You’ve probably read about the SMART GOALS offered by many coaches and motivational speakers of the day. They say all goals should be:

· Specific

· Measurable

· Attainable

· Relevant

· Time-Bound

Many writers try to define an “attainable goal” for themselves. What is a realistic attainable goal for a writer? Seems like many of us choose a number to shoot for in a daily word count.

“I wrote one thousand words today!” We’ll brag, digging into our competitive selves, reaching for a “win.” If we write one thousand words, every day, we’ll have a book in two months, right? Not so fast.

It’s not fair. We can walk ten thousand steps per day and know that we’ve reached a meaningful goal. We did a good thing for our bodies. But this doesn’t take into account what we’re looking for as writers: Nowhere on this list of SMART goals does it say “quality.”

As a coach and a teacher, and even as a movie producer, I’d rather read a half-page with real meaning and thought behind it than ten thousand words of dreck. And let me be clear: I have nothing against dreck! Dreck is vital! Without going through the dreck process, we might never get to that nugget of truth. Dreck is the concrete foundation to our architectural masterpiece.

I suggest, instead of chasing the daily word count, try to find one little teensy bit of truth in your writing. Maybe you realized something about your genre. Maybe you found out something new about your Main Character. Maybe you found out something new about yourself.

What did you discover today as a result of filling up the empty page?