Create Milestones for Your Writing

I have a binder I refer to nearly every work day that contains my life plan and yearly goals. It also holds several Bible verses that I say out loud to plant their truths within my spirit.

I review these things as reminders as to where I’m going, and then I plan out my day accordingly.

Last year I added a page with the header “Your 2025 Author Blueprint.” Unfortunately, I never took the time to really dive into its advice until last month (yeah, I can be really dense at times). Wish I could tell you where I got this from, but I failed to write that down, so just know that the 5 steps below are not mine.

I fed these steps into AI to walk me through doing them. I encourage you to do the same; however, if it’s more than you want or need, I do encourage you to at least set milestones for your current goals. So please keep an open mind as you read on.

Life/Author Blueprint

Adjust the steps below to suit your own needs.

1. Imagine the life you truly want and the role writing plays in it.
2. Discover and validate your authentic goals. These goals act as stepping stones toward your vision. To validate, ask if the goal supports your vision.
3. Build the habits and routines that support your goals.
4. Set up your milestones and guideposts.
5. Track your progress and adjust your action plan. Do this monthly or quarterly.
   First thing I did was clarify a few things like “authentic goals” and the difference between a milestone and a guidepost because for me they meant pretty much the same thing. The definitions below come straight from Chat GPT

Definitions

Me: What is the difference between a habit and a routine?

Chat’s response:

A habit is a behavior that has become relatively automatic, usually because a cue triggers it. You don’t have to make much of a decision each time.
A routine is a sequence or pattern of actions you deliberately follow. Some parts of the routine may be habits, but the routine itself usually requires more intention.
Habit = an action that becomes automatic.
Routine = a structure you intentionally follow.
And routines often contain habits.

An authentic goal is a goal that comes from what you genuinely value and want your life to contain, rather than primarily from outside expectations, fear, habit, comparison, or the need to prove something.
A milestone is something you reach or accomplish. It answers: “What progress have I made?”
A guidepost tells you whether you’re still moving in the right direction. It answers: “Is the way I’m living and working actually taking me toward the life I want?”
So milestones tend to be observable accomplishments or points along the road. Guideposts tend to be checks that tell you whether the road you’re on is still the right road.
Milestone = Have I gotten somewhere?
Guidepost = Am I getting there in a way that creates the life I actually want?

Now that definitions are out of the way, let’s move on to application.

Application

Your book you want to write. But it’ll never get written if you don’t create habits and routines to promote writing time and milestones and guideposts to complete it.

I didn’t have any of this information when I started writing my very first novel back in the late 1990s. But I knew if I was ever going to become a writer, I had to actually start writing. I created the routine of sitting down at the computer after I put my kids to bed each night. As a working single mom, it was the only undisturbed time I could find in my day.

After I moved to Missouri my time became my own, and I had all day to sit and write while my youngest son was at school. And that’s exactly what I did. I set a deadline for when I wanted it finished and made the determination I would need to write one chapter a day to get there. Did I make that deadline? No, and I reset it several times. I learned 2 things: how much time it took me to write one chapter, and to create more realistic deadlines.

Now, I make a decision of when I want to launch my book and work backwards to create the steps and deadlines necessary. Do I always make those deadlines? No, and you probably won’t either, but setting a deadline gives you a finish line to shoot for.

The one step I failed to complete with my current WIP were milestones. I write novels. That means at least 50,000 words, but I shoot for 65,000. Word counts vary from genre to genre, and if you write children’s picture books, you’ve got at most 800 words to write. Your milestones will be way fewer than mine.

If you’re writing your very first book, setting your deadlines and milestones are going to be like a shot in the dark. You don’t know for sure how much writing you can get done in a week or a month. But like Wayne Gretzky says, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” If you don’t set a goal, you don’t make that goal.

Here are a few previous posts about setting goals:
https://www.themotivationaleditor.com/what-not-to-do-in-setting-goals/
https://www.themotivationaleditor.com/a-new-way-to-set-goals-okrs/

Sample Milestones

Let’s look at sample milestones for my next novel, aiming for a word count of 65,000. This example is strictly for getting the book written, not published.

1. Start first week of January 2027, with planned launch date of May 11, 2028.
2. Complete draft by Dec. 31, 2027. (Set this date according to how many hours per week or month you will have for writing time.)
   Once I know my estimated completion date, I can work backwards for my other milestones.
3. Complete 5,500 words each month. I would write out the exact word count I should have completed for each month, but for your ease of reading I won’t put 12 steps of word counts in this list.
4. Complete self-edit by Jan. 31, 2028. You might need more than one month, but I do a lot of self-editing along the way.
5. Send to beta readers by Feb. 1, 2028, with response deadline of March 19. (Always give your beta team a deadline to respond; 6 weeks is reasonable for a book this size.)
6. Send to my editor by Feb. 1, 2028.
7. Review editor’s and beta readers’ feedback as it comes in and make necessary revisions. Complete final draft by March 31.

WARNING: Don’t allow the planned schedule to pressure you. If life happens (and we all know it does), adjust as needed. Remember to base these deadlines on how much time you actually have to write each week/month and how many words you anticipate being able to complete during that time. But at the same time, don’t have the attitude of “if I miss the deadline, no big deal.” If you think that way, you’ll blow through every deadline and get to your planned publish date and realize you haven’t even finished your draft.

I hope you’ve found this helpful even if all you did was use the info to set milestones for your writing. Leave your comments below and let me know if you set milestones for your writing and what routines and habits you have in place to promote your writing life.