How to Set Goals for Your Writing
If you want to start a career as a writer, you need to learn to set goals for your writing. Now, a writing “career” can look like a lot of different things.
It’s important to remember you don’t have to make it a career for your writing to matter. If that’s not your cup of tea, we’ll talk about that, too! I hope you find this blog helpful in another way.
So, back to setting goals. First, there are two major questions you need to ask yourself:
1. Why do you write?
There are a ton of good reasons to write:
To process emotions
To entertain
To make money
To educate
To have fun (!!)
The idea that poetry is therapy has always rubbed me the wrong way. I’ve always been of the opinion that therapy is therapy and poetry is an art form. I think writing for writing’s sake has its place, but when it comes to building a career as a writer you have to consider the reader/audience.
If you plan for your writing to be public in any way, remember to consider how it will impact your audience. Whether that’s including appropriate content warnings or just thinking about how you’ll present your work.
2. What do you want your writing to do?
Heads up: the rest of this blog assumes you are planning on sharing your writing with others!
There are two main ways to share your writing if you’re planning to share it with others: publication and performance. Things are always changing and there is no right way to do things. But these tips should be enough to get you started:
Publication Goals
A lot has changed with publication over even just the last decade or so since I started looking into poetry submissions. Mostly, of course, because of the Internet.
Submitting for Publication
It can feel very overwhelming when you first start looking into submitting your work for publication. There are so many different journals and the fear of rejection can be real. With persistence and patience, it can be a really rewarding process.
Self Publication
These days self-publication is a very valid way to pursue publication. Especially because you can’t talk about the publishing industry (or any industry) without talking about the roles that privilege plays in how easily people get published.
Performance Goals
Getting Feature Gigs
There are plenty of opportunities to feature at the various open mics in the city, usually all it takes is an email to the organizer!
Organizing shows
Did you know you’re allowed to just put shows together? You don’t have to wait to be asked to be on shows.
Producing your own show can be a great way to test out your material and maybe even make a little money. Also, they can be a lot of fun!
Setting goals for your writing can be project-based, too!
I’ve gone over some big-picture ideas for setting writing goals so far. When you’re developing your writing practice it’s helpful to keep your goals in mind.
You can also specify your goals based on a project you’d like to complete. For example, maybe you want to write a book about a specific subject or are looking to write a full-length theatre show.
My best advice: break your goal into smaller projects or tasks! AND give yourself deadlines!
Deadlines are important because they give you a reason to have something done. “I want to write a book by the end of the year” is more likely to be accomplished than “I want to write a book.”
If you aren’t sure where to start, a lot of poets use April (National Poetry Month) as a time to set a goal of writing a poem a day, just like the novelists have November to write a novel in a month.
You can use something like that to get you started and just see what happens! Spending time with your work is the best way to figure out what you want to do with it.
A good super-simple-basic format for a goal:
I will [complete a task] by [this date].
Check out this guide to SMART goals for more tips!
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About the author
Abby Bland (she/they) is a nonbinary writer who also straddles the line between comic and poet in Kansas City. Her poems have appeared in numerous publications and she regularly produces shows in the KC area. In 2022, she was awarded an ArtsKC Inspiration Grant for her one-person spoken word comedy show You Are Here.