Mastering the Art of Setting Freelance Writing Goals

I have found it much easier to set freelance writing goals, and not only is it easier, but it also helps keep you going when you're feeling down. Begin by taking a few extra minutes to sit down, decide what you want, and then plan your writing goals for the future. While planning your freelance writing goals, remember one important aspect: don't set your writing goals so high that you can't meet them in the specified amount of time. You will be reviewing and making changes to your freelance writing goals as you go along, so set writing goals you can meet. Then later down the road you can increase them.

To help get you started and give you an idea, here's how I plan out and manage my writing goals:

I make out two goal plans -- monthly goals and yearly goes. First, I start with my monthly goals. Make a table with columns. Your columns could be like this or similar: income, queries to send, articles to sell, chapters to write and paying jobs.

Income

For this part of your goal list, begin by setting a monthly income you would like to achieve. And as I mentioned in the beginning, don't set your writing goals so high that you won't be able to achieve them -- start low and increase them as you go along. For example, set a monthly goal of $300. To reach this goal you will want to try and earn $300 in one month. This isn't too high, and if you earn more than your monthly goal, that's fantastic!

Queries to Send

For this column, designate a goal for the number of queries you plan to submit in one month.

Articles to Sell

Enter the number of articles you intend to sell in one month.

Chapters to Write

If you don't write books you can omit this column from your table, but if you do write books, you need to enter the number of chapters you plan to write in the book you're working on. Or, if you prefer, you can have this column say "pages to write for my book," and then record the number of pages you plan to write in your book in one months time. For example, if you plan to write at least two chapters a day in your book, set your monthly goal for 62 chapters (normally there's 31 days in a month, so 31 X 2 = 62). If you're going by pages, and you plan to write at least 20 pages a day, set your monthly goal for 620 pages (31 x 20 = 620).

Paying Jobs

This will be the number of paying writing jobs that you plan to achieve in one month.

Not only do you need monthly writing goals, but you also need yearly writing goals. Repeat the process above, but this time instead of setting everything as monthly, set it as yearly.

Reviewing Your Freelance Writing Goals

Each month review your monthly writing goals, and once a year, review your yearly writing goals to see which ones you met. If you meet any of the freelance writing goals you have set for yourself, pat yourself on the back and set those goals a little higher for the next month or year. If you do not meet your writing goal for that month or year don't get discouraged, leave it the same and continue working to meet that freelance writing goal.

By setting freelance writing goals and reviewing them it should help keep your spirits up, because you will be proud of yourself when you meet your goals. Setting writing goals and working toward them will also help you earn more money as a freelance writer.