What big writing goals are you working toward right now? Where are you struggling or getting stuck? Let's talk about it in the comments.

Step #6: Watch a Heart Breathings video to stay motivated! Thank you, Sarra for taking the time to make these videos!!

I LOVE that you mentioned making money. It seems like so many authors tell people to write for the joy of it, that so few people actually get published, that it's so incredibly difficult to make a living in this field. Writing is enjoyable for me, but far more important is the goal of getting out of my dead-end job, rescuing my wife and I from our mountains of student debt, and using one of the only marketable skills I have to actually provide for my family. I refuse to listen to the naysayers. I don't care how many books I have to write; I will get published, and I will get somewhere in this career.

I started you HB90 system this year. My writing goals for Q1 were to get all five books of my anchor series plotted and to write 20k words of book #1. As of today I have all five books plotted and I'm sitting at a little over 39k words of book #1. I'm shaping up to be 30k words ahead of my goal for Q1! That's really exciting but the real reason why I'm so far ahead is because I've never tried to write a book before and I vastly underestimated my weekly word count abilities. So I'm not likely to have the same level of "success" in Q2 as I'll have to adjust my goals upward as appropriate. That being said, thank you so much for all that you do on this channel (and for your etsy products)! You've seriously changed my life because up until now I never knew how to go about working toward my dreams. Your "How to plot your novel" series was the turning point for me and everything else has just been fuel for the fire. Love you!

Setting realistic goals has been my struggle. I am editing/revising the 5th draft of my YA urban fantasy and my goal was unrealistic compared to my pace. I couldn't figure out why I was struggling. I started tracking my editing time and figured out exactly how long it takes me to edit a certain amount of words. Then I figured out how long it would take me to finish editing at that pace. I set a daily total of words to edit that was slightly above what was doing. So far I am on target and I don't feel like a constant failure.

I'm being honest: I'm not an hard-fan of your work, in the sense that I appreciate it and I buy your books, but it's not exactly my genre or style. That said, I REALLY appreciate your amount of effort in doing everything you did as an indipendent author, as I'm trying to follow the same path (even though in a very different market). You've been a huge inspiration for me in the last 6-8 months, and I'll never be able to thank you properly for teaching me how to believe in myself. Love you, Sarra.

Do you have any in depth videos about sprints? If not, I’d love to see one!

You are an integral source of daily inspiration. You live my dream life! :) Thank you for reminding me that the exciting career I've always dreamt of is possible.

I watched "How to Write Faster" and decided to set a word count goal and set up an Excel spreadsheet inputting data from my sprints (what day, what time, where I am). It's working well so far. Learning a lot about how much I can accomplish in a given time. So far I'm writing more words in less time. Thank you for the tips!

Published author here to say THANK YOU. Seriously. I need to buckle down and ignore (for now) the sexy new ideas, or else I'll never finish another book.

I can comfortably write one book a month. My new goal is to get the first draft of a second book done as well. I plan to do this using dictation with Dragon Anywhere. My problem is that my energy has been low for awhile. I've given up wheat and sugar and see phenomenal results in my body. But when the afternoon rolls around, I feel so tired. I'm starting a yoga practice and hope that it increases my energy so that I can soon dictate a chapter a day for the second book.

You always have a great way of making writing/self-publishing goals sound attainable while also giving us realistic ideas on how to go about making it happen. Thank you for all of your stellar advice!

My creative well is empty, no books, music or movies seem to spark any ideas. Feeling pretty flat, thank you for your videos!

I know you wrote this a few years ago but i so needed this today. I really need to stop the excuses and find a time that works.

these tips are actually really useful! i think a lot of people know what works for them intuitively, but unfortunately im not one of them... there was a time where i got up one to two hours earlier to write and that was really productive actually, but now i dont have to go to an office anymore, so getting up earlier to sit on my couch is... not super motivating haha so i think ill go back and figure a new process out :)

Love how supportive you are, Sarra! Thank you for this!

I love the tough love talks. For me, I'm really good at setting and following thru on the writing goals. I struggle with the editing goals because they're not as clear cut. Instead of "write so many words" as a goal its "edit so many words" but then there is a big plot whole that needs to be figured out. Then I switch my goal to "edit for 1.5 hours per day" and that is much harder for me to stick to then writing a set amount of words. Today I'll be using #4 and #5. Stay focused and stop making excuses. You rock Sarra!

So much sense making on oone channel is AWESOME! So glad I found you. Thanks for the video. I'm going to dive into my planner now and see how we're doing for this NaNo.

I'm so excited to be in your HB90 Bootcamp for March. I am sooooo ready to get my act together and crush my goals! 😊💚💙💜

I've been procrastinating for two weeks now and this was so timely. Thank you for the kick in the rear to get back at it!

OMG! It's like you were talking to me. I don't have time is a crock of shit that I finally learned when I made a goal of 500 words a day, and if I didn't complete that goal, I have a consequence. And that consequence is connected to those Netflix shows I'm addicted to. Thank you for this great video.

I have never been a planner, and have not set writing goals; which is probably why I am not where I should be. Thank you, I am going to get a planner and set goals.

Thanks, you accomplish it every time to motivate me

Thanks for another tune-up on focusing on the goals! I'm almost halfway through the first draft of my first cowboy romance, so I'm already thinking about how I can make my Q2 goals a better fit. The confidence is coming - I'm finding the mindset that I can write more each day showing up consistently now. I CAN write something besides children's plays, picture books, and musicals.

While I have some writing dreams, they're not my main focus at this time. But. the points you made in this video still really resonated with me! I have so much I want to do with my youtube channel, but due to fear, uncertainty, and dreading the tasks I'm not even at yet in my process has caused me to stall way too long. Thank you for sharing this as a friendly "get back to work at achieving your dreams!" reminder.

So much YES to everything in this video. I feel like I've muddled my way towards a lot of these techniques, but it's taken years and years and years. I definitely wish your channel existed when I was just starting out! I love your point about not making excuses. I know how easy that can be, and how much you can get done when you stop doing it. I run a B&B, have a ten-month-old daughter here with me all day, and my big goal for this year is to publish three books, two novellas and 50k words of serial fiction by the end of 2019 (which sounds unreasonable when I put it like that, but I've been working up to this over four years of self-publishing). And, like you, I still want to be able to fit in an hour of WoW now and again, too!

*Thank you.* 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

I started outlining my first novel. my goal is to have my first draft done by June. I have learned so much by watching your videos Sarra and I thank you for them.

Loved it and I agree 100%

Hello! I love your plotting video series and was wondering if you would do a video or video series about plotting an entire series? Do you outline the entire series up front or just have an idea for what’s going to happen and keep that in mind as you outline each book?

There is an enormous problem I have on a daily basis: finding the will to write something, anything, when I'm ready for bed by 9pm. I create characters for no particular project at my 9-5 work desk, as a form of stress relief, but- How to write when life is emotionally exhausting? When you have absolutely no means of finding the will to write after a very long day? What length of story should I write in such a trying time? Thank you. : )

Thank you! I am a new writer and I really needed to hear this. It has helped me get back on track!

Great video, you are helping me focus my planning and my plotting. I have been flailing around at planning and writing for years, all my life really. It is really coming along so much better these days, thank you.

Hello. I really needed this video. I'm finding that whenever I need motivation I head to your videos. Thanks so much for doing these videos.

I started changing my terminology from "motivation" to "habit". When I would say I'm "not motivated" it really meant I didn't feel like it or that I have to work my emotions up to the point I could write. Instead I look at it as a habit. What are good habits I want (writing/reading), and what are bad habits (watching TV, social media). I eat dinner at the table to avoid watching TV on the couch. I then go to the office and write or complete a task. (Of course the time is planned and blocked). If I only have 15 minutes, I write for 15 minutes. Doesn't matter what it is. I just write.

My Goal: be done writing what I'm writing by the end of the year. I have a 'goal' of 500 words or 30,000+ by the end of the month. I hope to go through my final edits and (hopefully) get it published by the end of next year. It's slow but it's my first time writing with the hope of sending it out to the world so it needs some extra lovin'.

I love your videos, Sarra! I always feel like I come away with a helpful tidbit and feeling motivated. I've definitely seen improvement in achieving my writing goals simply by keeping up with a planner for my writing. I like your advice about testing out different times of day. I usually write in the mornings because I like to start the day feeling like I've already completed something but I hadn't considered that certain times of day might be better for producing higher quality (or quantity) work. I think I'll test that out next. Thanks for the tips!

Woot Woot. Preach it lady!! You are spot on!!!

Thanks for all your videos, you are such an inspiration, you actually make me believe that i can do it. Congratulations on the baby 💕

Love your videos ♥️

Thanks for the tough love. You are so right!

Can there be an example of a vision board? I'm sure I can find some, expect I'd love to hear your thoughts as you happen to inspire and have helped motivate my goals. Unless you have a url or tutorial on KZfaq that you have a great reference too.

Thank you Sarra. I really, really needed this today.

This is super helpful! Thanks for making this video, Sara!

Thanks for your tips! I was doing most of those things when writing my first draft. I wrote 1000 words a day everyday while my kids were napping and finished my first draft in a month and a half. Then I got to the editing phase and I had no goal to work towards. I started researching how to self-edit and then got very discourage half-way through. Then I lost focus and started writing something else and all the while feeling depressed about losing this habit and story that I loved. Thanks so much about the hard love tip on staying focused and stop making excuses. I love writing and I will do it. Do you have any tips for editing and goal making for that phase of writing? I fear I will be editing forever!

My biggest problem with my novel is that, I think “How can I start writing? I’m not done outlining, I’m not done wordbuilding, I haven’t fleshed out my characters.” - And then I just blank and stop and procrastinate. How can I overcome this?

Love your videos; so much great content, and I really appreciate your entusiasm.

Thank you. I needed this

Great vid!!!

This video is so helpful. I started to track my time and words and definitely I’m a morning person and am a pantser. I’m having trouble with staying seated and writing for long period. For example, I can write for 25min and I’ll need a break for 20-30min and I can write again for more 25min. I’m wondering if there is any technique that I can apply to push myself to write for long period of time. Anyone feels like me?

Though I'm trying to be a plotser, I am discovering I'm a pantser. So I've been struggling to be both... LOL Thanks for being such a great inspiration. I hope to finish my first book before I turn 50 later this year. Fingers crossed!

Thank you!

Great video, Sarra!

i like doing writing videos insted of writing for a hour

Do you suggest journaling all this down?

21:27 "You are choosing to get caught in that story for years and never finish a book."