit of freedom. That’s because no one is standing over your shoulder making sure you’re working on the project.
Unfortunately, this can also lead to the “eh, I’ll do it later” frame of mind. It’s imperative that you avoid that mindset if you want to write your book in a timely manner.
Anyway, there are things that will happen that will detract from your goals and deadlines for your book. And many of them are unavoidable happenstances that you absolutely need to address.
When these things happen, you need to be OK with making adjustments to both your goals and deadlines. It does no good to stress yourself out because you’re running too far behind to catch up.
Take how 2024 went for me, for example. I was writing at a decent pace but was slowed down for about three months. I had to deal with a sick grandparent almost dying in my house, a memorial for another, and having to spend two solid months trying to put a 2400-square-foot house back together.
I did all of this while also trying to manage my job, blogs, and YouTube channels.
Needless to say, I had to adjust my goals and deadlines quite a bit in 2024. But instead of stressing about it, I realized that life happens and I’ll have to make adjustments to compensate.
It just means it’ll take a bit longer to publish the next book.
Finding Motivation to Write
Another element that holds a lot of potentially good writers back is having the motivation to write. Some people just seem to struggle when it comes to finding the will to make their story come to light.
Or, you’ll see some writers who’ll come out of the gate strong but then slowly start to pitter out near the 20,000-word mark. Afterward, they often give up or have trouble getting their head back in the game.
Ways to motivate yourself to write could include:
- Trying to break word count records for yourself each day
- Visualizing your book if it were made into a movie
- Give yourself rewards when hitting your writing goals
- Celebrate your progress and accomplishments no matter how small
- Join groups of writers who support each other
- Realizing your book won’t be finished if you don’t write it
It’s difficult for me to relate to a lack of motivation because I always find a way to empower myself to write. This is especially true when it comes to fiction.
I love weaving tales whether it’s a fan fiction short story or a 120,000 word novel. If it wasn’t for the sheer number of projects in which I’m involved, I would do nothing but write all day long.
That’s because I enjoy the process and find it very therapeutic and relaxing. From using my brain to the sound of my fingers hitting the keys, the entire process is alluring to me.
At the end of the day, you need to find what motivates you to focus on your writing while hitting your goals.
Not Talking Yourself Out of Writing
I personally know a lot of bloggers and authors who constantly talk themselves out of being productive. Some will sidetrack themselves on purpose with other tasks around the house while others dwell on negative thoughts about their creativity.
Regardless of why you’re doing it, you need to stop talking yourself out of writing. Every minute you spend doing something else is one more that will postpone the publishing of your book.
Set aside your misgivings about whether someone will like what you create. Stop looking around the house for something else to do. Sit down and write the damn book.
This is much easier to accomplish if you set up blocks of time when there’s nothing else that can interfere. It’s easier to put your writing on hold if your favorite show comes on at a certain time or if you have to drive your kids to school.
Find the time in the day that is perfect for just you and the keyboard. It will make it harder to talk yourself out of writing if you have a chunk of time all to yourself.
Meeting your goals and deadlines for your book centers around the fact that you actually write. And getting in your own way will only delay your success.
Instead of focusing on why you shouldn’t write, change the mindset to why you should write.
For instance, I want to write my books because I believe I have interesting stories to share. I want to write blog posts because I love helping people. I simply want to write because it makes me happy to do so.
In other words, I don’t look for reasons not to write.
Apps I Use for Goals and Deadlines
There are all kinds of apps you can use for setting up goals and deadlines. You’ll probably go through a lot of them before picking one that works best for your needs.
Now, I’m not saying that you absolutely need to use apps to be successful. But speaking from experience, they can help streamline the day while helping you reach those goals and deadlines for your book.
You should also consider using social media as a way to help grow your audience. The more people you have following your accounts, the more likely you’ll make a sale as soon as your book goes live.
For instance, I immediately sold six copies of A Freelancer’s Tale the moment it went live on Amazon merely because of my presence on Facebook and Twitter. And these accounts didn’t have but a couple hundred followers at the time.
As an author, you want to take advantage of everything that will help you reach your audience. Regardless of how you feel about social media, a lot of your readers are there waiting for your debut. They just don’t know it yet.
Anyway, we’re talking about goals and deadlines, and there are a lot of apps you can use to help you achieve them. It’s a good idea to explore as many as possible to find the best fit for your needs and wants.
The apps I use mostly for writing books include:
Asana – Time Management
I’ve been using Asana since 2017. It’s the backbone of everything I do online, which includes writing my books. The free version gives me the ability to manage all of my blogs, books, and YouTube channels from one desktop.
If I get to a point where I can start building a content team, I can also add up to 15 people in the free version. So, for me and what I’m creating, it’s virtually a perfect fit.
When it comes to managing my writing goals and deadlines, I set up blocks of time throughout the day to write my book. Of course, my days have a variety of color-coded blocks because of the different projects I manage. But it’s nice to know that at 10:30 am, I am supposed to be working on my books during the writing sprints on YouTube for two hours.
I can make notes on each block, move them around if something happens and I need to reschedule, and streamline an otherwise incredibly busy day.
You don’t need to use Asana, though. There are quite a few time management apps out there that have a great deal of flexibility and customization for helping you manage writing your books.
Never underestimate the value of a management app, especially if your day is often hectic. The trick is to actually use it and adhere to your set schedule, which isn’t always the easiest to do, especially if you have kids.
Reedsy – Writing and Goal Management
Obviously, I use Reedsy to write most of my books. It’s been my go-to writing app since I wrote and published Kingmaker. One of the reasons why I love using Reedsy is because of the goals and deadlines you can set up while writing.
By entering the estimated word count, selecting what days you plan to write, and a deadline, Reedsy will show you how much you need to write per day to be successful. This feature helped me finish writing the first draft of Kingmaker two weeks earlier than expected.
You can also set daily, weekly, or monthly goals to help you achieve your word counts. For some, this may help with motivation as you watch the numbers climb as you type.
During the live writing sprints, I’ll share the goals and deadline screen while writing. That way, viewers can watch my progress as it unfolds directly from the Reedsy writing app.
Reedsy isn’t the only writing app that will display goals, though. Scrivener, AutoCrit, Atticus, and a slew of others will also help you manage goals and deadlines while writing your book. It really comes down to what writing app works best for you and whether it has the feature or not.
I just find the goal and deadline management aspect easy to use in Reedsy.
You could always take the convoluted route and set up a spreadsheet to calculate your word counts and goal deadlines. In fact, my time tracking spreadsheet keeps me apprised of my total word count through the day, week, month, and year. I’m also quite the dork when it comes to data collection.
Cool Timeline & Author WIP Progress Bar (WordPress)
If you have a blog, which I believe all authors should have, you can add plugins to your website for social accountability. If you have the mindset that fans are eagerly awaiting your book, it can really ramp up the motivation to hit your deadlines.
In this case, I use two plugins for WordPress: Cool Timeline and Author WIP Progress Bar.
Cool Timeline
The Cool Timeline plugin lets me show the progress of my book from start to finish. I add the dates of major changes along with a few notes. It keeps readers in the loop while promoting interest in the book.
After the book is published, it becomes a testament to how long it took to put the book out and the different stages it went through.
Author WIP Progress Bar
The Author WIP Progress Bar plugin shows how far along I am while writing the current book. I have the estimated first draft word count and update it every day that I work on the manuscript. Then, it shows the progress bar on the side of the blog for visitors.
You can also add links and comments for your readers for any purpose.
The idea here is to keep your fans aware of the progress of your book while driving your goals and deadlines. You don’t want to let your readers down, which can stoke a few fires for finishing the book and getting it published.
Spreadsheets Galore!
No list of tools I use for writing would be complete without spreadsheets. I have sheets that manage everything from my client’s content to my weight loss journey. As I said earlier, I am a bit of a dork when it comes to data.
In this case, I have my often-talked-about time-tracking spreadsheet. This helps me keep an eye on how much time I spend in the day writing, word count goals throughout the year, my estimated income, and more.
I’ve been using this spreadsheet since I started as a freelance writer back in 2012. Since then, it has grown and developed with my needs and wants, especially when it comes to setting up goals and deadlines for any book.
Spreadsheets are incredibly versatile, especially if you learn how to use them properly.
Google Sheets and LibreOffice are two of the most utilized apps on my computer. Right now, I have three tabs open to Google and two LibreOffice windows on my computer’s desktop. I know…a little excessive, right?
But in all honesty, some of these are used for client and blog content. I like being able to click a tab and see what project I need to accomplish next.
You probably don’t need to go hog-wild like I do. In reality, I don’t know anyone else who pushes spreadsheets as hard as me when it comes to writing goals. Yet, I find them a lot of fun as I create all kinds of goals with the data I collect.
Goals and Deadlines Help You Write the Book
When all is said and done, goals and deadlines are exceptionally beneficial when it comes to writing in any form. Whether you’re blogging to make money or pushing to publish your first book, success depends on progress.
I know there are a lot of people out there who are happy with taking it nice and slow. And there isn’t anything inherently wrong with that. As long as you’re happy with the results, who is to say you’re doing it wrong?
However, I have a lot of stories to tell and a plethora of ideas that I would love to get through before my time is up. The last thing I want to do is take 10 years to write and edit a book, and goals and deadlines make sure that I don’t waste a decade.
Ideally, I would love to publish about three or four books per year. Unfortunately, I currently have so much on my plate that I would be lucky to hit two. But if it wasn’t for keeping track of my progress, I doubt I would even publish that many.
This is especially true considering I’m easy to sidetrack if I don’t have a time management app running. Most of the time, it’s because I either forget or get talked into doing something unproductive.
Anyway, the most important piece of advice I can give you regarding goals and deadlines while writing your book is to be realistic with yourself and strive to meet your expectations. Achievable goals mean very little without the effort to back them up.
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