Writing Targets

I am writing a story. I have the tale, of an anti-hero and his hidden destiny, locked in my bonce. There are several there, in fact, all struggling to escape and make their way to paper somewhere. Over the past 18 months, I have been attempting to free one of these stories, and so far I have 25,000 words of it.

The trouble is that I don't have the time to write. I am not an author, freelance writer, journalist or jobless bum. I work full time, have a baby and an overwhelming urge to do nothing but rest when the rare occasion to do so emerges. I enjoy the writing, but getting enough time to zone in on it and get some done is difficult. 25K is good going, in my mind, but it is about 1/3 of the story. And this is just the first draft - there will doubtless be a few versions once the whole yarn has been unravelled.

So, I have decided to set myself writing targets. It seems to be a good idea, and the writers that I follow on Twitter and blogs all do it. They often choose to do 1,000 words a day, and whereas that is probably an acceptable workload for someone who gets paid to do it, I think I would struggle with that sort of output on a daily basis. My overall aim is 75,000 words, so I have 50,000 left. I think I could do 1,000 a week, which means the first draft would be finished by this time next year (allowing for holidays!).
I will start with this week - I have to get to 26,000 words by Sunday evening! The target is set, the gauntlet thrown. I have some work to do...