Sometimes we feel stuck, but we're not actually stuck.
How do we know we're making progress? How can we choose a way of looking at this that's right for us?
Table: Ways of Knowing You're Making Progress With Your Writing
Way of Knowing
Internal Example
External Example
Pros
Cons
Quantitative
Daily word count
Accepted submissions
Quick and easy to track; gives general insight about your habits and their impact
May not reflect your priorities; can end up chasing the metric instead of the underlying goal
Qualitative
Your writing reads more smoothly to you
A critique partner says that the flow of your writing has improved
Might more closely reflect your goals regarding writing craft
Can be subjective and hard to define
Feeling
You feel energized, inspired, and proud of your writing
Your friend says they notice a shift in the tone of how you speak about your writing projects with them
Can be an important early marker that something is going well
May not reflect changes in your output or craft
A word about goal setting
There are different reasons people set goals, and people have different beliefs about what kind of goals to set.
Process goals
Duration goals
Outcome goals
Some people feel that outcome goals should only be set in the middle of a project. When leaping into something new, it can be hard to have even a general sense of how much (and what types) of work might be involved in achieving a particular outcome.