Everyone has goals. As a writer, it’s helpful to make goals that push us towards completing books. I don’t mean a goal such as “I’m going to publish a book someday,” but something more specific.

When I started writing, I didn’t have any goals set, I just wrote leisurely whenever I felt like it. Don’t get me wrong, that’s totally fine to write when you feel like it. Actually, when you write and your heart isn’t in it, the writing usually isn’t any good, and you’ll have to heavily edit or get rid of it later. But set yourself a goal to write a certain amount every day.

About halfway through my first book, and four years after starting it, I decided to set myself a daily writing goal. I chose to write at least 2,000 words a day, and a little under two weeks later my book was finished (the writing part that is). I wrote the same amount in under two weeks that I did in four years!

So why not set yourself a goal? It’s easy to set goals…it’s not as easy to keep them. What I find to be extremely helpful is to find yourself a writing friend and set the goal together. That way you can keep each other accountable. When you have someone to report to, you’re a lot more likely to get the job done.

One last reason? The closer together you write in your manuscript, the more consistent and exciting it will be, and the more likely you are to finish it. Why? People change. We don’t like the same things after a certain time; we don’t think the same way. We’ll come back to a book, and all the characters will be like distant acquaintances, not like close friends. We’ll lose the excitement of our plot, and we’ll forget small details so in the end things won’t fit together as beautifully.

So do you want to finish your book? At 2,000 words a day, that’s a 50,000 word book in 25 days! 2,000 may seem like a lot of words to you, (it isn’t really, this article is already 412 words. That’s 1/5 of your whole day’s work) but if you feel like it, start small. I’m telling you, writing every day will get you more interested in your story. Your word count will start increasing, and you’ll get stuff done. What’s holding you back? Make yourself a goal and start working at it today!