What’s stopping you?

Have you had a great idea for a book? A story that sang to your soul and made you excited. Did you then fail to translate that idea to paper, left instead to decay in the recesses of your mind— or maybe on a scribbled notepad/word doc left to be forgotten.

Bummer.

But you’re not alone! Unfortunately this happens a lot, denying eager readers the amazing material they wanted.

I’m putting together a series of tools and advise that I found helpful while writing The Kingdom.

First off— word count goal!

What are your word count goals? Is it daily? Weekly? Even monthly?

Do you have one at all?

You should and here’s why-

Creating a story requires disciplined writing week in and week out. The ability to stay steady and consistent is what separates those who have completed a story and those who have not.

It’s easy to come up with a story idea— maybe even a vague story outline, but having the patience to sit and transform an idea into a book requires work.

Word count goals are an excellent way to keep yourself motivated and moving. It can be sooo hard to continually pick up and start a story over and over again, and frankly the writing will probably suffer for it.

Individual goals for how much to write will, of course, differ from person to person based off of time constraints, writing goal, etc. but I encourage you to create one that pushes you to write and continue to make progressive project.

When I wrote my first epic fantasy series- The Kingdom— my work and home life allowed me to shoot for a 5k week minimum which worked out well. As I work on my newest book and juggle time marketing my author website and previous books my current goal is scaled back to 3-5k a week. This may be small to some, but for me it keeps the story moving in the time available.

Try it out and keep it reasonable!

Author Cameron Kielb