by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethspanncraig.com
When other writers post daily word counts or announce book deals, it’s easy to feel like you’re falling behind some invisible timeline. But there’s no universal schedule for writing success.
Real Life Is a Real Constraint
Maybe you’re caring for aging parents, managing a demanding day job, or raising kids who need you. Maybe it’s health issues, financial stress, or any of the countless things that make up an ordinary complicated life. These aren’t excuses for not writing enough; they’re the actual conditions you’re writing under. Squeezing in pages between work meetings doesn’t make anyone less of a writer. It makes them someone who writes despite having a full life.
Starting From Where You Actually Are
It helps me to forget where I think I should be and just look at where I am. Instead of setting ambitious goals to make up for lost time, something manageable tends to work better. One paragraph today. Opening the document and rereading the last page. It’s better to meet small goals than to ignore your real circumstances.
Goals That Fit the Schedule You Have
If twenty minutes twice a week is what’s realistic, a daily writing goal is just setting yourself up to feel bad. During a really busy season, the goal might simply be thinking about your characters during your commute. Goals that actually fit your life can help build your momentum. Goals that ignore your constraints build guilt, because you can’t meet them.
Nobody Posts the Droughts
Social media shows us highlights, not the whole picture. The author posting daily word counts probably isn’t mentioning last month’s three-week dry spell. The writer celebrating a book deal likely won’t post about the years of rejections, or the family support that made the schedule possible.
Progress Counts, Whatever the Pace
Maybe this year you finished a short story while caring for a sick family member. Or you finally cracked your protagonist’s motivation during stolen lunch breaks. Maybe you wrote three chapters through a job transition, or finished a first draft across two years of weekend mornings. Progress is progress, and it doesn’t need to be measured against someone else’s timeline.
The goal isn’t to catch up. It’s to keep moving from wherever you’re standing today, at whatever pace your life allows.
What small writing steps are you taking?
Set goals that fit your reality, not some imaginary timeline. Progress is progress: Share on X
Elizabeth, that is spot-on. That unrealistic goals set us up for failure is so true but many writers tend to set them anyway.