The Importance of milestones in writing

A celebration

After finishing my writing session early yesterday morning, I checked the total word count on my new novel. 10,328 words. I had finally wrapped up the second chapter, the chapter I am still not sure I will use as it stands and discovered that I crossed my first major milestone for writing a book.

All writers are different in how they track progress. Some do it by chapters, by time, by daily word count, or by consecutive days writing. I tend to track progress, particularly for long form writing, by overall word count.

This may be a carryover from my other writing job as a copywriter, where word count is queen. I don’t check the overall word count every day when I’m writing, particularly if I know I’m somewhere in no man’s land. But I do keep my eye on it and when I reach certain milestones, I celebrate them.

For novel writing, here are my major milestones:

• 10,000 words

• 40,000 words

• 70,000 words

• Finito

I might also breathe a sigh of relief at 25,000 and 55,000, but the above are my big ones.

Each milestone is an opportunity for me to celebrate, evaluate, and change course (if necessary). At 10,000, I can ask the question “Do I really want to write this book?” At that point, I’m far enough into it to really know. At 40,000, I consider myself over the half way hump (even if I technically am not). I ask: “Have I done all the things I need to do from a storytelling standpoint in the first half of the book?” At 70,000, I ask, “Am I ready to end this book?”

And when I finish, I pour myself a glass of whiskey and then crawl into a hole for a month.

While I was writing my first novel, these milestones were essential to my stamina and momentum. By breaking it down into achievable chunks, I was actually able to write a 77,000 word manuscript.

What milestones do you celebrate as you write? How do you celebrate?