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In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit­hole, and that means comfort. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube­shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats ­ the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill ­ The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it ­ and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining­rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left­hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep­set round windows looking over his garden and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river. This hobbit was a very well­to­do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him. This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours' respect, but he gained­well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end.In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit­hole, and that means comfort. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube­shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats ­ the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill ­ The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it ­ and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining­rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left­hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep­set round windows looking over his garden and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river. This hobbit was a very well­to­do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him. This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours' respect, but he gained­well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end.In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit­hole, and that means comfort. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube­shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats ­ the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill ­ The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it ­ and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining­rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left­hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep­set round windows looking over his garden and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river. This hobbit was a very well­to­do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him. This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours' respect, but he gained­well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end.In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit­hole, and that means comfort. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube­shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats ­ the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill ­ The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it ­ and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining­rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left­hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep­set round windows looking over his garden and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river. This hobbit was a very well­to­do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him. This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours' respect, but he gained­well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end.In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit­hole, and that means comfort. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube­shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats ­ the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill ­ The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it ­ and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining­rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left­hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep­set round windows looking over his garden and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river. This hobbit was a very well­to­do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him. This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours' respect, but he gained­well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end.In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit­hole, and that means comfort. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube­shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats ­ the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill ­ The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it ­ and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining­rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left­hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep­set round windows looking over his garden and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river. This hobbit was a very well­to­do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him. This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours' respect, but he gained­well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end.In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit­hole, and that means comfort. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube­shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats ­ the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill ­ The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it ­ and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining­rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left­hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep­set round windows looking over his garden and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river. This hobbit was a very well­to­do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him. This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours' respect, but he gained­well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end.In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit­hole, and that means comfort. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube­shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats ­ the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill ­ The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it ­ and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining­rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left­hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep­set round windows looking over his garden and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river. This hobbit was a very well­to­do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him. This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours' respect, but he gained­well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end.In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit­hole, and that means comfort. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube­shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats ­ the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill ­ The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it ­ and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining­rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left­hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep­set round windows looking over his garden and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river. This hobbit was a very well­to­do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him. This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours' respect, but he gained­well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end.In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit­hole, and that means comfort. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube­shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats ­ the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill ­ The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it ­ and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining­rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left­hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep­set round windows looking over his garden and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river. This hobbit was a very well­to­do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him. This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours' respect, but he gained­well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end.

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The ship, the stalwart vessel known as 'The Serenity Mariner,' was plunged into chaos as the sky became a swirling maelstrom of opalescent tendrils. The flying jellyfish, their bioluminescent bodies illuminating the blackened sky, descended upon the ship with an otherworldly fury. Their membranous bodies pulsated as they sailed through the air, their long, poisonous tentacles trailing behind them like deadly streamers.

Captain Anabelle "Storm-Eye" Hawthorne stood at the helm, her grip firm on the worn, salt-crusted wheel. Her eyes, the color of the stormy sea itself, narrowed as she watched the spectral onslaught. Years of navigating treacherous waters had hardened her, but she'd never faced a tempest of living, breathing creatures before.

"Steady on, lads!" she roared above the howling wind, her voice carrying a command that could not be ignored. "Don't let the sea's nightmarish ballet scare you! These are just jellyfish, no more than that!"

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7 Best Writing Tracker Apps For Boosting Productivity

Ever noticed how you can write at lightning speed when the muse strikes? Think about this: Olympic sprinters, despite knowing they can blaze down a track, never ditch the trusty stopwatch. Whether it’s the athlete or their coach, they’re always keen to measure those precious milliseconds of improvement. Similarly, our digital age offers trackers for just about anything—from the Fitbits that track your steps to apps right on your phone monitoring your daily activities. So, isn’t it high time you considered one for your writing? Dive into the vast digital ocean, and you’ll discover a plethora of writing tracker apps eager to elevate your writing game!

Writing Tracker Apps Can Give You the Edge

What are these writing tracker apps good for.

So, without further ado, let’s look at the top solutions available right now.

The 7 Best Writing Tracker Apps For Boosting Productivity:

1. writing analytics.

This tracker is ideal for novelists and other prolific writers who like to let the words flow in torrents. Their website stresses from the beginning that the app is all about writing and not formatting. It is also about beating distractions and creating a sustainable writing habit. It organizes your work in terms of sessions, not by documents. It tracks your output like how many words you’ve written, how fast you typed, and how long you worked in each session. It even records how many words you’ve deleted or changed. Writing Analytics also rewards you when you achieve milestones or build a writing streak by flashing congratulatory images. It is also equipped with project management tools to help you reach your goals and hold you accountable if you stray from your set schedule. It is an online app that runs on all major browsers and devices.

A sample of one of its several notable features can be seen below:

PRICE: Their monthly subscription costs $9 / month, but if you pay for one year you will only be billed $90, bringing down the rate to $7.50/month. They also offer a limited free trial. You can find all the details about their product and pricing here .

2. Write or Die

Okay, this is not a threat. This is the actual name of the app. I put this one on top of the list to jolt you a little. Don’t worry, this is not a Squid Game kind of thing wherein you will be literally “eliminated” when you don’t complete a certain task. This app brings gamification to writing. To keep you on your heels, it brings consequences when you slack off and rewards you when you reach some milestones in your writing tasks or eventually accomplish your goal. Fun, huh? Write or Die is now on its second version, and it comes with a $20 price tag at the App Store. It runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux, as well as on mobile devices. Just like many video games , it presents you with different setting options. There are three modes, the Stimulus Mode, the Reward Mode, and the Consequence Mode.

Each one contains writing tracking components that monitor your time, word count, percentage of what you accomplished so far, etc. Here are a few details for each one:

PRICE: $20 RUNS ON: Windows, Mac OS, Linux, iOS, and Android

3. Rescue Time

4. 750 words, 6. pomofocus.

If you are already a practitioner of the Pomodoro Technique, then this tracker app is right up your alley. It’s a free app that provides you with an online Pomodoro timer on your computer or mobile phone. You can download it on both Windows and Mac OS. In case you don’t know yet, the Pomodoro Technique breaks down a task that will take you hours to complete in smaller bites. Traditionally each “Pomodoro” is around 25 minutes, wherein you must work undistracted, and then you get a five-minute break before you move on to the next one. I usually mention this technique whenever I write articles on “improving productivity”. Pomofocus, however, is customizable. Although the traditional time frame seems ideal for most, the app allows you to set your work-rest period. If you think you can stay focused on your writing for longer or shorter than 25 minutes, you are free to do so. You can also set how many iterations you want in each work session . The app has a color transition function to show whether you are in work mode or rest mode. It also has an alarm sound to signify the end of each timer period. So, it’s like a kitchen timer that buzzes once the time you set has expired. Fun fact: the creator of this technique got his inspiration from a tomato-shaped kitchen timer, thus the name “Pomodoro”, which means tomato in Italian. PRICE: FREE, you just need to sign up RUNS ON: Windows, Mac OS

7. Bookflow

PRICE: Bookflow’s regular monthly subscription is $15, but if you pay for a whole year, the rate goes down to $12/month or $144 per annum. They also offer a 28-day Free Trial. You can find complete information about their pricing and offers here .

Honorable Mentions

Pacemaker Press – This writing tracker app has an algorithm that adjusts your schedule based on your writing pace and overall progress. It assists you in setting up each phase of your project from start to finish. They have a free version with a basic planner and a Pacemaker Premium package that costs $8/month or $72/year and comes with several extra features such as archiving, email reminders, a unified calendar, etc. Word Keeper – This tracker app helps you monitor your progress in various simultaneous projects. It prods you to stick to your deadlines and remain motivated throughout the entire process through a gamut of useful statistics. It provides you with planning tools, a timer, session notes, a daily task planner, and many other features. It is available in the App Store (iOS) and Play Store (Android).

Parting Words

Rafal reyzer.

Hey there, welcome to my blog! I'm a full-time entrepreneur building two companies, a digital marketer, and a content creator with 10+ years of experience. I started RafalReyzer.com to provide you with great tools and strategies you can use to become a proficient digital marketer and achieve freedom through online creativity. My site is a one-stop shop for digital marketers, and content enthusiasts who want to be independent, earn more money, and create beautiful things. Explore my journey here , and don't miss out on my AI Marketing Mastery online course.

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Become a Prolific Fiction Writer

This very simple but powerful tool will help you to: develop a daily writing habit massively increase your writing output master the art of writing in a fun and engaging way.

Writing Streak is a tool that will help you to write more. It looks like this:

Develop your daily writing habit

The best way to become a prolific writer is to develop a daily writing habit, and the best way to accomplish that is to begin and maintain a writing streak:

• Set a specific daily word count goal.
• Keep track of how many days in a row you successfully reach that goal.
• Make this number grow as high as possible by never breaking your streak.
• Keep it up until writing becomes a natural part of your daily life.

At the top-left corner of the app, you see your Writing Streak:

Above the editor, you see your writing timeline:

Each day shows you how many words you wrote, how close you are to accomplishing your daily goal, and how many minutes you have spent in an uninterrupted writing flow.

I recommend taking on a 30-Day Writing Challenge : Commit to writing 5 days per week (Monday through Friday). At least 250 words every day. For the next 30 days. Strive to write at the same time every day, ideally in the morning - get used to beginning each day with writing!

Focused writing with Writing Sprints

You will become much more productive if you learn to get into the writing "flow" (a state where 100% of your attention is focused on writing), and stay in that state for uninterrupted stretches of time, with short breaks in-between.

Sprints turn writing into a game:

• When you start the timer, your health bar begins to decrease, and the only way to refill it is to keep typing.
• If you get distracted or stop to think or edit for too long - your health will run out, and you will lose the sprint.
• If you manage to keep writing for the whole duration of the sprint without running out of health - you win, and the time gets added to your "focused time" stat for the day.

Strive to gradually increase your focused writing time. Start with a 20-minute writing session every morning, once you get used to it - add one more.

Writing much faster with Typewriter mode

The biggest reason why people write slowly and get stuck is that they're trying to edit as they write. A surprisingly simple yet powerful way to significantly increase your output (and reduce the stress) is to clearly divide writing and editing into two separate steps. When you write, your job is just to produce words, imperfect and flawed, the raw material you will turn into quality writing when you edit.

That is why Writing Streak has a Typewriter mode - it disables your backspace and delete keys, and removes your ability to edit during your writing sprint. In addition to that, it has a Blurred mode - which blurs your text, making you unable to read it until you have finished writing.

Use these features to disable the critic/editor side of your brain, leaving you no other choice but to write.

Achieve your Writing Goals

Set long-term writing goals with specific deadlines, so that your daily writing adds up to a larger purpose.

• The dotted line represents the ideal word count you should be reaching to achieve your goal on time.
• The solid line represents how many words you actually wrote on any given day.
• To stay on track, you need to make sure that the solid line stays above the dotted line.

Your first goal is to write 5000 words during the next month: 250 words per day * 20 workdays = 5000 words. If you're up for a more ambitious challenge - go to the settings and adjust the numbers accordingly. But remember, writing a little bit every day, consistently, is more important than aiming for the high daily word counts - succeed at a simple and attainable goal first, take on more difficult challenges later.

Accountability

Once you have committed to writing regularly, have set an attainable goal, and have learned to write in the flow, the only way to fail is to lose motivation and quit. To prevent that - find someone who will keep you accountable.

You can keep your posts private if you want, but the calendar is visible to everybody. I highly recommend sharing the link to your profile with your friends and asking them to keep you accountable. If they notice that you started missing your writing days - have them give you a call or send you a message.

You can even make a bet with your friend, say that you'll give them $50 if they notice that you've missed some days. That will motivate you to keep going.

Looking for someone to keep you accountable? In our Discord server , we have #writing-buddies channel - find another writer, and commit to keeping each other accountable and giving each other feedback.

Once you have successfully developed your writing habit, the next step is to increase your writing quality (notice that you should strive to increase quality only after you have learned to write regularly and gained some raw skill of just putting words on the page).

The best things you can do to increase your writing quality are:

• Publishing your work, receiving feedback, and improving your writing based on it.
• Giving feedback to others to get better at editing, and to learn from the successes and mistakes of others.

Publish your posts in our friendly and supportive community. Leave thoughtful, constructive, and helpful feedback for others. Remember the principle of reciprocity - the more you help other writers improve their work, the more likely they will help you with yours. And when someone left you some good feedback - give back, go to their profile, and comment on one of their posts.

Build your audience

Like on Reddit, the posts in our community can get upvoted, and the most popular ones rise to the top. The best posts receive the most attention, discussion, and feedback. Keep publishing to build your reputation and grow your audience!

If you already have a website - you can still write and publish here, your posts here will link to the posts on your website, sending you some traffic and an SEO boost. There's no better way to get your blog posts noticed than sharing them with the community of passionate writers. The best articles are also sent out to the mailing list of our readers, and shared on our social media accounts.

This will help you to grow your audience on social media, and start gathering a group of dedicated fans who love to read what you have to say.

Start writing now!

Now it's time to start writing - create an account, and begin your writing streak today!

Pricing and Discounts

You can use Writing Streak for free for the first month - that will be enough to write for 30 days and establish your writing habit.

If you u enjoy this app and want to continue using it - you can subscribe to the premium version for $10 per month (the price will rise as this project grows and becomes more successful, but people who sign up early will keep the lower price they signed up for).

To the first 100 subscribers, I can offer a 50% discount .

To get a discount:

• Write an honest review of Writing Streak and share it on your social media.
• Email me a link to your post. In your email, also send me some feedback - list the top 3 things I could do to make this app more useful for you.
• I will send you a discount code. You can enter it in the checkout form to sign up for a $10/mo subscription.

Contact, questions, and feedback

If you have any questions or feedback - send me an email:

[email protected] .

You can also join our Discord and talk to me there (I'm lumen#7925 ).

This project is still in active development. If you notice any issues - let me know about them, it will really help me fix them quickly. If you can think of a feature that would make this tool more useful for you and others - it's likely that I'll be able to add it to the app. Don't hesitate to contact me!

100% automatic writing habit tracker

Works in all your favorite sites - Just $5/mo

Track your writing anywhere

Google Docs, Medium, Wattpad, Substack, or literally any site on the internet

Track multiple writing projects

Add multiple writing projects along with a deadline and a word count goal. Seamlessly keep track of your projects

Writing Consistency calendar

Consistency calendar to see how many days you have hit your writing goal

Writing activity graph

Easy peasy way to see how many words you have written in a day to analyse your progress

Everything is automatic

Your progress is tracked as you write. You don't need to do anyting to see these stats

Writing speed calculator

Your writing speed is calculated as you write

Motivate your writing habits

Writing is hard. Whether you're writing a novel, a short story or a blog you need to keep on task or it'll never get done. That's what WordKeeperAlpha is all about: setting goals and keeping them.

WordKeeperAlpha gives you helpful graphs and statistics on your writing. You can create Goals and Projects that will help organize your work.

Log your writing sessions

WordKeeperAlpha gives you valuable data about your writing habits to help you write more, more consistantly. Use the statistics to help you do better.

Learn the basics of using WordKeeperAlpha

Create Goals to motivate you to write more, more consistantly.

Learn how to create and manage your Goals

Create Projects

Create projects to track where you're directing your efforts and if you are on goal to meet your due date.

Learn how to create Projects

9 Proven Ways to Achieve Your Writing Goals

Do you have personal writing goals for the year? Do you know whether your goals for writing are the right ones to make this year the most successful one yet?

You might wonder if you’re setting writing goals that are actually attainable.

What is required from a goal in order for it to help you succeed in reaching it?

If your past writing goals have turned to vapor, maybe you’re wondering what you’ve been missing.

In this article, we’ll show you how to set the best creative writing goals you’ve ever set in your life so that you can publish not just one book but a catalog of books.

If your main goal is to be an author,  why not become a prolific author who generates a passive income stream from a series of self-published books?

You can achieve this if you know how to set yourself up for success with your writing routine.

The S.M.A.R.T. Goal Formula

1. set your daily minimum writing target., 2. plan and schedule each writing project (book, blog post, article, etc.)., 3. set milestones for each larger project, and celebrate your progress., 4. use time blocks for your daily writing commitment., 5. make time for self-education., 6. start a writing journal., 7. identify helpful resources. , 8. be active in your writing community. , 9. reevaluate and set new writing goals. , goals for writers keep you on track..

If you’ve read anything about goals, you’ve probably run across the idea of setting S.M.A.R.T. goals. Here’s a recap of the formula, which describes key aspects of effective goal setting:

Specific and measurable are self-explanatory. It’s not enough to make your goal about “becoming a better writer” or “earning money as a writer.”

Make each goal specific and measurable.

Here are some writing goal examples:

• “I want to write and publish two well-crafted blog posts every week.”
• “I want to write three nonfiction books for the self-improvement genre this year.”
• “I want to write two new novels for my new cozy mystery series this year.”

The word “ achievable ” here isn’t synonymous with “realistic.”

While it’s close to that, it’s closer to the word “possible,” which — depending on your mindset — could describe something that sounds totally doable to you but overly ambitious to someone else.

Achievable is in the eye of the (individual) beholder, whereas realistic has more to do with society’s ideas of what constitutes a reasonable goal for the least productive common denominator.

That said, the word achievable takes into account your real-life situation and other time commitments.

It doesn’t make sense to overcommit to one goal if it means sacrificing another, more important goal.

Relevant basically means your new goal is related to your overarching goal and will contribute to the larger tapestry of your life’s work. It’s this “magnum opus” that describes where you want to be years from now (a few, ten, twenty, etc.).

Your S.M.A.R.T. goal is something you can focus on and celebrate when you reach it but that also gets you closer to “the big one.”

A time-bound goal has not only a deadline but a reasonable time-frame that honors your other commitments.

When you’re serious about writing, you make time for it every day.

How much time can you spend writing each day while still honoring prior commitments? How much can you write in this amount of time?

It doesn’t have to be a large number. The point here is to know how much you can commit to writing each day.

To build a daily writing habit, consistency is more important than quantity.

If you set it low, you can always write more, if you’re able to.

If you set it too high and are unable to consistently reach it, you’re more likely to skip writing on days when you doubt your ability to reach that target.

For example, you might think that it makes more sense to set a goal of at least 1,000 words a day, but then you hit a low point, you feel overwhelmed, and you barely have ten minutes to give to writing before you have to run out the door again or before you collapse into bed.

In ten minutes, you could maybe crank out 200 words, give or take, depending on how tired you are.

So, you think, “Well, it’s not even worth it” and skip writing for the day. And once you give yourself permission to skip one day, it gets easier to skip others.

Instead, just write what you can, however little it might be.

Writing fewer words is better than writing none.

Based on your daily minimum writing target, calculate how much time it should take to write and rewrite a book/ blog post /novel/etc.

For instance, you might find it takes about a month to write a 25,000-word nonfiction book, another three weeks to revise it, and an additional week for a final edit.

Plus, it makes sense to add a buffer week in case something comes up in your life that cuts into your writing or editing time.

Once you have an idea of roughly how long it’ll take to write a book and get it ready for publication, you can set your publication deadline on your calendar.

And once you have it on the calendar, you can tell others about it — including an accountability partner, who’ll check on your progress and help you stay on track.

Creating a writing template is also a great help with this. It’s part of the planning process and should come before scheduling.

Once you break down a larger project (a book, novel, screenplay, etc.) into smaller parts — and you have a fair understanding of how long it will take you to finish each part — you’ll be better able to schedule the entire project.

Having a template for each of your nonfiction book projects, for example, will speed up the planning, scheduling, and creation for subsequent books.

Your template will also make it easier to do the next step.

Set milestones based on your project’s template.

Once you reach them, do something mindful to celebrate your progress. Savor a cup of your favorite drink, prepared just the way you like it.

Or treat yourself to some fresh flowers — or a new book — or to half an hour listening to a new audiobook (with the beverage of your choice).

You choose.

For a book, you might set the following milestones:

• Writing the Introduction
• Writing each chapter and each part of the book
• Finishing the first draft
• Revising your book — part by part or chapter by chapter.
• Finding beta readers and/or building a launch team
• Getting your book’s cover made
• Receiving your ready-to-publish manuscript after editing and formatting.
• Publishing your book
• Launching it to a hungry audience.

Celebrating each milestone along the way reminds you of the progress you’re making and encourages you to keep moving and to reach the next one.

It makes the whole project feel more winnable because you experience small wins along the way.

As for your daily writing, it helps to break it up into smaller time blocks.

The Pomodoro method uses 25-minute writing blocks with 5-minute breaks between them.

After four 25-minute blocks, you can either stop or take a longer break before writing again.

The breaks are necessary – to get your blood flowing again and to give your eyes a break.

Plus, it’s easier to think about writing for 25 minutes at a time than writing for an hour or two hours straight.

You’ll also want to track your writing time, location, word count per block, and other relevant details.

For example, for one writing block, you could record the following information:

• Time: 8:00 -8:25 am., Monday, March 4th
• Word count: 610
• Place: At my desk in the living room
• Other details: Sitting in my chair the whole time — with headphones, playing music on Amazon Prime : Ludovico Einaudi’s In a Time Lapse . Breakfast was half an hour ago (eggs with guacamole). Beverage = a decaf Americano with cream (cold now).

If you keep a record of these details, you’ll be able to review them later and see what details contributed to a higher word count and which ones slowed you down.

To more easily keep track of your writing time and your breaks in between, you can use a Pomodoro timer app (like PomoDuctivity ) for your computer or your phone.

Some will even keep track of your stats for you.

More Related Articles

How to Become A Better Writer

How to Start Writing By Creating the Daily Writing Habit

Learn How to Improve Writing Skills And It Will Change Your Life

Should I Write a Book? 9 Reasons to Write It in 2020

Stephen King is famous for saying, “If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time or the tools to write.”

Every writer should have these words emblazoned somewhere in their writing space.

Because if you stop learning, you don’t have the tools to access what you’ve learned in the past and connect it to what you’re learning now.

Continued learning — engaging your heart as well as your mind — is what enables you to draw from your storehouse both the new and the old.

There are so many ways to do this. Try several. Try them all.

When you read effective writing examples in your genre, you learn how to improve your writing, which increases the likelihood that your readers will not only finish your book but leave a positive review for it.

When you read other genres or books that have little or nothing to do with your personal or professional interests, you learn something new that might add extra layers to your understanding of what you “knew” before.

You’ll see new connections, and, if you’re open to it, explore new ways of thinking about familiar things.

And this can only help you improve as a writer.

When you’re writing a goal statement, a journal is an ideal place to do so and to keep track of your progress. And keeping a daily journal helps develop the habit of daily writing. 

Your writing journal is where you’ll get clear on your “why” — the vision behind your writing goals. You’ll take some of that beautiful mess inside your head and put it into words, one thought at a time. 

And in doing so, you’ll help clear your mind and regain focus on what you truly want. 

Write in it every day to record ideas for your book (or future projects), to brainstorm idea lists, and to jot down random sentences, bits of dialogue, etc. Or just write what you’re thinking about, what’s bothering you, what you love, or what makes you angry. 

Write freely, without editing, and let your thoughts out onto the page. 

If you like, you can always go through what you wrote and tidy it up later. But this journal isn’t for editing practice. It’s about setting and reaching your writing goals while steadily improving your craft. 

Use whatever works best for you, whether it’s a simple notebook, a leather-bound  journal, or a series of Google docs. The important thing is that you use it every day. 

If you’re using a tangible journal, stock up on your favorite pens.

Writers have so many useful resources to choose from — online and elsewhere. It’s worth your time and energy to find and use the writing tools you find most helpful.

Maybe one of them is a comprehensive online thesaurus. Another could be the shelves where you keep your most useful and inspiring books on writing. 

Find resources — books, blog posts, writing tools, websites, etc. — that help you answer the question, “What are good writing goals?” 

Because until you can answer that question, goal-setting will always be an uphill climb.

For online tools, you can create your own writing directory of websites with content that can help you set and reach your writing goals. This list can change throughout the year as some resources disappear or newer, more up-to-date resources replace outdated ones. 

Another valuable resource is a writing coach or mentor who has experience writing similar content, as well as setting and reaching goals. 

Or you might sign up for a writing course or program that helps you set S.M.A.R.T. writing goals, finish your WIP (work in progress), and create a profitable writing business.

Whatever resources you choose, make them as accessible as possible so you’ll use them when you need them. And don’t forget to share links to online resources that could help other writers. What you share could make all the difference to another writer. 

Being part of the global writing community can be overwhelming. But there are legions of smaller writing communities — online and in your geographical area — that can help you grow as a writer and contribute to the success of others. 

Connect with other writers in your area or on your favorite social media platform. Or join a writing critique group (online or in person) to give and receive helpful feedback. 

You can find online writer support groups on social media, but don’t sign up unless you plan on participating. If you don’t have an active presence there, you’re more likely to feel detached from the group and to leave it without gaining or contributing anything. 

Make time to build an active, engaging presence in at least one writing group.

• Encourage other writers.
• Share your experiences and what you’ve learned.
• Share links to resources that can help other writers in the group. 
• Ask questions and comment on other posts with helpful information.

You can also swap beta reading or editing services with other writers. This works best when your works are roughly the same length and have the same degree of complexity. 

Writing communities are also a great place to find an accountability partner. Meet with them on a weekly basis (online or in person) to help each other stay on track and make steady progress toward your goals. 

Once you reach a writing goal, it’s essential to not only celebrate it and take some time to reflect on the significance of that goal but to set a new one. 

Always have a dream worth pursuing. Always have a goal that excites you and keeps you going. The day you stop setting goals for yourself is the day you stop growing. 

Even if you’re not feeling motivated as you set new, specific goals, act as if you know your life will improve as you work toward it. 

As you set these new goals, plan how you’ll celebrate when you accomplish each one. And break it down into smaller goals you can celebrate as you reach them. Set deadlines for each short- and long-term goal.  And ask yourself what you can do every day to ensure you meet each goal before its deadline. 

None of these goals have to be your ultimate goal. Each one builds on the one before it. 

Your ultimate goal is to become the writer you want to be. And that’s too big of a goal to work toward without breaking it down into smaller ones. So, get clear on how you want to see yourself and what you’ll have to do every day to become that person. 

And if a new and better goal comes to mind, don’t be afraid to explore it.

You’re reading this article because you have every intention of taking your writing far beyond the “I have a blog, but no one reads it” stage.

And if you’re willing to do what it takes, you will make measurable progress this year. And by the end of the year, you’ll have reason to be proud of what you accomplished.

Make sure every writing goal is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Do something each day to move closer to your goal, always keeping in mind how it relates to your larger goal — the bigger picture.

Because if your goal has nothing to do with what’s most important to you, your zeal to reach it will probably fade.

Even with goals that are tied to your highest priorities, you’re likely to have slump days and moments of doubt.

You’re going to sometimes feel as though you just don’t have it in you to reach that smaller goal, let alone the larger one.

But if you keep your eyes on the end goal, it’s much easier to get back up and keep moving forward. Keep making your daily contribution.

Because you do have what it takes. And you can make it count.

May your courage and determination influence everything you do today.

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Blog • Perfecting your Craft

Last updated on Feb 07, 2023

The 50+ Best Writing Websites of 2024

About the author.

Reedsy's editorial team is a diverse group of industry experts devoted to helping authors write and publish beautiful books.

About Martin Cavannagh

Head of Content at Reedsy, Martin has spent over eight years helping writers turn their ambitions into reality. As a voice in the indie publishing space, he has written for a number of outlets and spoken at conferences, including the 2024 Writers Summit at the London Book Fair.

The Internet is full of writing websites and blogs to help people reach their creative goals. If you’ve always dreamt of writing your own book  but don’t know how to get there — or if you’re in the process of writing, but feel unsure about what to do next — then it’s your lucky day! Here we have all the best writing websites of 2024 in one single place for your convenience. They’re also organized by category, and alphabetically within each of those categories, to make each one easier to find. Enjoy!

Best writing websites for writing craft and inspiration

1. Almost an Author

Offering up new content every day, Almost an Author covers a grand scope of writing topics. From genre-specific advice to emotional support on your writing journey, there's tons of useful info here for beginner and veteran writers alike.

2. Association of Writer & Writing Programs

Having just marked their 50th anniversary, AWP is one of the premier authorities on writing. The AWP website provides resources and ample opportunities for authors, teachers, and students at every point in their career. Here you’ll be able to find information about writing programs, career options, and conferences all over the world. Keep in mind, though, that access to some of these features is restricted to members only.

3. Creativity Portal

This is a wonderful hub for helpful resources that has been around for a whopping nineteen years! Here you can find writing prompts, creative coaching, printable writing templates, and interviews with authors that will help nourish the right side of your brain.

4. Daily Writing Tips

As the name suggests, this site offers daily writing tips ranging from open-ended prompts and exercises to grammar, spelling, punctuation, and vocabulary. It also covers all writing levels and professions , so it doesn't matter how far along you are in your writing career — DWT is sure to help you out.

Instead of spending thousands of dollars on a master’s degree, you can get your own "DIY MFA" right here! This site (founded by Gabriela Pereira ) aims to cover everything you would learn in a graduate program, while giving you the freedom to choose your own areas of concentration and allocate your time as you please. 

6. Electric Literature

While not exactly a craft-focused website — so no straight-up writing advice or prompts — this nonprofit digital publisher showcases literature-related essays, criticism, and recommended readings. If you're looking to brush up on both literary theory and recent literary trends, Electric Lit is the place for you.

7. Fiction University

This virtual university, run by award-winning author Janice Hardy, contains tons of advice and concrete examples to help authors build a strong writing foundation. It's full of blog posts by professionals who share their own processes and techniques, providing tips not just on what you should do as a writer, but on how  to make it happen.

8. Helping Writers Become Authors

Longtime author K.M. Weiland offers writing advice that ranges from outlining and structuring to characterization and dialogue — plus all the little details in between. She updates her blog faithfully with topical posts that would pique any writer's (or non-writer's) interest.

9. Insecure Writer's Support Group

Writing is intimidating for everyone , whether you're a multi-published author or you're just starting out. That's why getting support, guidance, and motivation throughout the process is vital! On IWSG, you'll discover a wealth of information on writing, publishing, marketing, and anything else you might need to ultimately overcome your insecurities.

10. Literary Hub

LitHub boasts a superb selection of content for all things literary. Here you can get all the latest book-related news, posts on design and the craft, your daily dose of fiction, and sparkling reviews of new works. One of this site's best features is its section on literature in translation — a great resource for those who want to read books and authors from around the world.

11. LitReactor

The LitReactor blog consists of writing classes, workshops, and a myriad of posts on writing and books ( some of which are even written by us! ). There’s also an online magazine that includes interviews, criticism and analysis, and seasonally appropriate reads and recommendations.

12. Chill Subs

If you're active in writerly circles on social media, you've probably already heard of fan favorite Chill Subs. This all-in-one submissions tracker and directory gives you everything you need to find the right literary magazines and contests to submit to — and get published by. The slick interface and handy-dandy filters help you cut through the noise, increasing your chances of meeting your literary match.

13. LitRejections

An unfortunate occupational hazard of with writing is rejection. This is where a site like LitRejections comes into play! It offers personal stories to help discouraged writers persevere through rejection, and maintain hope and motivation as they move forward in their careers.

14. Live Write Thrive

In this website by professional writer and editor C.S. Lakin, you’ll find plenty of nuanced writing anecdotes and tips. Lakin also supplies annotated critiques that can help you prep your book for publication.

15. NaNoWriMo

Besides serving as the official information hub for NaNoWriMo, this site also lends constant support for those struggling to "win" National Novel Writing Month . Make sure to check out the NaNoWriMo forums, which are chock-full of other people's personal writing tips and strategies to get you through November — and every other month of the year — as a writer.

16. Now Novel

This comprehensive website, founded by author Bridget McNulty , is a go-to for just about every writing-related question you might have. Here you'll also find advice, courses, and even an author dashboard where you can keep track of your own writing progress.

17. Positive Writer

If you often feel uncertain about your creative abilities, this is the site for you. Bryan Hutchinson created Positive Writer to encourage and inspire all those who want to write, no matter how much experience or confidence they have.

18. ProWritingAid

ProWritingAid offers a fantastic manuscript editing software that analyzes your writing and creates reports for you to learn from! This tool also includes a thesaurus, grammar checks, style suggestions, and more — you can learn all about it on the ProWritingAid blog, or in our review of the app !

19. She Writes

A well-established writing website with a feminist bent, She Writes is "the largest online community and content site for women writers... all around the world." The site features thoughtful posts and resources to help writers on their journeys, as well as a personal She Writes blog page for every user who signs up.

20. Well-Storied

Here you can find recent articles, workbooks, tutorials, and fascinating discussions on writing. Kristine Kieffer has an extensive archive of posts as well, where you can procure information on just about any topic related to books and writing.

21. The Write Practice

Fulfilling the promise of their name, every single post on this site emphasizes putting theory into practice! There's simply no better way to become a writer than by creating a routine, and that’s exactly what The Write Practice helps facilitate.

22. Writer’s Digest

Writer's Digest is one of the most encyclopedic writing websites out there — after all, the print magazine has been around for almost a century now! Here you’ll find genre and vocation-organized articles, events and competitions, webinars, templates, tutorials, and so much more.

23. Writer Unboxed

Writer Unboxed features articles by authors and industry professionals, focused specifically on the craft and business of fiction writing.

24. The Writing Cooperative

Plain and simple, this is a group of people who want to help each other become better writers. On Writing Cooperative, you will find articles that cover just about every aspect of the writing life. They also have monthly writing challenges to keep you incentivized, and there’s even a space where you can submit your own article to the blog!

25. Writing.com

This is an absolutely all-inclusive community for writers. It’s open to all levels and provides a supportive environment for all members , as well as portfolios to store and display their writing. Like most writing websites, it also includes a plethora of writing tools, contests, and rewards.

26. Catapult: Don’t Write Alone

Don’t Write Alone is a blog written by the Catapult team dedicated to helping writers grow their skills. As a publisher and magazine founded in 2005, Catapult has seen a lot of works and now they’re spilling all the details. From interviews, to craft essays, to writer lifestyle essays, Catapult covers it all.

27. Kirkus Review’s Writers’ Center

Kirkus Review is known for its prestigious $50,000 dollar annual prize and its bi-monthly issues where they critique hundreds of recently published books. But, did you know they also have a section of their website devoted to helping emerging writers grow their skills and navigate the publishing industry? They’re always up to date on the latest trends — if they aren’t creating new trends themselves.

28. Writers Write

An invaluable resource for creative writers, business writers, or bloggers, Writers Write offers over 1400 articles, courses, and workbooks to help you take your writing practice to the next level. Alongside their educational content, they offer book reviews, trivia on famous authors, and prompts. Sign up for their inspirational newsletters for regular hits of motivation that will keep you writing.

29. The Narrative Arc

Beginning as a home to Andie R. Cranford’s writing journey, The Narrative Arc is now a treasure trove of practical tips and prompts to inspire your creativity. Breakdowns of popular books are particularly handy for the budding author — but whether exploring writing for the first time or tightening the bolts on your Franken-novel, the site's ideas on craft are elegant and inspiring.

Best writing websites in the publishing industry

30. Agent Query

This database allows authors to perform in-depth searches for literary agents. You can narrow your search by genre and keywords, view full profiles , and see if any agents are currently accepting queries — all for free!

31. The Creative Penn

Besides being a bestselling author on various topics, Joanna Penn is also a leading voice in self-publishing. On her punnily named site, you’ll find abundant information related to writing , self-publishing, marketing, and everything else you might need to make a living as a writer.

32. Digital Pubbing

Digital Pubbing provides industry news, interviews with indie authors, and resources for learning all about ebooks and the publishing industry. In accordance with the name, this is the perfect site for any author hoping to absorb some serious digital knowledge.

33. The Independent Publishing Magazine

We know it might seem like we're repeating ourselves, but this website really is all about publishing (both independent and traditional, despite what the name indicates). Whatever info you need about self-publishing, traditional publishing, or hybrid publishing, you’ll definitely be able to find it here.

34. Publishers Weekly

And if you have a specific question about the publishing world, you’ll most likely find the answer here. This weekly magazine is packed full of news, reviews, announcements, and many other resources on the industry. It has been dubbed as "the Bible of the book business" and with its extensive archive, it’s easy to see why.

35. Publishing Perspectives

Publishing Perspectives is another leading source of publishing info, specializing in industry news and topical articles. Aimed at publishers, agents, and authors alike, it features a variety of posts that cover book fairs, distribution, education, and much more.

36. Query Shark

Not sure where your query letter is up to snuff ? Query Shark offers the opportunity to have your query critiqued, and to read detailed query critiques of other authors' letters, so you can get the best possible results for your book. Be warned, though, that this sharp-toothed feedback isn't for the weak of heart.

37. Writer Beware

This amazingly thorough site compiles information on schemes that affect authors , especially those run through email and the Internet. It’s sponsored by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, but obviously applies to authors everywhere. If you're a fresh-faced author trying to get published, definitely check it out — it could save you from losing thousands of dollars in an elaborate scam.

38. The Darling Axe

When the industry professionals at The Darling Axe aren’t working on manuscripts, they flock to the internet to share their hot takes on the publishing industry. They also host writing contests throughout the year to build a writing community and give unpublished authors the chance to get feedback from professionals.

Best writing websites for marketing and design

39. David Gaughran

An experienced author of historical adventures, short stories, and popular books for writers, David Gaughran is one of the definitive writing experts out there. His eponymous blog contains plenty of info on marketing and self-publishing, plus workshops to help aspiring authors. And similar to Writer Beware, he's the noble opposition of online publishing scams and scammers — so if you're frustrated by these issues, you'll discover a blissfully sympathetic voice on his blog.

40. Kikolani

Focused specifically on marketing, Kikolani offers tips and strategies for bloggers who want to grow their presence and attract more readers. Here you’ll find information on brand development, social media, customer retention, and other useful tips that you can put to good use as a blogger. (If you're just getting started, though, we'd recommend this course .)

41. Kindlepreneur

Dave Chesson is — in his own words — a “digital marketing nut.” His blog has all the information you could ever need about Kindle book publishing , how to write to market, increasing your rankings on Amazon, and lots more practical tips and advice.

42. Storiad

Storiad is a marketing platform that helps authors and publishers sell books. Go here for essential information on writing apps, databases, tools, and budgeting to help you run your own publishing campaign from start to finish.

43. Writers & Artists

Part of the distinguished Bloomsbury, Writers & Artists has quite a few articles on writing and the self-publishing process. They also offer editorial services and events on many different topics, like genre-specific writing courses and how to get connected with agents.

44. Your Writer Platform

Naturally, this site is dedicated to building your very own writer platform. There are tons of tips, resources, tools, how-tos, and even individual consulting services to help you build the platform that works best for you and your marketing needs.

Best writing blogs by industry professionals

45. Goins, Writer

Bestselling author Jeff Goins created this blog to share his thoughts on writing and to inspire others to chase their creative dreams. He's especially good at breaking complex topics down into digestible bits — new writers, go here for your primers.

46. Jane Friedman

With copious experience in the publishing industry, Jane Friedman offers online classes and articles on the entire process of book publishing. She's a real goldmine of business knowledge, so keep her in mind for when you're ready to publish your book.

47. Nail Your Novel

As a bestselling former ghostwriter who now publishes under her own name, Roz Morris provides advice about writing, self-publishing, and of course, ghostwriting. If you're interested in becoming a ghostwriter, be sure to check out her courses!

48. Nathan Bransford

Nathan Bransford is a former literary agent who posts all about the inner workings of publishing, as well and information on agents and self-publishing. He also does consultations, edits, and critiques. 

49. Rachelle Gardner

Skillful agent Rachelle Gardner has negotiated over 200 contracts with over twenty publishers and helped more than 100 authors fulfill their dreams of publishing. On her blog, she offers writing, publishing, and social media coaching, along with general writing and publishing tips.

50. Kris Writes

For regular insights from a New York Times bestselling author, look no further than Kristine Kathryn Rusch's blog. On Mondays, she posts free short stories for authors to find inspiration in, and Wednesdays she posts in her “Business Musings” collection where she breaks down news from the publishing industry and offers her inside opinions. 

51. The Marginalian  

Maria Popova describes her site as “a record of my own becoming as a person — intellectually, creatively, spiritually, poetically — drawn from my extended marginalia on the search for meaning across literature, science, art, philosophy, and the various other tendrils of human thought and feeling.” She sends out a Sunday newsletter with thoughtful deconstruction of the week’s best liberal arts goings-on to help broaden her readers’ appreciation of the creative world.

52. John August

For all the screenwriters out there, John August co-hosts a weekly podcast with fellow screenwriter Craig Mazin discussing both the craft and business of screenwriting while breaking down popular movies. To help screenwriters really get a feel for the process of working with a studio, John has posted multiple versions of scripts from different stages in the production process on films and series he’s written, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , Big Fish , and Chernobyl .

What are some of your favorite writing websites? Let us know in the comments below!

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Setting Writing Goals: How to Set Goals and Finish Your Book

by J. D. Edwin | 0 comments

Start Your Story TODAY! We’re teaching a new LIVE workshop this week to help you start your next book. Learn more and sign up here.

Have you ever had a great book idea, or started a story but failed to finish it? Did you try setting writing goals to finish your story, but couldn't keep up with your giant ambitions?

Did failing to meet your writing goals end in your giving up?

Goal setting is not as straightforward as it seems. Bad goals reinforce bad habits. If you want to become a writer  and finish your writing projects, you need to set goals that you can meet—while also pushing you to complete your writing projects.

In this article, you will learn the two types of goals every writer can set and accomplish. You'll also learn four major reasons every writer needs to actually finish their writing projects —along with tips on how to do this.

This article is an excerpt from my new book, The Write Fast System . Grab a copy and finish your book faster! 

Determining A Writer's Definition of Success

Have you ever participated in NaNoWriMo ?

National Novel Writing Month (November) is when writers around the world attempt to achieve 50,000 words within the thirty days of the month. You can join this challenge as any type of writer because the ultimate goal is the same for everyone. I have done it (and completed it, I’m proud to add) at least five times. Whether what I produced was of any passable quality … well, that’s a whole different question.

The significance of NaNo is that for a lot of newbie writers, it’s the first time they experience having to stick to both a time and word count goal. It was certainly my first time. Before my first NaNo, way back in 2005, the idea of having those goals had never even occurred to me. But once I tried it, it was a game changer.

You see, when you have no goals or finish line, it can feel like you’re spinning your wheels. You can spend a whole day writing, or a week, or a month. But what kind of progress have you really made? Are those words useful? Do they contribute toward what you’re trying to achieve?

It’s pretty hard to answer those questions if you don’t know what you’re trying to achieve in the first place.

In order to accomplish something, you have to first define what success looks like to you. Like NaNo, when it comes to writing, you need a defined goal. Without one, writing a story or book probably won't feel satisfying.

2 Types of Goals to Boost Your Writing Process

There are two types of writing goals that you can set to boost your writing process:

• Action goals
• Result goals

Action goals are the actions you perform on a regular basis.

For example, to complete NaNoWriMo, you must write about 1,667 words per day. This is your action goal for each day.

Action goals are the baby steps, or the bite-sized goals. They should be defined with concrete parameters, such as a set number of words or quantity of writing time: X number of words, X number of hours, X number of times per week, etc.

Result goals are how you “win.”

This usually means finishing a project of some sort. For NaNoWriMo, the result goal is to have written 50,000 words within the set time of thirty days. The result goal can also be something a little more abstract, such as finishing writing a book, making a writing plan, or completing a short story.

Results goals are larger goals than action goals. They are what let you say, “I’m done. I did it!”

You need both goals if you want to finish a writing project.

How to Make a Good Goal

Believe it or not, goals are not created equal. A weak goal, one that is poorly defined or impossible to complete, will only leave you disappointed. It might even discourage you from writing completely.

If you want to design a good, measurable, and effective goal, you could start by setting SMART goals:

• M easurable
• A ttainable
• T ime-bound

You can read more about SMART goals , but I want to go one step further and say that a goal should also be within your control. This is a concept somewhere in between “attainable” and “realistic.”

The fact is, new writers tend to set goals that overreach or they have no control over.

Goals like “write a bestseller” or “get 1000 fans” are tempting, but these are not accomplishments you can control. You can’t help what people like or don’t like.

Becoming a successful author involves a lot of luck, and you can’t control when and where that luck will strike. What you can do is modify your goal to something you do have control over.

For example, look at these two goals:

An uncontrollable goal:  write a bestseller

Controllable goal:  write a book that is hard to put down and fits criteria for commercial success.

Do you see the difference?

You can’t control whether the book sells well, but you can write a book that stands a good chance in the market.

Instead of a goal to get 1000 fans, set a more achievable goal to expose the book to at least 1000 people through conversation, social media, or ads. While you can’t control whether people become fans of your work, every person you expose the book to has a chance to become the next fan.

When you can control your goals, you can figure out strategies to meet them. Their SMART, and it's far more likely that you'll accomplish them.

4 Reasons You MUST Finish Your Writing Project

There are two aspects to finishing a writing project: completing your goal and completing your project.

Anyone who’s done NaNoWriMo knows that these two things are often separate. Achieving your goal doesn’t mean you’ve finished your project. Many of us have gone written a large chunk of words only to let the project itself sit unfinished, never returning to it despite all the work we’ve put in.

Completing word count goals is a challenge, but it’s easier than finishing a writing project . Anyone can bang out 50,000 words with some determination. Finishing a story is something different.

It’s easy to fall out of love with a story. Maybe it has a harder time gaining traction in the beginning and you find yourself trapped in a swamp of boring narrative . Maybe you hit the slog of the middle and just can’t find a way to speed up the pacing . Maybe your characters don’t want to listen to what you have to say and insist on doing something different.

It took many years for me to realize how important it is to actually finish a writing project, after leaving a number of half-written books in my wake. Advancing a writing career is awfully hard when you never finish anything.

I’ve made it as far as 60,000 words and as little as two pages before abandoning a project, and I still wonder about these projects sometimes—even though too much time has passed for me to return to them.

These days I make a point to finish every project I start. There are four very important reasons to do so.

1. Define the Ending

We all start with an idea of how our book should go, but the first draft rarely turns out exactly the same as you imagine.

The process of writing is an exploration in and of itself. You learn about your characters, you learn about how the events turn out and how they connect to each other. You may know what your story is about. But you won’t ever know exactly how things play out if you don’t finish writing it.

For help on planning an ending for your story, learn more from this article: Ending of Stories .

2. Discover a Story's Potential

I don’t know any writer who loves every moment of book writing. Even a bestselling author has their low points. Almost everyone goes through the slog and questions their work at some point. Those lows during the writing process are usually how we end up abandoning a project.

However, how will you ever know if your story is good in its entirety if you never see it in its entirety ? A finished story may or may not be good, but an unfinished one definitely isn’t any good.

Until a book is finished, you can never look at its story as a whole. The missing pieces will always leave questions.

If you don't write the ending , how do you know if the other events logically lead to it? If you skip a number of middle scenes, how do you know if your characters are adequately developed or if your story pacing is appropriate?

A story is like a bridge: it cannot bear weight or transport anyone until every piece is in place.  

3. Improve Your Book

Here’s a secret: the way to make a book good isn’t writing it; it’s rewriting it.

A story gets better every time you rewrite it, the same way a painter layers paint on a canvas. But when you paint a painting, you can’t put on a second layer without a first layer, and you can’t add a third layer without a second.

If you don’t finish that ugly first draft, you will never get to the second or third, and you work will never get a chance to become the beautiful finished product.

The magic of a story doesn't come to life in draft one. Even the greatest writers need to plough their way through multiple drafts before discovering the book they dreamed of writing.

You can learn more about ways to improve your book in a future post I'll write on plot treatments. For now, take a look at this article on developmental editing to learn more about what an editor looks for when editing a book.

4. Practice Writing (Every Part of Your Story)

This is a big one. Unless you’re brand new to The Write Practice , you know what we’re all about: practice , practice , practice .

It’s important to practice all aspects of writing, and the fact is, when you have a pile of unfinished products, there are certain things you hardly ever get to practice.

Writing endings, for example, or how to really make that saggy middle exciting. Maybe you miss out on learning to build a good subplot. Every writer has that area they need help working out.

When you abandon your stories without finishing them, you end up practicing a lot of beginnings and almost no endings. Not to mention the more you don’t finish your stories, the harder it is to finish the next one because, you guessed it, you’ve never practiced finishing so you’re forever rusty.

For more on how to practice, check out this article about four practical exercises to improve your writing skills .

Set Your Goals, Then Finish Your Project

Finishing a writing project is never easy, but once you complete that first book, the next one will be a little easier to finish—and the next one even easier.

By setting SMART action goals and result goals, you're more likely to finish a writing project that brings you joy instead of stress.

If nothing else, you should finish your current book for the sake of the next one. No time spent writing is wasted. Every minute you practice writing, you become a better writer.

Don't believe me? Start with a small writing project, like a short story, and take it from idea to published product. Then, take some time to reflect about the kind of writer you were before and after you  wrote that story.

Are you the same? Or has something changed, about you, about your writing?

What writing goals do you use to finish your writing projects?   Let us know in the comments !

PRACTICE 

Consider your current or next writing project and set one action goal and one result goal.

Your action goal should be quantifiable, such as a certain number of words to write per day or number of hours to write per week.

Your result goal should fit the SMART criteria from above, and most important of all, be within your control.

Take no more than fifteen minutes to set your goals. Make sure that they are goals you are able to stick to.

When you're done, let us know your new goals in the comments . And if you have time, give some feedback to a fellow writer's comment!

J. D. Edwin

J. D. Edwin is a daydreamer and writer of fiction both long and short, usually in soft sci-fi or urban fantasy. Sign up for her newsletter for free articles on the writer life and updates on her novel, find her on Facebook and Twitter ( @JDEdwinAuthor ), or read one of her many short stories on Short Fiction Break literary magazine .

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10 Apps to Help You Stay Focused on Your Writing

Today’s guest post is by Frances Caballo ( @caballofrances ), a social media strategist and manager for writers, and the author of  Avoid Social Media Time Suck , among other titles.

Inspiration is the windfall from hard work and focus. Muses are too unreliable  to keep on the payroll.

—Helen Hanson

As authors, we love to read, write, and talk about our stories. But as we sit to string words together, there is always the temptation of a distraction.

Maybe it’s a cup of licorice tea you want—again. Or a podcast from Fresh Air that is tempting you. Isn’t now, when you have this time set aside, the perfect time to tackle those items on your to-do list?

Many of us wedge writing into the tight spaces of our lives. We rise before the sun breaks the horizon, work all day, and interact with our families in the evenings. We promise ourselves that we will write every morning at four, write for two hours, pursue our passion, live our dream, and let the stories run wild on the page.

It sounds doable, right? But it’s never as easy as it seems.

Many of us start with the best of intentions. We set our alarm clocks, awake with little eagerness, and harness ourselves to our computers. Ah, the computer. Now there’s another source for many of our digressions.

If Facebook or Twitter easily diverts your attention when trying to write, don’t worry. These tools can help.

1.  Anti-Social

It’s said that Jonathan Franzen obliterated the Ethernet card in his laptop and locked himself in a drab room to avoid distractions that would divert his attention away from his manuscript. But he could have used Anti-Social instead. This tool will block you from your own temptations whenever you’re trying to write. This is how it works: Suppose you want to spend the next three hours writing. Just turn on Anti-Social, schedule it for three hours, and you’ll be blocked from distracting social media websites. Presently, this application is available only to Mac users.

2.  SelfControl

This free application will block you from accessing the websites that distract you the most for a set period that you determine. Until that timer expires, you will be unable to access those sites—even if you restart your computer or delete the application.

3.  Write or Die

First, you configure your writing period, word goal, and your preferred punishment should your fingers stop typing. Once the setup is complete, you’ll need to type continuously; otherwise, there will be consequences. In case you’re wondering what those consequences might be, here they are:

• Gentle Mode: A certain amount of time after you stop writing, a box will pop up, gently reminding you to continue writ- ing.
• Normal Mode: If you persistently avoid writing, you will be played a most unpleasant sound. The sound will stop if and only if you continue to write.
• Kamikaze Mode: You will need to keep writing or your work will unwrite itself. That consequence should keep everyone on track.

4.  StayFocusd

This is a free Chrome extension that will help you to stay more focused on your writing by restricting the amount of time you spend on distracting websites. Let’s say you decide that you want to spend a maximum of forty-five minutes on social media day. Once you use your allotted time, you will be blocked from social media for the remainder of the day.

5. WriteRoom

This tool won’t keep you off your social media networks, but it will keep you more focused. Available from Apple’s App Store, WriteRoom is designed to be an alternative to Microsoft Word. The program allows you to write, but you can’t add formatting or insert screenshots. All you can do is write, and sometimes that’s exactly all we need to do.

Now that you are locked out of your Facebook account, maybe all you can do is stare at the blank page in front of you. Some studies suggest that what you need now is some background buzz. The two applications below are designed to help you loosen your writing muscles.

6.  Coffitivity

According to research, it can be more difficult to be productive in a quiet space. That is why some people get more writing done in the middle of Starbucks. This app will create a background of coffee shop sounds to soothe you into your sweet spot of writing. It claims to produce the perfect mix of calm and commotion. This app is available for the iPad, iPhone, and Mac in the iTunes store for $1.99.

This website offers an array of music for whatever your mood might be. If you want to chill, try Mellow Indie. If you prefer popular songs, click on Today’s Biggest Hits. If you don’t want to hear any lyrics, click on Cool Jazz for Warm Nights or Ambient and listen to the sound of birds chirping and waves washing ashore. There’s music for every taste here.

The house is empty, you have a steaming cup of tea next to your keyboard, and you’re ready to start writing. But there’s a problem. You don’t know what to say in your next blog post. Or perhaps you don’t know how to start the next chapter of your novel or end a story you started a week ago. Here are some applications that will help you get your writing started.

8.  Writing Prompts and Character Prompts

The Writing Prompts app claims that it will come to your rescue with its database of 600 writing prompts. Meanwhile, Character Prompt will offer you 19 profile characteristics, thousands of character twists, and 150 questions to help you develop your characters. Various versions of these two apps range from $1.99 to $4.99 and are available for Apple, Android, and Kindle devices.

9. Writer’s Block Buster

This is another application that will help to crumble your writer’s block into little pieces and leave you with a vision of where your characters need to go. It also has a clever feature that will allow you to keep track of your characters, places where they live or travel to, and other scenarios. In addition, it assists with character and plot development, dialogue, and the mechanics of writing. All these features come for the price of $3.99.

10.  Creativity Portal’s Imagination Prompt Generator

The imagination prompt provides prompts for starting a fictional story. This app is part of the Creativity Portal, which will suggest ideas for creative projects. Creativity Portal also has other applications in its portfolio, including The Story Starter and Writing Fix. If you’re a teacher, Writing Fix also suggests ideas for how to teach different aspects of writing.

Do you use any applications to help you stay focused on your writing?

Frances Caballo  is an author and social media strategist and manager for writers. She’s a regular speaker at the San Francisco Writers Conference, a contributing writer at  TheBookDesigner.com , blogger and social media expert for  BookWorks , and blogger at Bowker’s Self-Published Author blog. She’s written several social media books, including  The Author’s Guide to Goodreads and  Social Media in 30 Minutes a Day . Her focus is on helping authors surmount the barriers that keep them from flourishing online, building their platform, finding new readers, and selling more books. Her clients include writers conferences and authors of every genre. Not sure how you’re doing online?  Sign up for her free email course.

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[…] Photo by Daniel Y. Go / via Flickr Today’s guest post is by Frances Caballo (@caballofrances), a social media strategist and manager for writers, and the author of Avoid Social Media Time Suck, among other titles.  […]

Great suggestions! I can’t wait to try some of them out. I’m going to download the StayFocusd Chrome Extension right now! (Though I never would’ve found out about it if I wasn’t on Twitter, which led me to your piece. Just sayin’!)

Stacey, I’m so glad you found the post helpful!

These are fantastic. As a newbie in the social media world, I appreciate ways to escape the black hole of online networking. Thanks for sharing. I especially love the title (and consequences) of “Write or Die”. Beautiful.

That particular application is scary to me. I don’t think I’ll ever use it.

Hi Frances –

Thanks for this piece. I’d like to suggest our readers might also like RescueTime.com — I’ve been very happy with it, myself. Its basic edition tracks and collates the time you spend online and what you do with that time. So you get a full and highly accurate (to the second) picture of how you’re using your time – incluidng writing on programs like Word. Anything on your computer. And then its FocusTime function allows you to set your own amount of time — from minutes to hours — during which sites and activities you’ve marked as “very distracting” will be unavailable. At times I include even email in my “very distracting” ratings. It’s like closing a door on the world of noise. There’s a free trial here http://ow.ly/eljbQ for anyone on my link who’d like to try it, too. (There’s a free edition for the long term, and a version with FocusTime and other features, the Pro version for about $8 per month.)

Thanks again, -p. On Twitter @ Porter_Anderson

Thanks so much for letting me know about that app. I need to make a note of that one and check it out. Thank you!

Yes, Rescuetime.com can be quite an eye opener.

Great tips about the apps, Jane. Thanks!

Fabulous article filled with a plethora of apps for me to try. Many are new to me and number four “Stay Focused,”‘sounds perfect for me. I like that I can choose the amount of time, e.g. Forty-five minutes or four hours, to block myself. Will definitely try that one. Thanks for sharing these useful apps.

Yes, Melissa, being able to choose the amount of tie you want to stay off the ‘Net is a really great feature.

Thanks for the suggestions! I really like Freedom for Mac as well.

Very useful post! I find the combination of Self Control and RescueTime works best for me. I like how Self Control allows me to choose how much time I want to spend away from the blacklisted sites. And the data provided by RescueTime (even the free version) can be very revealing.

You sound experienced at using these apps. I’m looking forward to checking out RescueTime.

For Firefox users, there’s Leechblock. I use it alot (Have banned myself from Facebook for a while. What a time suck!). Plug in the sites you want to block, and you can then set the times you want to be blocked, the duration, or even manually turn them off with Lockdown. Not that I don’t find other ways to get distracted 😉

Frances, nice post. I think I better download Write or Die! The Character Prompts ap sounds interesting, but can it work with Scrivener? I’m learning that. My real problem is just not getting around to writing, but not because of social media–you know me! I don’t even (still) know my LinkdIn password. I shared the post with my writing writing. Thanks! Thanks to Jane, too, for having you.

7 Ways To Set (Insanely Successful) Writing Goals

by Lewis / January 10, 2023 / Inspiration , Other

Good writing goals don’t always come easy…

We all set goals with the best of intentions. But if you’ve ever gotten caught up in the New Year’s resolution hype, you’ll know it’s just as easy for those goals to fall to the side. Writing goals are no different, meaning sticking to our goals can often be as difficult as writing itself.

Fortunately, there are ways to choose the right writing goals, ones that set you up for success rather than disappointment. So, let’s take a tour through all the ways you can set better writing goals— from the SMART goal framework to mercy days and more!

Why You Need Better Writing Goals

• 1 Why You Need Better Writing Goals
• 2 How to Set SMART Writing Goals
• 3.1 Create a Routine:
• 3.2 Write it All Down:
• 3.3 Make Them Smaller:
• 3.4 Find Your Mental Blocks:
• 3.5 Outline Your Novel:
• 3.6 Include Mercy Days:
• 3.7 Track Your Results:
• 4 A Final Piece of Advice…

Setting goals comes with a ton of important benefits and is a big part of succeeding as a writer. Perhaps you hope to finish your novel by the end of the year, outline your new fantasy trilogy, or find a critique partner to help you as you write. Or, maybe you’re a bit more specific, and plan to revise your second draft in the next six months or send your manuscript to an as-yet-determined editor.

However, all of these goals have a problem—they’re not achievable.

On the surface they might look fine, but when you actually try to meet them, you’ll quickly realize they’re just too big to be successful…

• How do you finish your novel in twelve months?
• How do you actually revise a second draft?
• How do you find a critique partner?

This is why setting the right writing goal is almost as important as setting goals at all.

Good writing goals keep you accountable, but they also give you milestones to work towards, ways to measure progress, and the confidence that you’re on track. They’re tailored to you, and they’re specific enough that you always know what’s next. After all, work expands to fill the time allotted to it. Without some goal in mind, you’ll tinker with your novel forever.

So, how do you set better goals?

How to Set SMART Writing Goals

SMART goals have their origins in the business and productivity spaces, but they’re a useful tool for writers too. SMART is an acronym that stands for:

Specific: What specific outcome are you trying to achieve? What actions or steps will you take to achieve it? Measurable: How will you track your progress? What numbers, dates, or milestones can you focus on? Attainable: Is this goal realistic for you to achieve? Does it respect your existing commitments and writing speed? Relevant: Will this goal move you closer to your desired outcome? Will it help you achieve your long-term goals? Timely: What is the timeframe for accomplishing this goal? When do you want to achieve it?

Of course, even within the realm of SMART goals, there are many ways to approach this .

On the one hand, you might focus on a project-based goal where you measure things like word count, chapters written, et cetera. Or, you could decide on a time-based goal, where you focus on how long and when you want to write each day or week.

Both options have pros and cons:

Project-Based Goals: Great for tracking measurable, steady progress over time, especially if you’re confident in how much you can write each month or week. However, these can quickly become overwhelming if you fall behind or overestimate your writing speed. Time-Based Goals: Best for those with busy schedules or who can’t commit to writing a certain number of words, but can squeeze in fifteen or thirty minutes throughout the day. Just don’t get distracted and waste your limited writing time.

Regardless of which type of writing goal is best for you, the principles of SMART goals still apply. So, here’s an example of two different SMART writing goals, and one “not-so-smart” goal for comparison:

Project-Based Goal: My goal is to write 1,500 words of my first draft each day of November, aiming for 50,000 words total by December 1st. Time-Based Goal: My goal is to work on my first draft (specifically on writing new words) for two hours every Saturday, plus fifteen minutes every day during the week. Not-So-Smart Goal: My goal is to write a novel this year.

With this in mind, take a moment to write down your own writing goal—keeping these SMART principles in mind! Once you’ve chosen your goal, it’s time to talk about seven steps you can take to actually achieve it. 🙂

7 Tricks for Meeting Your Writing Goals

Create a routine:.

One of the trickiest parts of meeting your writing goals, is actually incorporating writing into your normal life. Let’s be real—we’re all way too busy! Between work, school, family, and occasionally sleep, it’s hard to make time for writing, and that stress and overwhelm means the time we do have often isn’t very creative. However, it is still possible to make writing a priority, even in small ways.

My recommendation is to develop a routine.

If you create a clear plan for when and where you’ll sit down to write, it’ll be that much easier to carve time out of your day to do so. You’ll have removed that barrier to writing, opening up mental space to spend on your story.

This extends beyond just when and where too. Ask yourself—what rituals could you use to get your brain in a creative zone? Will you free write for five minutes, turn on a playlist dedicated to your novel, or meditate before writing? Whatever your routine looks like, this is a great thing to pair with your new writing goals to make actually writing that much easier.

NOTE: Interested in the types of writing routines (and how to build a routine that fits your schedule)? Check out this article: Do You Need a Writing Routine?

Write it All Down:

Alongside developing a routine, I also strongly encourage you to write your goals down, and not just in a random notebook—but where you’ll actually see them.

Though it might seem simple, keeping your writing goals front and center is a great way to hold yourself accountable. Luckily, you can write your goals just about anywhere! If you have a whiteboard beside your desk, jot them down in a bright color to catch your eye. You could also write them on the first page of your writing notebook, or even add them as a desktop wallpaper if you’re handy with Photoshop.

This goes beyond your goal itself too.

Alongside your writing goal, consider why this goal is worth working towards:

• Why is your novel so awesome?
• Why are you excited to achieve this goal?
• What’s the coolest, most interesting part of your story?
• Why has this idea captured your inspiration?

This is your chance to brag a little, get hyped, and leave a reminder for your future self. Now, whenever your motivation wanes, you can remember what makes your novel worth your time, and fall back in love with all the interesting, fun aspects of your story!

Make Them Smaller:

Much like “write a novel” is way too broad to be a SMART goal, sometimes even our best writing goals can be a bit too big for comfort.

This is why it’s wise to organize your goals in smaller chunks.

It helps to think of these as milestones you’ll need to meet in order to achieve your main writing goal. What small, specific steps will you take to reach your desired outcome? How small you make these is up to you, but try to make them small enough that they feel attainable and relatively easy.

For example, say you’re taking part in NaNoWriMo . Rather than only having your main goal of writing 50,000 words in thirty days, you could also have weekly and daily goals to keep you on track, and give you a nice boost of serotonin when you check them off your list.

This also helps if you struggle with overwhelm.

If your brain keeps shutting down when you think about writing, try setting the smallest goal you can. This should be something you know you can achieve every day or week with little stress—such as writing one hundred words each day.

On the surface, this goal might seem like nothing to be proud of, but you simply need to shift your mindset. All progress is good progress , because writing a novel is a game of momentum. If you only write one hundred words today, great! And if that one hundred words inspires you to write even more, that’s great too!

Find Your Mental Blocks:

We all have some mental block that prevents us from writing as much (or as happily) as we would like—and these blocks are usually a major barrier between us and our writing goals.

Though frustrating, this is nothing to be ashamed of.

To tackle your own mental blocks, start by identifying them. What do you believe about your creativity, writing habits, or novel? How could these beliefs be holding you back from writing, and from enjoying your writing?

This will probably be hard at first, but I encourage you to do this without judgement. Once you’ve taken time to reflect, write what you’ve come up with, and then think of ways you could let go of these beliefs. What new beliefs could you adopt in their stead? Could you find an accountability partner or friend to help encourage you? Whatever you decide, put this into practice alongside your new writing goals!

Outline Your Novel:

Outlining your novels is one of the most useful things you can do to not only tell better stories, but also make achieving your writing goals easier too. Outlines are basically a cheat sheet for your novel, containing all the most important details of your story in an easy to reference format. With a solid outline in hand, you’ll always know what to write at the start of each writing session, saving you a ton of time and frustration.

Though not for everyone (looking at you pantsers), outlines are definitely a writing tool worth trying, whether you go full in, build a brief story bible , or create a skeleton draft .

NOTE: Want to outline, but not sure where to start? I highly recommend The Ten Day Outline . It’ll guide you through every step of outlining your next novel, and only requires ten days to complete!

Include Mercy Days:

Like it or not, you will fall behind on your goals eventually.

• Life gets in the way.
• You get sick.
• You have to stay late at work.
• Your muse just isn’t cooperating…

All of this is normal, but it can still be extremely stressful if you don’t have any wiggle room built into your writing goals.

Because of this, I strongly encourage you to schedule mercy days.

These are days where you would normally write, but where you instead have no set goals at all. This is your chance to catch up if you’ve fallen behind, or just to rest and recuperate after a difficult writing session. As I’m sure you’ve noticed by now, meeting your writing goals is as much about schedules and word counts as it is about caring for your mental wellbeing —and mercy days are a big part of that!

Track Your Results:

For many writers, “tracking” often just means recording their word count at the end of each day, adding it up until they hit the magic number that means they’re done. However, I like to think that tracking can be better than that!

Tracking your progress towards your writing goals is often the most useful thing you can do when writing a novel, because it helps you see your progress more objectively. This goes beyond word counts and hours spent writing, and into your mindset too.

So, what should you be tracking?

Well, at the end of each writing session, pause and record these eight things:

• Time spent writing
• Words written
• A quick description of what’s happening in your story
• Any problems you ran into
• A paragraph reflecting on your mindset
• How you’re feeling about the story and your goals
• How you plan to make next time easier

While this might seem a bit “extra,” this information goes a long way towards helping you understand yourself as a writer—both now and in the future. A few months from now, you can look back and see your progress in hard numbers, and you can start recognizing patterns too. Maybe the middle of your story always gives you trouble, or you seem to catch a second wind right around your finale.

Whatever your situation is, this helps you create better goals in the future, and serves as a reminder that (even on rough days) there’s light right around the corner!

A Final Piece of Advice…

With those seven tips behind us, you should be in a good place to put your goals into action. Now, there’s only one thing left to do—start writing. Honestly, this is hardest part. Putting those first few words on the page is extremely intimidating, and often comes with its own set of mental blocks and anxieties.

So, I want to give you some comfort: Your first draft is yours alone.

This draft is an unfinished, rough version of your novel, meaning it’s going to be messy and weird—and that’s ok! This is your chance to tell yourself your story, laying the foundation you’ll use to polish and refine it into a finished novel later.

So, here’s permission get weird! Write your first draft in emails to yourself. Dictate it using the notes app on your phone. Heck, write entirely in fridge magnets. Whatever you need to do to take that pressure off yourself and reach your goals is worth it. No matter what your goals look like, you’ve got this. 🙂

What are your goals? Let me know in the comments!

Thoughts on 7 ways to set (insanely successful) writing goals.

This is just what I needed. Thank you. Going to set those goals today!!

Thanks Lewis. The only time I really have to write is first thing in the morning and I’ve got a lot of Big Goals, and sometimes it just feels like A Lot. The timely reminder that this moves at my own speed and little goal chunks are completely fine is exactly what I needed. 100 words is still 100 more words than I had, even if that’s all I get done in an hour.

(Came over here from Tammi. Loved that Wildfire presentation!)

Welcome to TNS Tabitha! So glad this was timely for you. 😁

Hmmm… Your “Like it or not, you will fall behind on your goals eventually.” LOL not helpful, Lewis, not helpful 🙄 I came here via the Hiveword newsletter, and am completely frustrated about goal setting. I’m retired (75) and should have loads of time to write, but there always seems to be something leaping out to derail me. Grandkids need to be taken to and from school, my elderly neighbour (84 years) needs to be taken shopping or to medical appointments, and my inability to set goals is the biggest frustration of all and I just sit and feel frustrated about feeling frustrated. Maybe I should take out an advertisement in the local newspaper, “WANTED: Fellow fiction writer to bounce ideas off.” It took me 12 years to write my first YA novel, and now it’s finally about to be published – albeit self published. My second novel is in bits and pieces (probably about 15,000 words so far) and there are lots of good scenes (thank goodness for Hiveword) and just need to all be joined together with lots more scenes – a bit like a patchwork quilt. Still, I guess I still have at least 25 years of writing left in me 😄

You’ve got this Lyn! Even if you will fall behind on your goals sometimes. No shame in that! 😉

I definitely feel you on how quick life is to derail your writing. I’m curious though, is there a time in your day that you could set aside as your “writing time” and guard it in the same way you would a doctor’s appointment? As something you can’t miss, except for a true emergency? It doesn’t have to be long (you can make surprising amounts of progress in 15-30 minutes) and you would want to schedule it for a time that’s less likely to be interrupted. But that way, when someone asks you for something, you can feel more confident saying “Sure, but I have an appointment with myself until 3PM. I’ll be with you at 3:10!”

Obviously easier said than done, but I hope that gives you permission to be more protective of your writing time, if that’s what you need!

Yes–I need to set writing goals for 5-6 days a week since I am retired. I also need to set definite time allotments for setting up my plot outline/plan and for fully fleshing out my protagonist and other characters who are nearly as important as the protagonist. This is my first novel; it has been in my mind for much too long and I want to get a first draft mapped out and then written by June at the latest. Thanks for posting this message. It confirms what I already knew I need to do and pushes me to get organized and DO it! Thanks–Peggy Fish Oliver

You’ve got this Peggy! 🥳

I just came to say the same thing you did, Elijah. Lewis’ TNS blog posts always seem to come exactly when I need them and are always a big kick in the pants. 🙂

I’ll be reworking my Q1 goals – again 🙂

Lewis, you always have exactly the the kick in the rear I need right when I need it most. 😂 I’m officially taking today as a goal-setting day. I’m setting a goal to have my long-suffering second draft finished by the end of Q1 this year, just waffling on whether I want that to mean “write at least four days each week and 1,000 words on each day I write” or “write at least five days each week and 800 words on each day I write”.

Perhaps test both? Sometimes the best way to figure this stuff out is to experiment! Glad this was a positive kick in the pants for you though. So excited to see your second draft finished, I’ll be rooting for you all the way. 😁

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How to Write SMART Goals: Examples, Step-by-Step Guide, and Free Template

By Kate Eby | January 9, 2019 (updated August 6, 2024)

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In order to be effective, your goals should be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. In this guide, we’ll show you how to write effective SMART goals for professional and personal scenarios. Included in this article, you’ll find the following:

• Step-by-step guide to writing SMART goals
• Free SMART goals worksheet to get started
• How to pick the right SMART goals for your project or organization
• How to track SMART goals
• Examples of professional and personal SMART goals

What Is a SMART Goal?

A  SMART goal is a framework for defining objectives, where each goal is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). Follow this method to establish clear, attainable goals that hold you accountable to a deadline. SMART goals are useful in all professional sectors and industries, as well as in personal life (see examples of personal and professional SMART goals below). Using this framework will help ensure that you are working toward clearly defined goals that you can execute by a deadline. Additionally, the SMART framework eliminates guesswork and back-and-forth among parties. It also helps individuals and teams track progress with pre-defined success metrics.

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How to Create a SMART Goal

To create a SMART goal, decide what you want to accomplish, and then address each component of the SMART acronym. Make sure that your goal centers on an outcome, not a practice or set of behaviors. A SMART goal should, in the end, achieve something. Use the chart below to see if your goal meets the SMART criteria at a high level. For a more in-depth discussion of how to write SMART goals, see our step-by-step how-to below. Though it’s important that you clearly define your goal using the method above, remember that it’s still worthwhile to brainstorm all your various ideas. Once you see all the potential options, work with your team to refine the list and create SMART goals.

How to Write SMART Goals

To write a SMART goal, simply define each component in the SMART acronym. Go in order, and ensure that your proposed goal is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. If it doesn’t meet each of these criteria, slowly refine it until it does. Follow the step-by-step how-to below for guidance on how to write and refine your goals to ensure that they are SMART. S: Ensure Your Goal Is Specific Think about this step as the mission statement for your goal. Focus on an outcome you want to achieve, not just a set of practices you want to implement. Be as specific as possible. To do this, answer the five W questions (who, what, when, where, and why):

• Who: Consider who needs to be involved to achieve the goal. Consider appointing roles and responsibilities.
• What: Dive into the details of what you want to accomplish.
• When: Envision a general sense of the timeline you anticipate you’ll need to achieve this goal. You’ll have to be much more specific about this in the “T” section of the how-to.
• Where: This question may not always apply, especially if you’re setting personal goals, but if there’s a location or relevant event your goal is tied to, identify it here.
• Why: What is the reason for the goal? When it comes to using this method for employees, the answer will likely be along the lines of company advancement or career development.  

“Define the goal as clearly as possible. Avoid vagueness which can lead to misdirection,” says Munday. M: Decide How You Will Measure Your Goal In this step, decide which metrics you will use to track your progress and to define whether or not you are successful. Doing so makes a goal more tangible because it provides a way to concretely measure progress. If your goal will take several months to complete, set some milestones tied to specific subtasks. “Ensure that the goal can be quantified or a clear indicator of progress can be identified,” says Munday. If the goal can’t be quantified, you will need to adjust it. A: Ensure Your Goal Is Attainable “Your goal should be challenging yet attainable with the available resources,” continues Munday. Look at the resources available to you — people, capital, tools, etc. — and assess whether this goal is realistic with your current means. You might also look at data on past projects to determine whether this new goal is attainable. If not, that doesn’t mean you need to abandon your goal. Simply assess the costs of investing in additional resources, or consider extending your timeline in the time-bound section below. R: Ensure That Your Goal Is Relevant to Larger Objectives In this scenario, relevance refers to how well your goal aligns to larger team or organizational initiatives. Ideally, your goal will support the other work you’re doing and serve your long-term goals in some way. If nothing else, it should not detract or divert energy away from goals you’re already committed to. T: Give Yourself a Time Limit for Accomplishing Your Goal Setting a hard deadline will help you measure progress, even if you don’t accomplish your goal in the allotted time period. Anyone can set goals, but if it lacks realistic timing, chances are you’re not going to succeed. Commit to a target date for deliverables, and ask all stakeholders whether this goal is likely to be completed in the allotted time period. If the goal will take three months to complete, it’s useful to define what should be achieved halfway through the process. Providing time constraints also creates a sense of urgency.

Microsoft Word SMART Goals Worksheet

‌ Download a SMART Goals Template for Microsoft Word  | Google Docs

When to Use:  Use this worksheet to brainstorm and refine your SMART goals. Start by making an extensive list of all possibilities, and then slowly edit and refine that list in order to draft your final SMART goal.

Notable Features:  The template is broken out into sections for each letter in the acronym: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Each section includes prompts that will help you brainstorm all the variables that you need to take into account. Then, you can home in on your priorities and write your finalized SMART goals.

How to Pick the Right SMART Goals

The “right” SMART goals will be in line with larger team or organizational objectives. Don’t commit to any new goal that conflicts with or counteracts an existing goal. Instead, make sure all goals align and work together to achieve organizational success. “To choose the right SMART goals, I first assess the overall objectives of the project or initiative,” says Munday of Custom Neon. “Understanding the end game allows me to reverse engineer the steps needed to get there, which I then shape into specific SMART goals. It’s crucial that each goal directly contributes to the larger objective to maintain coherence and focus throughout the project.”

Execute on SMART Goals with Project Management in Smartsheet

Once you’ve defined your SMART goals, it’s essential to put a plan in place to achieve them. To help with execution, you need a tool that enables you to plan, track, manage, automate, and report on your goals in real-time.

One such tool is Smartsheet, a work execution platform that enables enterprises and teams to get from idea to impact - fast. With a collaborative, real-time objectives tracker in Smartsheet, you can increase transparency and improve accountability across your initiatives.

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Examples of SMART Goals

You can write SMART goals for any professional setting or industry, as well as for your personal life. Below, you’ll find real-world examples of initiatives and how to format them as SMART goals.

Professional SMART Goal to Improve Employee Performance and Retention

Professional SMART Goal to Decrease Customer Churn Rate

Personal SMART Goal to Become a Better Leader

Jake Munday of Custom Neon wanted to improve his leadership skills and become a stronger CEO. However, he needed to focus his efforts on something tangible so the goal could be measured and the necessary actions wouldn’t be so vague. Here’s how he turned it into a SMART goal: I want to complete a leadership development course in three months, by dedicating two hours every week to study. “This goal was specific to professional growth, measurable by course completion, achievable within my weekly schedule, relevant to enhancing my leadership skills as a founder and CEO, and time-bound by a three-month period,” says Munday.

Personal SMART Goal to Increase My Business Knowledge

Lavergne of ReviewFlowz wanted to increase his business knowledge by reading more books but needed to concretize the goal. He followed the SMART formula and wrote the following SMART goal: I will increase my business knowledge by reading one business book per month for a year. “This goal was specific, measurable, achievable, relevant to my professional growth, and time-bound, helping me stay disciplined and informed,” says Lavergne. “It significantly broadened my knowledge and improved my business strategies, making me a more effective leader.” For dozens more examples of SMART goals, visit our roundup of  SMART goals and examples . Additionally, check out this  comprehensive guide to project management SMART goals and these  examples of SMART goals for leadership .

How to Track SMART Goals

It is imperative to track SMART goals to measure your progress and assess whether or not you were successful. Because SMART goals require you to define the metrics and timeframe of each goal up front, they are relatively easy to track and report on. Below are some expert tips for tracking SMART goals:  

• Ensure That the Goal Is Actually Measurable:  “Make sure the goals you set out are actually measurable,” says Ugarte of London Office Space. “Have quantifiable criteria to track progress and determine when the goal has been achieved. For example, rather than aiming to ‘improve customer satisfaction,’ instead set a goal to ‘achieve a customer satisfaction score of 90 percent as measured by our end-of-service surveys.’" 
• Stick to the Metrics You Defined Up Front:  Part of defining a SMART goal is choosing how you will measure success. To effectively report on your performance, don’t change these metrics midway through.
• Set Up a Tracking System: Use project management software or another goal-tracking program to monitor your progress. This ensures that you have a single source of truth for all team members to refer to and will help keep you accountable to your goals. Visit our  complete roundup of goal tracking templates to get started tracking your progress.
• Consistently Evaluate Your Progress:  Decide how frequently you will track progress. Don’t refer to your metrics so often that it becomes its own source of stress (i.e. every day), but check often enough that you are looped into any unanticipated hangups. Consistently monitoring progress will allow you to communicate and collaborate early if things go off course.

• Reflect on and Learn from Each Round of Goals:  Even if you fall short of a goal, it’s worth reflecting on it with the team. What went well, and what could have gone better? Bring those new insights to your next round of goals, and adjust criteria — such as time or resources — to hit your new goals.
• Don’t Be Afraid to Reassess and Edit Your SMART Goals:  “I always make sure I've got a few sessions scheduled across a week or two to revisit my SMART goals before finalizing them,” says Mallory of Motivosity. “SMART goals are like any rough draft. The very first stab at it probably won't be the best or most elegant. Give yourself time to play around with the goals, revisiting their clarity and details and really leaving space for final tweaks.”

Establishing Clarity Around Success and Failure of Goals

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Happy 2024! We hope this year will be full of writing for you—and if you’re like us, you’ve even got writing goals among your New Year’s Resolutions.

One thing to consider is that not all goals are created equal . Goals can be fuzzy (“I want to write more”), over-ambitious, or have lots of other issues.

To help, people who think about this sort of thing have come up with a great system for goal-setting: SMART. Based on that system, here’s some simple advice for the goal-setting writer in each of us.

If you’re serious about your writing in 2024, check out our online writing courses . They’ll keep you accountable to concrete writing goals, with the mentorship of award-winning instructors, and in a supportive community of like-minded and passionate writers. They’re the perfect environment to get your best writing done.

SMART is an acronym, and it’s one of those cool acronyms where the word it forms describes the thing the acronym is about.

SMART is a good acronym. Not like this one.

What “SMART” Stands For

SMART is all about the properties of a good (“smart”) goal.

It stands for:

• Specific. Make your goal or objective as specific as possible. Say exactly what you want to achieve in clear, concise words.
• Measurable. Include a unit of measure in your goal. Be objective rather than subjective. When will your goal be achieved? How will you know it has been achieved?
• Achievable. Be realistic. Ensure that your goal is feasible in terms of the resources available to you.
• Relevant. Your goals should align with your values and long-term objectives.
• Time-bound. Give yourself a deadline within a year. Include a timeframe such as a week, month or year, and include a specific date if possible.

( See here and here for more on these descriptions.)

A Few Examples of Non-SMART Writing Goals

Here are some draft goals (or resolutions) that might not fit within the SMART framework:

• “I really want to finish my novel.” (Not specific.)
• “I’ll write lots more this year.” (Not measurable.)
• “I’ll write 20,000 words every week this year.” (Not achievable???)
• “I feel like I should start writing again.” (Why?)
• “I hereby commit that I’m going to work on my memoir until it’s finished.” (When? Not time-bound.)

A Few Examples of SMART Writing Goals

And here are some examples of draft goals or resolutions that would fit within the SMART framework:

• “I will finish my novel manuscript by the end of the year.”
• “I’ll set aside 15 minutes in the morning to write, at least 5 days a week.”
• “I’ll have an outline of my memoir completed by July 1.”

A Few Thoughts on “Relevant” (the R in SMART Goals)

Each of these feel like good goal-setting elements in general, but what really stands out to me is R, Relevant. This is a chance to ask: What does this writing goal, resolution, project, or process mean to me ? How is it part of the life I wish to live?

This is certainly worth reflecting on. In my experience, knowing why I write can help a huge amount with the how and when.

Our reasons for writing will—of course—be different for each of us. With that in mind, I’ll offer that, in my view, having the chance to share our humanity with one another through written language is one of the great gifts of life. So whatever your reason is, I know it’s a good one.

Here’s to a wonderful and writerful 2024!

Frederick Meyer

Writing truly an amazing way to give life in the form of tangible memories or basic ideas…therapeutic for sure…to the ones conveying and the ones receiving it…my blood my brows sweat the ink to my pen!!! The countless pages in the form of sheets of many types..from paper bags to napkins to the parts of my skin for my canvas that waits to be outlined into the intensity of a kaleidoscope of emotions dying to come out…to be viewed to be felt in ensuring all types of waking UP’s inside and out every side..especially the parts that are crippled locked jammed in sick stillnesses out of fear of scaring all away leaving us in an awkward mess for doubts set out to stop anything from becoming something!!I would love to leave y’all with something I came across a year in my 3 years and 3 month prison term…when nothing could console me..the losses from being free to be a mother to my beautiful three daughter’s aja and naynay and jady..from being able to have the freedom to know I could be free even while incarcerated ..a blessing in disguise because I was dying!!! I’d lost my physical freedom my rights my luxuries.. To just be in my life’s moment’s.. In a Bible a year after not knowing how to deal with all I wanted to get back to… My life!! My girls!! This was in a separate piece of paper within the pages of the only book of life worth referring towards.(THE BIBLE)..this is what the small piece of paper said and I quote!!!” Sometimes you have to let go of all you think you cannot live without in otderTO BE ABLE TO HOLD ONTO WHAT YOU STILL GOT”end quote…it was then..right at that moment that I realized how wise words are imperative&vital and, crucial…how FREEING and helpful they can be .why its important to learn to want to understand… So its wisdom and valuable lesson’s won’t pass you by…words!!! Turned into knowledge for the very power that fuels Gods hope in order to find your way out of the bondage for pessimistic thoughts that have been like a plague…a form of cancer ..poison to your mind’s abilities& capabilities,and capacity to break out and awayyyyyy..!! and see all through!!! Yea…its not how much you write its what you write about and owning your own style of how to go about!!! Write on!!!! Right on!!! Sincerely Gypsy skigh blue!! Aka Noemi cazares MY NEW YEARS RESOLUTION… TO BE ABLE TO GIVE LIFE THROUGH WORDS TO ALL IVE EXPERIENCE… SURVIVED WHILE HAVING TO BECOME MANY COOL AND INSANE SAVAGE CHARACTERS IN order TO FINALLY FIND MY WAY TO MY THROWN IN WAITING… A CHAIR IN FRONT OF A DESK OR TABLE WHERE I MAY FINALLY SIT DOWN AND SHARE MY unbelievable MISSIONS IN LIFE!! BECAUSE ITS NO LONGER A JOURNEY.. ITS MY LIFE!! I FINALLY VALUE IT AND UNDERSTAND THE UNSPEAKABLE THE UNREFINED THE rawness OF IT ALL THATS BEEN EVER SO DEEPLY SENSITIVE… LEADING ME MANY TIMES ON THE DEFENSES MAKING IT EASY TO BELIEVE I MUST BE CRAZY… IM NOT BUT WHAT WAS DONE to me and mine AND LATER SAID AGAINST ME TO DECLARE ME FOR SURE insane !!! GOD FORBID THEY LISTEN TO ME…YEA…THAT WAS TRULY CRAZY THEY WERE UNHINGED… BUT SOME HOW THROUGH THE graceful GRACE OF GOD… I SURVIVED IT…SO PEN TO PAPERS…and this is how it soon will go…..God help me always… I’m your mess…I’m not any less….I’m More, more than I allowed myself to become… Thank God!! I’m never alone especially when I was…AMEN!! Amen!!/Amen!!

Everyday I come up with the day’s to-do list and i’ll make sure the followings feature on the list: (a)writing at least two flash fictions (b) editing an old story (c) reading online magazine ,at least two magazines (d) listening to an audio story , at least two short stories

As one who also like programming, i’d including coding as well. is this a clear SMART violation?

I have never really thought about writing stories or anything else related, I just happened to by pass this website but I’m actually considering taking it in for my goals in this coming year.

So thank you for the inspiration and happy new year!

We hope you start writing, Nshuti! Happy New Year!

SMART goals were a part of my life throughout my career as a school administrator. I had forgotten about them until I read this article. More than four years ago, I made the goal of writing every day. Not entirely smart but it is one that I have achieved. As January 1, 2024 approaches, I will got back to my roots and create my SMART goal for the year. Thanks for refreshing my memory.

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Each day you must write at least 250 words, or about a page. The website will reward you when you hit them with Milestone achievements.

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Sleep well and concentrate on your plot and characters. There is no risk your words will be lost . Everything is auto-saved as you type it. Even if your internet goes out, no problem! As soon as it's back on, your work is uploaded automatically.

Each day you must write at least 250 words, or about a page. The website will remind you of your goals, and reward you when you hit them with Milestone achievements. You can change your goals at anytime, but 250 is the best for daily breakthrough.

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An awesome app to fight procrastination. It helps me a lot to write everyday some "breads crumbs". I can translate them after in my social media and podcast.

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This is actually quite intuitive, and I've been able to more efficiently imitate everything I was doing in a planner and with a habit program. Both my wife and I really like having this, and we love that we will be able to collaborate on a couple of goals with our separate accounts.

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Free SMART Goal Generator (AI Powered)

Achieving your ambitions can often be challenging, especially when defining them clearly. You want goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART), but sometimes the task feels overwhelming. That's where the AI SMART Goal Generator comes in – your tool to turn ambitions into actionable plans effortlessly.

The SMART Goal Generator

Let’s craft a perfect goal for you. Just answer a few questions:

Your SMART Goal:

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While people often set goals for themselves, they are not always successful in achieving them. This is because of the fundamental difference between a goal and a SMART goal. A goal is something that you want to achieve, while a SMART goal is more specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. It provides clear direction and criteria for success, making it easier to track progress and adjust strategies accordingly.

If you're new to setting goals, here's a brief overview of what is a SMART goal and how to write one.

What is a SMART Goal?

A SMART goal is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. It is a framework used to develop goals that are well-defined and have a higher chance of being achieved. Each letter in the acronym represents a different aspect of the SMART goal criteria.

• Specific: A SMART goal is clear and specific, leaving no room for ambiguity. It should answer the questions: Who? What? Why? Where? When?
• Measurable: A SMART goal is measurable, meaning that it can be quantified or evaluated in some way. This allows you to track your progress and determine if you're on the right track.
• Achievable: A SMART goal is realistic and achievable. It should be challenging enough to motivate you, but not so difficult that it becomes demotivating.
• Relevant: A SMART goal is relevant or significant to your overall objectives and aligns with your values and long-term goals.
• Time-bound: A SMART goal has a specific timeline for completion, creating a sense of urgency and helping you stay focused on the task at hand.

Here's an example of a goal written without the SMART criteria:

"I want to save more money next year."

And here's an example of a SMART goal:

"Increase my monthly savings by 20% in the next 6 months by reducing unnecessary expenses and finding additional sources of income."

As you can see, the SMART goal is much more specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. This makes it easier to track progress and take necessary actions towards achieving the goal.

Let's dissect the example of a SMART goal to understand how each letter in the acronym is applied:

• Specific: The goal clearly states what you want to achieve (increase savings by 20%).
• Measurable: The goal can be measured by tracking the progress towards increasing savings and reducing expenses.
• Achievable: The goal is realistic, considering that it's only a 20% increase and the actions needed to achieve it (reducing expenses, finding additional sources of income) are within reach.
• Relevant: The goal aligns with the overall objective of saving more money and is significant in reaching long-term financial goals.
• Time-bound: The goal has a specific timeline (6 months) for completion, creating a sense of urgency and focus.

How To Write A SMART Goal

Now that you have a better understanding of what makes a goal SMART, here's a step-by-step guide on how to write one:

• Identify your overall objective or desired outcome: Before setting a SMART goal, it's essential to know why you're setting it in the first place and what you want to achieve.
• Make your goal specific: Simply stating "I want to lose weight" is not specific enough. Instead, ask yourself who, what, why, when, and where to make your goal more precise.
• Ensure your goal is measurable: Find a way to quantify or evaluate your goal so that you can track your progress and determine if you're on the right track.
• Make sure your goal is achievable: Set a realistic and challenging goal that's within your reach.
• Ensure your goal aligns with your values and long-term goals: Your SMART goal should contribute to your overall objectives and align with your values.
• Set a specific timeline for completion: Give yourself a deadline to create a sense of urgency and focus on the task at hand.

SMART Goals Examples

Here are a few examples of SMART goals using this step-by-step guide:

• Overall objective: To improve physical health and fitness.

SMART goal: "Run a 5k race in under 30 minutes by the end of the year."

Dissection: The goal is specific (run a 5k race), measurable (under 30 minutes), achievable (with proper training and dedication), relevant (contributes to physical health goal), and time-bound (by the end of the year).

• Overall objective: To improve productivity at work.

SMART goal: "Complete all project tasks on or before their assigned deadline for the next quarter."

Dissection: The goal is specific (complete all project tasks), measurable (on or before their assigned deadline), achievable (with proper time management and organization), relevant (contributes to productivity goal), and time-bound (for the next quarter).

• Overall objective: To improve financial stability.

SMART goal: "Save $500 per month for the next 12 months by limiting eating out and finding side gig opportunities."

Dissection: The goal is specific (save $500 per month), measurable (by tracking monthly savings), achievable (with proper budgeting and seeking side gigs), relevant (contributes to financial stability goal), and time-bound (for the next 12 months).

What Is A SMART Goal Generator?

A SMART goal generator is a tool or software that helps you generate specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals. It can be highly beneficial for individuals who struggle with setting SMART goals or for those who need some inspiration to get started. These tools usually work by asking you a series of questions related to your overall objective and then generating a goal based on your responses.

Some SMART goal generators are also powered by AI and can provide personalised goals based on your specific needs and current progress. They can be used for various areas of life, such as career, health, personal development, finances, and more. 

How It Works?

Using a SMART Goal Generator involves a few straightforward steps. Here's a breakdown of the process and how the AI turns your inputs into SMART goals:

• What to Provide: Describe the general area or subject of your goal. This could be anything from career advancement to personal health, education, or hobbies.
• Example: "Improve physical fitness" or "Enhance project management skills."
• What to Provide: Specify what action you want to take or what change you want to see. This helps narrow down the goal to a particular activity or behaviour.
• Example: "Exercise regularly" or "Complete a project management course."
• What to Provide: Identify quantifiable metrics to track progress. This could include numbers, percentages, or other measurable units.
• Example: "Exercise three times a week for 30 minutes" or "Achieve a certification by the end of the course."
• What to Provide: List the resources, tools, or plans you will use to reach your goal. This could be specific strategies, apps, support systems, or educational materials.
• Example: "Use a fitness app to track workouts" or "Enroll in an online course platform."
• What to Provide: Describe the motivation behind your goal. Understanding why a goal matters to you can enhance commitment and persistence.
• Example: "To improve overall health and energy levels" or "To advance my career and improve job performance."
• What to Provide: Establish a clear timeline by when you want to achieve the goal. Deadlines create a sense of urgency and help prioritise tasks.
• Example: "By December 31st, 2024" or "Within six months."

The AI Analysis and Goal Formulation

Once you've provided these inputs, the SMART Goal Generator's AI analyses them to create a well-structured goal. Here’s how the AI works through each criterion:

• Specific: The AI ensures your goal is precise and clear, eliminating any ambiguity. For example, "Exercise regularly" becomes "Exercise three times a week for 30 minutes."
• Measurable: The AI incorporates quantifiable metrics, making it easy to track progress. This could involve numbers, frequencies, or specific milestones.
• Achievable: The AI assesses the feasibility of your goal based on the resources and plans you’ve outlined. It ensures the goal is realistic given your current circumstances.
• Relevant: The AI checks the relevance of your goal in relation to your motivations and long-term objectives. This alignment is crucial for sustained motivation.
• Time-bound: The AI sets a clear deadline, creating a timeframe for achieving the goal. This helps in organising your efforts and maintaining focus.

Benefits of Using a SMART Goal Generator

Setting goals can often feel overwhelming, especially when you're not sure where to start or how to ensure your goals are effective. A SMART Goal Generator simplifies this process by guiding you through creating goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Here are the key benefits of using a SMART Goal Generator:

1. Clarity and Focus

• Specific Goals: The generator helps you define your goals clearly, eliminating any ambiguity. This clarity ensures you know exactly what you want to achieve.
• Focused Efforts: With well-defined goals, you can direct your efforts towards what truly matters, avoiding distractions and staying on track.

2. Measurable Progress

• Quantifiable Metrics: By incorporating measurable elements, the SMART Goal Generator allows you to track your progress effectively. This makes it easier to see how far you’ve come and what remains to be done.
• Motivation Boost: Seeing measurable progress can significantly boost your motivation, as you can celebrate small victories along the way.

3. Realistic and Achievable Goals

• Feasibility Assessment: The generator ensures your goals are achievable within your current resources and constraints, reducing the risk of setting yourself up for failure.
• Confidence Building: Achievable goals build your confidence, encouraging you to set and accomplish more challenging goals over time.

4. Alignment with Personal and Professional Priorities

• Relevance Check: By ensuring your goals are relevant, the generator helps you align them with your long-term objectives and personal values, making your efforts more meaningful.
• Consistency: This alignment keeps your goals consistent with your broader life and career aspirations, fostering a sense of purpose.

5. Time Management

• Clear Deadlines: Setting specific timeframes creates a sense of urgency and helps you prioritise tasks, ensuring you stay focused and productive.
• Avoiding Procrastination: Deadlines can prevent procrastination, helping you make steady progress towards your goals.

6. Structured Planning

• Actionable Steps: The generator breaks down your goals into actionable steps, making it easier to create a structured plan. This step-by-step approach simplifies complex goals.
• Resource Identification: It also helps you identify the necessary resources and tools, ensuring you have everything you need to succeed.

7. Enhanced Motivation and Commitment

• Personal Importance: By reflecting on why a goal is important to you, the generator strengthens your commitment, making it more likely that you will stay dedicated to achieving it.
• Continuous Engagement: Regularly tracking your progress and adjusting your plan as needed keeps you engaged and motivated over the long term.

8. Improved Accountability

• Self-Monitoring: The measurable aspect of SMART goals enhances your ability to self-monitor, keeping you accountable to your own objectives.
• External Accountability: Sharing your SMART goals with others can further increase accountability, as you can seek support and feedback from peers or mentors.

Tips for Maintaining and Achieving Your SMART Goals

Setting SMART goals is a great first step towards achieving your aspirations, but maintaining momentum and ensuring you reach those goals requires ongoing effort and strategy. Here are some practical tips to help you stay on track and successfully achieve your SMART goals:

1. Break Down Goals into Smaller Tasks

• Manageable Steps: Divide your larger goal into smaller, more manageable tasks. This makes the goal less overwhelming and easier to tackle on a daily basis.
• Short-term Milestones: Set short-term milestones to achieve along the way. Celebrating these smaller victories can keep you motivated.

2. Regularly Review and Adjust Your Goals

• Progress Checks: Schedule regular check-ins to review your progress. Assess what’s working, what isn’t, and make necessary adjustments.
• Flexibility: Be open to modifying your goals if circumstances change. Flexibility can prevent discouragement and keep you on the right path.

3. Keep Your Goals Visible

• Visual Reminders: Place visual reminders of your goals where you can see them daily, such as on your desk, fridge, or digital devices.
• Vision Boards: Create a vision board that includes images and words representing your goals. This can reinforce your commitment and keep your goals top of mind.

4. Prioritize Your Tasks

• Daily Prioritisation: Each day, prioritise tasks that contribute directly to your goals. Focus on these high-impact activities first.
• Avoid Distractions: Identify potential distractions and develop strategies to minimise them, ensuring you stay focused on your priorities.

5. Stay Accountable

• Accountability Partners: Share your goals with a friend, family member, or colleague who can hold you accountable. Regular check-ins with them can provide support and encouragement.
• Public Commitment: Sometimes, making a public commitment to your goals can increase accountability. Share your goals on social media or with a group.

6. Use Tools and Resources

• Digital Tools: Utilize apps and digital tools designed for goal tracking, time management, and productivity. Tools like Trello, Asana, or Habitica can be very helpful.
• Educational Resources: Invest in courses, books, or workshops that can provide the knowledge and skills needed to achieve your goals.

7. Stay Positive and Motivated

• Positive Affirmations: Use positive affirmations to boost your confidence and maintain a positive mindset.
• Inspiration: Seek out sources of inspiration, such as books, podcasts, or motivational speeches, to keep your enthusiasm high.

8. Balance and Self-Care

• Avoid Burnout: Ensure you balance goal-oriented tasks with relaxation and leisure activities to avoid burnout.
• Self-Care Routine: Maintain a self-care routine that includes regular exercise, healthy eating, and adequate sleep.

9. Celebrate Achievements

• Reward Yourself: When you reach a milestone or complete a task, reward yourself. This can be something simple like a favourite treat or an activity you enjoy.
• Acknowledge Progress: Regularly acknowledge and reflect on how far you’ve come, even if the progress seems small.

10. Learn from Setbacks

• Growth Mindset: Adopt a growth mindset that views setbacks as learning opportunities. Analyse what went wrong and how you can improve.
• Resilience: Build resilience by staying persistent and adapting to challenges without losing sight of your goals.

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The Best Apps for Distraction-Free Writing

We are bombarded by distractions every moment of every day. Some of them are of our own making; others are basically unavoidable. As I sat writing this story my Fitbit reminded me to get up and move, I received well over 100 emails, Duolingo told me it was time for a lesson, Google let me know it was screening a suspicious call , and I received an alert to water my plants. All of this noise would make it hard to accomplish any task, but it’s particularly problematic when you’re trying to write.

Even the tiniest of distractions can completely disrupt your flow when you’re trying to put words down on a page, and so a whole cottage industry has cropped up around making tools for distraction-free writing. These apps can’t stop telemarketers from calling you or deflect the deluge of Instagram notifications, but they do strip away the extraneous nonsense found in traditional word processors like rulers, toolbars, and tables, and focus on what’s most important: words.

Distraction-free writing apps come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and at various price points. Here are a few of my favorites.

Google Docs

Sometimes the best tool is the one you’re already using. Google Docs wouldn’t qualify as “distraction-free” by most measures. It has all the bells and whistles you’d expect from an office suite. But if you go up to the View menu and click “Full screen,” you get a surprisingly clean and minimal interface.

In full screen mode, you see a page with words, rulers along the top and sides, and a document outline on the left. That’s it. The toolbar and most other interface elements are removed. You can hide the rulers and document outline as well; just go to the View menu.

To make Docs as close to the other distraction-free apps in this roundup, go to Tools, Preferences, and turn on Enable Markdown. This allows you to format your work with simple text cues like putting words between asterisks to style them with italics. My biggest complaint is that there’s no dark mode for Google Docs at the moment.

The best feature of Google Docs though, is the price: Free.

At the other end of the price spectrum is iA Writer . The desktop app for macOS is $50. And if you want to use it on your iPad or iPhone, that’s another $50. Windows and Android users get a bit better of a deal at $30, but the experience isn’t quite as smooth, and features generally come to Apple’s platforms first.

That being said, I think it might provide the best experience of the bunch. Even in standard mode, iA Writer is a clean and minimal text editor with a decent amount of customization and support for simple Markdown formatting .

But the real magic happens when you click the focus mode button in the top bar. There are a few ways to customize focus mode, but by default the line you’re actively typing on is highlighted and centered. As you move on to the next line, the completed text fades to a dull gray and moves upwards. It’s not too different from what you’d experience with a typewriter.

iA Writer has dark mode and shortcut integration for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. Plus it’s just plain pretty. Given the high price though, you have to be pretty dedicated to the idea of a distraction-free working environment to spring for iA Writer.

The basic layout and feature set of Ulysses isn’t terribly different from iA Writer. There’s a sidebar for navigating and organizing your files, and a large main pane for composing. But it’s definitely more feature-rich, including tools for goal tracking and proofreading. Thanks to its simple but thoughtful organization system, you could probably even use Ulysses as a note-taking app in a pinch.

Like iA Writer it has a typewriter mode with line highlighting and text scrolling. But you have to turn on the various parts of it individually the first time. One of its bigger draws is its styles that allow you to export documents using templates customized for scripts, novels, blog posts, and more.

The knock against Ulysses is that it’s available only as a $40 annual subscription. And it’s strictly for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. If you’re a Windows user, you’re out of luck.

FocusWriter

This is perhaps the most bare-bones of the bunch, but it shouldn’t be overlooked. FocusWriter has all the basics you’d expect from a text editor, including spell check and the ability to have multiple documents open simultaneously. It also has tools for serious writers, like stat tracking and goal setting.

Unlike most of the other apps here, FocusWriter uses rich text (RTF) for formatting instead of Markdown. It probably has the most customizable interface of the bunch, though. You can meticulously choose the interface colors, fonts, and background.

One of the biggest draws will be that it’s free and open source, though right now it’s available for Windows and Linux only. While you can probably get it running on macOS if you know your way around a command line, it will take some legwork, and there’s no mobile client or file syncing.

The idea of distraction-free writing is, inherently, kind of gimmicky. But OmmWriter is probably the most gimmicky of the bunch. It doesn’t just strip away the extraneous nonsense; it aims to immerse you in an environment conducive to a flow state. That includes gentle soundscapes to help you focus and even various typing sound effects to enhance the vibes.

If you want more audible feedback while typing, but don’t want to invest in a nice mechanical keyboard, this might do the job. Though, the very slight lag between your fingers hitting the keys and the sound coming out of the speakers bugged me.

Otherwise, the UI is pretty bare, with a resizable text box in the center and a few buttons to the right for changing settings. It’s the cheapest of the commercial options here at $9.93 for macOS or Windows. But you can also give it a whirl in your browser by playing with a stripped down version for free.

Scrivener has a dedicated following among long-form writers, and for good reason. While the app does have an excellent distraction-free mode, complete with typewriter-style scrolling, it also sports advanced organizing tools that you’re sure to appreciate if you’re working on a book or a screenplay. It’s made specifically with longer writing projects in mind.

Its project outlines make it simple to collect research or rearrange ideas until you find what clicks. When it comes time to actually write, the full screen composition mode gets rid of everything but the text box. It’s the most minimal of editors.

Scrivener is available on macOS and Windows for $60, or iOS for $24. Unfortunately you will have to purchase a separate license for each platform, which could get expensive if you use multiple devices.

This is perhaps the best deal of the bunch if you’re looking for a true distraction-free experience without having to jump through a lot of hoops. For $15, Calmly offers some customization of the interface and basic stat tracking, but mostly it’s just focused on writing.

Like many of the other apps, Calmly is Markdown based, so your resulting files are just plaintext and easily transferred between apps. What you won’t find here are any file management tools or flashy export options, though it does allow you to insert images and add comments, which many of the other apps don’t.

Calmly is available as a desktop app for Windows, Linux, and macOS, but there’s also a stripped down web-based version that is free.

Obsidian isn’t really a distraction-free writing app; it’s a full-featured notetaker. But its clean UI and reliance on Markdown make it a pretty solid writing tool. Plus, its wealth of customization options and deep catalog of extensions mean you can turn Obsidian into the specific writing environment that suits your needs. You can add typewriter-like modes, or set up goal tracking to monitor your productivity. You can just as easily remove features and strip away any of the bits you don't want.

The best part is that Obsidian is free for personal use. If you want to use it as more than just a text editor, I highly recommend you spring for the $4 monthly subscription. This enables file syncing, which keeps all your work in order across all your devices. Obsidian is also platform agnostic and available for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, Windows, Android, and Linux. Just don't let browsing and trying out all those extensions become a distraction itself.

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• Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/fact-checking-warnings-from-democrats-about-project-2025-and-donald-trump

Fact-checking warnings from Democrats about Project 2025 and Donald Trump

This fact check originally appeared on PolitiFact .

Project 2025 has a starring role in this week’s Democratic National Convention.

And it was front and center on Night 1.

WATCH: Hauling large copy of Project 2025, Michigan state Sen. McMorrow speaks at 2024 DNC

“This is Project 2025,” Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak, said as she laid a hardbound copy of the 900-page document on the lectern. “Over the next four nights, you are going to hear a lot about what is in this 900-page document. Why? Because this is the Republican blueprint for a second Trump term.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, has warned Americans about “Trump’s Project 2025” agenda — even though former President Donald Trump doesn’t claim the conservative presidential transition document.

“Donald Trump wants to take our country backward,” Harris said July 23 in Milwaukee. “He and his extreme Project 2025 agenda will weaken the middle class. Like, we know we got to take this seriously, and can you believe they put that thing in writing?”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, has joined in on the talking point.

“Don’t believe (Trump) when he’s playing dumb about this Project 2025. He knows exactly what it’ll do,” Walz said Aug. 9 in Glendale, Arizona.

Trump’s campaign has worked to build distance from the project, which the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, led with contributions from dozens of conservative groups.

Much of the plan calls for extensive executive-branch overhauls and draws on both long-standing conservative principles, such as tax cuts, and more recent culture war issues. It lays out recommendations for disbanding the Commerce and Education departments, eliminating certain climate protections and consolidating more power to the president.

Project 2025 offers a sweeping vision for a Republican-led executive branch, and some of its policies mirror Trump’s 2024 agenda, But Harris and her presidential campaign have at times gone too far in describing what the project calls for and how closely the plans overlap with Trump’s campaign.

PolitiFact researched Harris’ warnings about how the plan would affect reproductive rights, federal entitlement programs and education, just as we did for President Joe Biden’s Project 2025 rhetoric. Here’s what the project does and doesn’t call for, and how it squares with Trump’s positions.

Are Trump and Project 2025 connected?

To distance himself from Project 2025 amid the Democratic attacks, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he “knows nothing” about it and has “no idea” who is in charge of it. (CNN identified at least 140 former advisers from the Trump administration who have been involved.)

The Heritage Foundation sought contributions from more than 100 conservative organizations for its policy vision for the next Republican presidency, which was published in 2023.

Project 2025 is now winding down some of its policy operations, and director Paul Dans, a former Trump administration official, is stepping down, The Washington Post reported July 30. Trump campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita denounced the document.

WATCH: A look at the Project 2025 plan to reshape government and Trump’s links to its authors

However, Project 2025 contributors include a number of high-ranking officials from Trump’s first administration, including former White House adviser Peter Navarro and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson.

A recently released recording of Russell Vought, a Project 2025 author and the former director of Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, showed Vought saying Trump’s “very supportive of what we do.” He said Trump was only distancing himself because Democrats were making a bogeyman out of the document.

Project 2025 wouldn’t ban abortion outright, but would curtail access

The Harris campaign shared a graphic on X that claimed “Trump’s Project 2025 plan for workers” would “go after birth control and ban abortion nationwide.”

The plan doesn’t call to ban abortion nationwide, though its recommendations could curtail some contraceptives and limit abortion access.

What’s known about Trump’s abortion agenda neither lines up with Harris’ description nor Project 2025’s wish list.

Project 2025 says the Department of Health and Human Services Department should “return to being known as the Department of Life by explicitly rejecting the notion that abortion is health care.”

It recommends that the Food and Drug Administration reverse its 2000 approval of mifepristone, the first pill taken in a two-drug regimen for a medication abortion. Medication is the most common form of abortion in the U.S. — accounting for around 63 percent in 2023.

If mifepristone were to remain approved, Project 2025 recommends new rules, such as cutting its use from 10 weeks into pregnancy to seven. It would have to be provided to patients in person — part of the group’s efforts to limit access to the drug by mail. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a legal challenge to mifepristone’s FDA approval over procedural grounds.

WATCH: Trump’s plans for health care and reproductive rights if he returns to White House The manual also calls for the Justice Department to enforce the 1873 Comstock Act on mifepristone, which bans the mailing of “obscene” materials. Abortion access supporters fear that a strict interpretation of the law could go further to ban mailing the materials used in procedural abortions, such as surgical instruments and equipment.

The plan proposes withholding federal money from states that don’t report to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention how many abortions take place within their borders. The plan also would prohibit abortion providers, such as Planned Parenthood, from receiving Medicaid funds. It also calls for the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure that the training of medical professionals, including doctors and nurses, omits abortion training.

The document says some forms of emergency contraception — particularly Ella, a pill that can be taken within five days of unprotected sex to prevent pregnancy — should be excluded from no-cost coverage. The Affordable Care Act requires most private health insurers to cover recommended preventive services, which involves a range of birth control methods, including emergency contraception.

Trump has recently said states should decide abortion regulations and that he wouldn’t block access to contraceptives. Trump said during his June 27 debate with Biden that he wouldn’t ban mifepristone after the Supreme Court “approved” it. But the court rejected the lawsuit based on standing, not the case’s merits. He has not weighed in on the Comstock Act or said whether he supports it being used to block abortion medication, or other kinds of abortions.

Project 2025 doesn’t call for cutting Social Security, but proposes some changes to Medicare

“When you read (Project 2025),” Harris told a crowd July 23 in Wisconsin, “you will see, Donald Trump intends to cut Social Security and Medicare.”

The Project 2025 document does not call for Social Security cuts. None of its 10 references to Social Security addresses plans for cutting the program.

Harris also misleads about Trump’s Social Security views.

In his earlier campaigns and before he was a politician, Trump said about a half-dozen times that he’s open to major overhauls of Social Security, including cuts and privatization. More recently, in a March 2024 CNBC interview, Trump said of entitlement programs such as Social Security, “There’s a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting.” However, he quickly walked that statement back, and his CNBC comment stands at odds with essentially everything else Trump has said during the 2024 presidential campaign.

Trump’s campaign website says that not “a single penny” should be cut from Social Security. We rated Harris’ claim that Trump intends to cut Social Security Mostly False.

Project 2025 does propose changes to Medicare, including making Medicare Advantage, the private insurance offering in Medicare, the “default” enrollment option. Unlike Original Medicare, Medicare Advantage plans have provider networks and can also require prior authorization, meaning that the plan can approve or deny certain services. Original Medicare plans don’t have prior authorization requirements.

The manual also calls for repealing health policies enacted under Biden, such as the Inflation Reduction Act. The law enabled Medicare to negotiate with drugmakers for the first time in history, and recently resulted in an agreement with drug companies to lower the prices of 10 expensive prescriptions for Medicare enrollees.

Trump, however, has said repeatedly during the 2024 presidential campaign that he will not cut Medicare.

Project 2025 would eliminate the Education Department, which Trump supports

The Harris campaign said Project 2025 would “eliminate the U.S. Department of Education” — and that’s accurate. Project 2025 says federal education policy “should be limited and, ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated.” The plan scales back the federal government’s role in education policy and devolves the functions that remain to other agencies.

Aside from eliminating the department, the project also proposes scrapping the Biden administration’s Title IX revision, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It also would let states opt out of federal education programs and calls for passing a federal parents’ bill of rights similar to ones passed in some Republican-led state legislatures.

Republicans, including Trump, have pledged to close the department, which gained its status in 1979 within Democratic President Jimmy Carter’s presidential Cabinet.

In one of his Agenda 47 policy videos, Trump promised to close the department and “to send all education work and needs back to the states.” Eliminating the department would have to go through Congress.

What Project 2025, Trump would do on overtime pay

In the graphic, the Harris campaign says Project 2025 allows “employers to stop paying workers for overtime work.”

The plan doesn’t call for banning overtime wages. It recommends changes to some Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, regulations and to overtime rules. Some changes, if enacted, could result in some people losing overtime protections, experts told us.

The document proposes that the Labor Department maintain an overtime threshold “that does not punish businesses in lower-cost regions (e.g., the southeast United States).” This threshold is the amount of money executive, administrative or professional employees need to make for an employer to exempt them from overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

In 2019, the Trump’s administration finalized a rule that expanded overtime pay eligibility to most salaried workers earning less than about $35,568, which it said made about 1.3 million more workers eligible for overtime pay. The Trump-era threshold is high enough to cover most line workers in lower-cost regions, Project 2025 said.

The Biden administration raised that threshold to $43,888 beginning July 1, and that will rise to $58,656 on Jan. 1, 2025. That would grant overtime eligibility to about 4 million workers, the Labor Department said.

It’s unclear how many workers Project 2025’s proposal to return to the Trump-era overtime threshold in some parts of the country would affect, but experts said some would presumably lose the right to overtime wages.

Other overtime proposals in Project 2025’s plan include allowing some workers to choose to accumulate paid time off instead of overtime pay, or to work more hours in one week and fewer in the next, rather than receive overtime.

Trump’s past with overtime pay is complicated. In 2016, the Obama administration said it would raise the overtime to salaried workers earning less than $47,476 a year, about double the exemption level set in 2004 of $23,660 a year.

But when a judge blocked the Obama rule, the Trump administration didn’t challenge the court ruling. Instead it set its own overtime threshold, which raised the amount, but by less than Obama.

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Nih environmental justice initiative, environmental justice scholars program.

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Program Goal Program Details Scholar Eligibility Applicant Information Questions? Participating ICOs Contacts

Program Goal

The Environmental Justice (EJ) Scholars Program invites EJ expertise, knowledge, and skills from research scholars, academics, public health and health care professionals, and EJ leaders from community-based organizations to work with staff members at various NIH ICOs.

The EJ Scholars Program aims to:

• Build NIH capacity to advance EJ-related research, programs, and other NIH ICO projects.
• Increase staff and community awareness and skills to address EJ issues.
• Grow and strengthen the NIH network of EJ resource experts.
• Contribute to NIH goals to support underserved and under resourced communities.

The 2024-2025 application cycle for the first cohort is now open!  View the application instructions here: NIH EJ Scholars Application Instructions .

Program Details

Environmental Justice scholars will be hosted by one or more NIH Institute, Center, or Office (ICO) . During the program period, EJ scholars will collaborate with NIH staff on one or more research, education, or training relevant activities, contributing to the wider NIH community (see below). EJ scholars may partner with NIH intramural and/or extramural (grant funded) scientists on projects of shared interests.

Scholars are expected to dedicate up to 25% of their time for up to 10 months to support and collaborate with their host ICO(s). Scholars will work virtually, unless otherwise agreed upon with their host ICO(s). The scholar will work with the host ICO on the structure and terms of their work plan prior to position commencement.

Project Topics and Activities

Depending on ICO needs, scholars may support projects related to EJ topics such as:

• Climate change and climate justice.
• Diet, nutrition, and food justice.
• Mental health consequences of environmental exposures.
• Land use and transportation.
• Energy extraction and energy justice.
• Maternal and child health, pregnancy outcomes.
• Community engaged research approaches.
• Air quality, water pollution, and other environmental exposures.
• Environmental impacts across the life course.
• Interplay of environmental exposure, social determinants of health, and health disparities.
• Translating, communicating, and disseminating research findings to different audiences in culturally appropriate modalities.

Scholars will support their host efforts on a range of activities that may fall within the following areas:

Education and Training

• Host internal and external seminars
• Develop training workshops, courses, and modules
• Inform environmental health and EJ working groups

Public Engagement

• Develop infographics and other gray literature material
• Present at conferences
• Write journal articles
• Write opinion pieces, commentaries, and blog posts
• Speak at NIH-wide and IC-specific webinars

Data Collection, Analysis, and Utilization

• Establish or inform dataset workbooks
• Conduct portfolio analyses
• Write white papers and reports
• Write manuscripts
• Provide consultations

Scholar Eligibility

U.S.‐based or international mid‐career to senior scientist candidates and environmental justice community leaders from academic, non‐profit, or private sectors are eligible to apply. Candidates should have a strong publication record in environmental justice and related health sciences (may include gray literature, such as infographics, podcasts, curriculum, policy statements, or training materials).

• This program is not a postdoctoral training program.
• Candidates do not need to have an NIH funding record.
• U.S. citizenship is not required.
• Former EJ Scholars Program participants are ineligible for a second period of support.

The program is open to recognized leaders in environmental justice from the following groups:

• Academic and research institutions, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and Universities, and Minority Serving Institutions.
• Community, advocacy, charitable, and faith-based organizations.
• Health care and public health organizations.
• Tribal, state, and local government offices.

Scholars should have demonstrated expertise in EJ areas that may include, but are not limited to:

• Behavioral and social sciences research
• Community engagement and partnerships
• Community organizing
• Community-led and Tribal-led research/community science
• Data mapping/visualization
• Disaster response and research.
• Environmental exposure and risk assessment
• Intervention strategies
• Traditional ecological knowledge/Indigenous knowledge
• Community health work and training 
• Policy development and engagement
• Translational research
• Implementation Science
• Workforce training and development
• Women’s health research
• Inclusive health education and research
• Migrant/immigrant health and research
• Communication research
• Youth EJ Leadership training

Applicant information

The 2024-2025 EJ Scholars Program application is now open! Please submit your application package to [email protected] by Friday, October 11th, 2024, at 11:59 PM EDT.

• For more information about how to apply, view the application instructions .
• To learn more about ICO interests, see the ICO interest statements . Applicants are encouraged to review the statements before applying. Please note that the list of interested ICOs included in the document is not exhaustive

Please email: [email protected] .

Upcoming Events

• Informational Webinar - Friday, September 13, 2024 at 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM EDT (registration link forthcoming)” 

Participating NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices

The following NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices (ICO) have expressed interest in recruiting an EJ Scholar (see interest statements for more information about ICO interests). This list is not exclusive.

• All of Us Research Program (AoU)
• Fogarty International Center (FIC)
• National Institute on Aging (NIA)
• National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
• National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS)
• National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR)
• National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
• National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)
• National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
• National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR)
• NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR)
• NIH Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS)

EJ Scholars Program Points of Contact

Liam-ofallon.jpg.

Liam O’Fallon, M.A.

Health Specialist, NIEHS [email protected] 984-287-3298

jessica-au.jpg

Jessica Au, M.P.P.

Program Specialist, NIEHS [email protected] 984-287-4672

juliette-mcclendon.jpg

Juliette McClendon, Ph.D.

Program Director, NIMH [email protected] 301-379-0413

This page last reviewed on August 19, 2024

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Beyond the trail: what a long hike reveals about stretch goals.

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Cliffside View of Golden Gate Bridge from Land's End in San Francisco, California

Sunday, I completed the longest hike of my life, 18+ miles across my beautiful city, San Francisco. My daughter Madeline and I started out just after 9:00 a.m. watching egrets take flight on the still, quiet San Francisco Bay at Candlestick Point. We made our way diagonally across the city via the Cross Town Trail , favoring parks, green spaces, and trails wherever possible, climbing to heights with gorgeous vistas, descending through eucalyptus forests that made us forget we were in a city, and ending some eight hours later—tired and sweaty but elated—at Land’s End overlooking the majestic Pacific Ocean. And now, as I nurse a few sore muscles and reflect on the experience, I can’t help but draw connections to leadership and goal-setting. The lessons are not new, but worth repeating.

Motivating Goal . We started with a clearly defined goal. For me, it was a stretch, but like all good stretch goals , it was challenging, achievable, and inspiring. I believed that I could do it, but it was beyond anything I had done before. Though I’m strong and have hiked quite a bit, eighteen miles is about four to five times the length of my typical urban hikes. Could I do it? Yes, I thought so. I was intrigued and knew I would feel proud if I did. My other daughter Margot had completed the trail a couple of weeks before, and so we were also fueled by a competitive spirit . If she could do it, so could we!

Monitoring and Feedback . Thanks to the wonders of GPS, activity-tracking watches, and apps like AllTrails , I was able to monitor and track our progress all along the route. At about 10 am, when we were 1.7 miles into what we thought would be 16.9 miles (it wound up being a bit longer thanks to some detours), I turned to my daughter and said, “We’re 10% of the way there.” Tracking our progress helped us stay informed and motivated and gave us an ongoing sense of accomplishment. And when we strayed from the path, my phone flashed a notification that we had deviated from the established route. In several instances, this alert ( real-time feedback ) helped us course-correct so we didn’t miss some of the hidden paths and other features of the trail. And when we chose to deviate from the route to go to our favorite noodle shop, we did it intentionally and with purpose.

Screenshot of Cross Town Trail

Companionship . Although my goal was ostensibly an individual one, I don’t think I would have tackled the challenge without a friend and fellow traveler to share the journey with me. We were united by a shared purpose and commitment, and we supported and kept each other company along the way. At times we chatted and at other times we were in our own thoughts. Mostly we were in sync, having established a game-plan at the outset, but we also had different needs that required flexibility. At one point I asked her to slow a bit to accommodate my pace. Later, I waited for her while she stood in a long line at a coffee shop. I pointed out birds, she spotted lizards, and we both exclaimed at the views. And when we confronted yet another staircase mid-afternoon, and my legs felt like heavy hollow logs, her strength and determination helped me find mine. “We’ve got this,” we said more than once. The power of mutual validation .

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Rest . By definition, a stretch goal is taxing—often both physically and mentally. You can’t go flat-out all the time. As Tony Schwartz and Jim Loehr point out in their classic Harvard Business Review article, “ The Making of a Corporate Athlete ,” to achieve sustained high performance, both athletes and professionals need periods of expending energy and periods of renewing energy. The oscillation between states is key. We planned our rest breaks from the start. The Cross Town Trail can be divided into three sections of roughly 6 miles, and at the end of the first and second we took extended breaks: iced lattes and snacks at 11:15 and a sit-down lunch at the noodle shop around 2:00. It was amazing how much those breaks renewed and revived us, and I am convinced that it was not just the calories and caffeine—it was truly resting our bodies—that allowed us to continue.

Surprises (Smell the Roses) . Although my daughter and I were focused on our goal and tracked our progress along the map, what made the journey truly engaging and energizing was keeping our eyes open to the world around us. One of the joys of the hike was experiencing parts of the city that we had never seen: chain of beautiful greenways in Visitacion Valley ; the volunteer-made Steep Ravine Trail in a forest in the middle of the city; mosaic staircases taking us up hills too steep for roads and revealing views and perspectives we had never seen before in a city we know well. Each surprise was a source of energy. The principle of no surprises management (which holds that your manager or co-workers should never be blind-sided) notwithstanding, staying open to surprise and to changing your perspective is essential to being flexible and questioning your assumptions. Even the cliché of stopping to smell the roses revealed the surprisingly different scents of wide variety of roses found in the Golden Gate Park Rose Garden , reminding us of the subtle and rich diversity in the world around us. And despite what the media might say about San Francisco, it remains a rich and varied city full of beauty.

Of course, our goal—though a stretch for me personally—could be accomplished in a day. And unlike many business objectives in our complex world, we had a well-delineated map, street signs and trail markers. Most business OKRs and personal goals don’t come come with turn-by-turn directions. Instead, you have a desired outcome and a working hypothesis of how to get where you are going. But these uncertainties only underline the principles above: start with a clear and inspiring goal, actively monitor and seek feedback, work a team or a buddy, take time to rest and renew, and be open to surprises. These are not just lessons or principles, they are values that can guide an individual or team in pursuit of excellence. (Noodle soup helps, too!)

Vietnamese chicken noodle soup, Pho Ga

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