Some people think that fiction writers are slaves to the muse, able to languish in writer's block for days, or even weeks, if stumped for an idea. However, this is not the truth.
If fiction writers want to find success - which usually means publication credits - they must set goals and work toward them diligently. People in no other profession can claim to have some sort of block and thus not complete their work.
What type of goals should fiction writers set?
The most popular type of fiction writer goals are word goals. This means that the fiction writer sets a goal to write a certain number of words per day or per week. Many fiction writers set this word count goal at 500 or 1,000 words per day. This means that they will have to write this many words in one day, no matter what the quality.
Other goals that fiction writers may set for themselves include submission, publication, or even rejection goals.
Submission goals have to do with how many short story or novel submissions that the fiction writer sends out. After all, if a fiction writer does not submit their stories, they will never be published.
Publication goals are more difficult to achieve since a fiction write does not know when, or how frequently, their work will be accepted by an agent, publishing house, or magazine.
Rejection goals have essentially the same outcome as submission goals. Since rejection is such an omnipresent force in every fiction writer's life, some seek to make it more palatable by using it as a progress guide. If a fiction writer submits a short story and receives ten rejections, that means that he or she is submitting a lot. If their goal is to get fifty rejections in one year, there is a good chance that one of the fiction pieces they are submitting is accepted.
Fiction writers, just like people in other industries, must set goals in order to succeed. While fiction writer goals may seem foreign to others, to them they make perfect sense. Ultimately, the goal of a fiction writer is to become published, often multiple times. In order to do this, there are three things that every fiction writer must do: write, submit, and be rejected. Of course, being accepted is something else that must happen in the end.
