Word Count Goals Shouldn’t Be Your Only Goals
By Arthur Klepchukov | June 10, 2019 |
The sign for the Brown House of Learning on the TRU campus
What kind of writing goals do you set? Word count, revised pages, finished drafts, submitted stories, queried agents? These are examples of goals driven by measurable performance. Research has shown that when “a person is committed to the goal, has the requisite ability to attain it, and does not have conflicting goals, there is a positive, linear relationship between goal difficulty and task performance.” But is there more to succeeding than setting clear, attainable goals you’re committed to?
Writing is rarely as straightforward as setting a goal, working, and achieving it. You can set a solid goal. So why do you end up stuck at a blank sheet of paper or that lone, blinking cursor in a new document? There is a huge gap between a performance goal such as “write 1,000 words” and finishing a draft of a novel. Something as complex as a novel is more than a collection of word count goals. To address this gap, we need to address the shortcomings of performance goals.
The Perils of Performance Goals Like Word Count
We set performance goals because it’s easy to know when we’ve reached them. 1,000 words is 1,000 words. But a concrete ending can obscures a less clear beginning or the steps to get you to that clear ending.
“Performance goals can in fact impede performance. This [is] particularly the case when the task is highly complex or the goal is perceived as very challenging, and where the individual is not skilled or is low in self efficacy, or where resources are scarce.”
Likewise, from “New Directions in Goal-Setting Theory”:
“Focusing on reaching a specific performance outcome on a new, complex task can lead to ‘‘tunnel vision’’—a focus on reaching the goal rather than on acquiring the skills required to reach it.”
So how do we avoid tunnel vision and address the real complexity of what we want to accomplish in our writing? We need to think bigger than word count or other things that are easily measured. We need to make room for learning goals.
The Power of Learning Goals
What exactly is a learning goal? Wikipedia’s introduction to goal setting defines learning goals:
“There are times when having specific goals is not a best option; this is the case when the goal requires new skills or knowledge. … In situations like this, the best option is to set a learning goal. A learning goal is a generalized goal to achieve knowledge in a certain topic or field.”
Doesn’t each piece of writing require new skills or knowledge? Whether you’re reporting on a facet of our shared reality or inventing a new one, there’s always something to learn (and teach to your readers).
Unlike word count, learning goals relieve the pressure of immediate output. Focusing too much on outcomes and not giving things time are among the limitations of goal setting:
“Goal setting may have the drawback of inhibiting implicit learning: goal setting may encourage simple focus on an outcome without openness to exploration, understanding, or growth. A solution to this limitation is to set learning goals as well as performance goals, so that learning is expected as part of the process of reaching goals.”
Example Goals Beyond Word Count
The difference between learning and performance goals isn’t purely semantics—they have different psychological impacts on people:
“Learning goals tend to be associated with a range of positive cognitive and emotional processes including perception of a complex task as a positive challenge rather than a threat, greater absorption in the actual task performance (Deci & Ryan, 2002), and enhanced memory and well-being (Linnenbrink, Ryan & Pintrich, 1999).”
Consider the positive challenge of accomplishing learning goals such as:
- Get to know your protagonist’s emotional core
- Spend time with an interesting character. Take them out into the world to see life from their perspective.
- Journal or freewrite about what essential truth motivates this particular piece of writing
Get absorbed in writing about a setting that you’ve taken the time to explore and flesh out:
- Sketch or list all the items in the room or place where your story hits its peak
- Describe the street that made your antagonist the way he or she is today
- What’s one thing only the locals would know about this locale?
Find new energy in your plot or the story you really want to tell:
- Describe the story from the perspective of non-point of view characters in this draft
- How would your protagonist’s best friend summarize your theme?
- Convince yourself that your piece must start here and now as opposed to any other place or time in your character’s lives.
Returning to a piece of writing you’ve developed, learned from, and given yourself permission to discover is like coming home to a memory, a familiar flow, a waking dream.
Over to you. Do you have experience with learning goals? What are they, and how have they affected your work? If you haven’t tried learning goals, what might you consider moving forward?
Arthur Klepchukov was born between Black Seas, Virginian Beaches, and San Franciscan waves. He adores trains, swing sets, and music that tears him outta time. Read Art’s words in Glimmer Train, The Best American Mystery Stories 2019, The Common, Necessary Fiction, and more at ArsenalOfWords.com
I think I’ve been using performance goal setting, but didn’t know it actually had a term. :)
I have a general, outcome goal of writing at least 15 min. each day. That’s how I trick my procrastination to get my butt in the chair. Then, what I do once I’m there is up for grabs. Last night I decided to figure out who my victim was, which then led into developing a general idea of the suspects to the murder. The writing session before, I was mapping out the main setting location so I could actually “see” it before writing about it.
I’ve tried word count goals over and over, and never have any success with them. Perhaps if I reframe the goal to writing a specific scene or bit of description instead, the actual writing part of writing a story will go better. Thanks for the information. :)
What a refreshing piece! I think “time goals” can be constraining and misleading, just like “word goals.” For me, writing isn’t a piece-by-piece process, like adding cars to a train. Sometimes words need to be taken out, not added, and that’s a productive day! Or changed. Or moved around. Sometimes an hour of noodling around yields one usable sentence or a surprising idea that turns out to be exactly what’s needed. The creative process has so much variation that setting rigid goals seems counter-productive. What’s great about your piece is that you offer alternatives.
My biggest goal is a commitment goal, if I can use that as a term. Namely, just to write (fiction) every day. It matters less how much or what I write, and I have different sub goals depending on the current project, but I’ve found committing to daily writing makes the biggest difference for me. My sub goals tend to be performance-oriented (1000 words written, one chapter revised, etc). I like the idea of learning goals—that’s a great way to frame some of the other important work that goes into writing!
Thank you for this article, Arthur.
One of my learning goals is to research genres that are new to me. Recently, I researched linked stories by studying the genre online and by reading Carrianne Leung’s award-winning book That Time I Loved You. I will publish an article on linked stories on my blog on the last Sunday in June.
I like those learning goals – great “prompts” for thinking! Sometimes, when I go for a walk to get away from the screen, I ask myself a question about my WIP to ponder while walking: how the protagonist should/will best react when finding out x, or how to best deepens a scene etc. I (almost) never get home without an answer!
I used word goals as a lure for some time, when finishing the first draft: I told myself that on any given day I could write at least 50 words. This amount was so small I could not find a reason not to manage it. Of course, once I sat down, most of the days I did not stop at 50 words. And even on the occasional day I did only write a few sentences, I was happy with myself. (Now, if I would set myself a word goal, it probably should be “erase 50 words a day”… as I there is still a lot to cut down, trim, tighten…)
I like those learning goals – great “prompts” for thinking! Sometimes, when I go for a walk to get away from the screen, I ask myself a question about my WIP to ponder while walking: how the protagonist should/will best react when finding out x, or how to best deepens a scene etc. I (almost) never get home without an answer!
I used word goals as a lure for some time, when finishing the first draft: I told myself that on any given day I could write at least 50 words. This amount was so small I could not find a reason not to manage it. Of course, once I sat down, most of the days I did not stop at 50 words. And even on the occasional day I did only write a few sentences, I was happy with myself. (Now, if I would set myself a word goal, it probably should be “erase 50 words a day”… as there is still a lot to cut down, trim, tighten…)
Good essay, Arthur. I think practicing writing more deliberately leads to a huge improvement in writing. For ex., I used to be terrible at dialogue so one summer I decided to study it carefully and write a bunch of short stories all in dialogue. I improved so much that now it’s one of my greatest strengths. The one area that I’ve failed to improve in consistently is poetry. I’ve given two summers to it and still the results are abysmal.
I really enjoy taking a master class every few years. I often take quantum leaps with those.
Learning goals! Yes!
That is exactly what I set. I nowadays do not undertake any novel unless it first presents challenges: techniques I haven’t tried before or storytelling approaches I have no idea how to do…yet.
For example, I am writing my WIP in patchwork fashion. Only far into the process did I attempt to stitch it together in an outline. I also am using summary, collapsed time, as never before. (The story spans 12 years.) I also am writing the final section in the future tense, since it is, as you might guess, set in a *possible* future.
I have no deadlines. I want no contract. The momentum I feel comes entirely from a wonderful sense of discovery. I write on because ahead, every day, lies the satisfaction of learning something new.
Great post!
Great post, Arthur. I’ve never been big on performance goals, for the reasons you noted: they focus on product at the expense of quality or usefulness of the outcome. Learning goals are more foundational, skilss can pack in your writer’s toolkit. I can churn out 1,000 words a day and stumble on a theme or character trait or setting detail that will be significant in the story. Or I can, as you said, walk the streets — or read the blogs or listen to the music — that show me who the character is, how she has been shaped by her world, and what issues most impact her life.
Performance goals still have a place. NaNoWriMo is such a sticky concept and draws so much participation, and so many repeat folks, partly because of it.
But there’s plenty of focus on that and not enough on the less measurable, but still wonderful aims of our writing.
Thanks Art! I really needed to read this today. I’m on a deadline and keep procrastinating because I have chunks of the story that I can’t see how to connect the dots yet. I’m feeling super stressed by my lack of production. Love the idea of Learning Challenges. Makes it seem more like a game and sparks my competitive side. You suggested great examples of how to think of those challenges. Plus they seem more creative than just churning out words for words’ sake. I don’t need numbers, I need quality!
Happy to spark something. I’m sure you’ll come up with even stronger examples!
I tend to set myself problem-based goals, e.g. “figure out what X is hiding” or “determine how Y gets Z to unknowingly fall in with his plan.”
Once I’ve worked out a satisfying solution to the conundrum, the words more or less take care of themselves.
Thanks for all the comments everyone! Whether you call them learning goals or something else, I’m glad to see the idea of reaching for non-measurable things resonate. Happy writing and happy learning.
Great post and I keep my writing goal simple, write everyday, plain and simple as that works best for me. I know if night hits and I haven’t written, I need to turn on the turn table and get to it.