Writing Journeys & Goal Setting

Here’s a way to think about goal setting accountability.

I like to think of a long piece of writing as a nice adventurous trip (comes from my fondness for road trips and hiking I guess – best way to see any country). As with any kind of journey, there will be stops and starts and you may find your goals need revising, re-routing etc.

So our Monday meetings are just great opportunities along the way where you meet fellow travellers and share where you’ve been and where you’re going. It’s not about reporting a perfect arrival at a goal, and therefore feeling guilty about route changes. Don’t get stressed out by shifts and changes. It’s just the process of logging the journey with fellow travellers, which really helps you navigate.

You learn a great deal about your writing process when you pay attention to the kinds of goals you set, your patterns of revision, the distance between your milestones etc. If you keep with the practice of goal setting-reflecting-revising, you’ll find yourself getting better and better at moving happily along your writing journeys.