Succeed with These S.M.A.R.T. Camp NaNo Goals

Camp NaNoWriMo is just around the corner! If you’re a first-time camper, welcome! If you’re a returning camper, welcome back! Everyone needs a clear set of writing goals in order to succeed; today, writer Marissa O’Leary shares a SMART tool for making your Camp adventure great:

Camp NaNo is all about choices: Will you participate in April or July (or both)? Will your goal be in pages or hours? Poetry or novel? Cabin or solo? It can be so hard to decide! 

One thing I love about Camp NaNo is how much freedom you’ve got. All the power is in your hands: you decide what your project will be and what your writing target is for it. This can be both awesome and overwhelming. As you spend this month thinking about what you will write, consider some other aspects: how much writing you’re going to challenge yourself to do and why you’ll definitely be able to achieve this amazing feat.

An effective tool for focusing your writing goal is by creating “SMART” goals. “SMART” is an acronym that you may have heard of in school or in a work training program. Applying it to something you’re passionate about (like your writing, for instance) helps you learn this useful technique in a fun and memorable way. Here’s what “SMART” stands for and how you can apply each step to your writing:

Specific

First, your goal needs to be Specific. Luckily, the Camp Nano program makes this really easy for you. You know specifically what you want to do. You’re going to write a novel. Or a comic book. Or a collection of short stories! Even if you don’t exactly know all the details of who your characters will be, what they’re going to do, or what their conflicts are going to be, the fact that you are going to commit yourself to sitting down at your notebook, typewriter, voice recorder, or computer to craft a story is specific enough.

Measurable

Next, your goal needs to be Measurable. How much are you going to write? Are you going to spend two hours a day? Or write forty-thousand words? You can choose your target and adjust it as necessary. Then, you can chart your progress. I’m super competitive so there’s nothing I love more than seeing the little bars on my graph exceed that diagonal line!

Achievable

Is it Achievable? Of course it is! However, if you’re starting to doubt yourself or need a little bit of emotional support, you can join a cabin of writers to chat with. I’ve really enjoyed my experiences with my cabin because I moved to a new country and didn’t always have many people to talk to. My cabin-mates were a virtual support group both for my move and for my writing.

Relevant

Fourth, your goal needs to be Relevant. You may wonder how writing a fantasy romance story between a rich baroness and a poor peasant farmer relates at all to your life in the real world. This is the time to remind yourself that pursuing your passion is always worthwhile and relevant to your life. Use this month to take an hour or so out of each day to craft your own mythical realm, torture an evil dictator (that may or may not resemble your boss at work), or help your hero to hatch a brilliantly executed heist.

Timely

Last, it needs to be timely—in other words, you need to follow your schedule. If you’re doing Camp in April you’ve got thirty days; in July, thirty-one. Having a time frame keeps you accountable to your deadlines and acts as a great finish line for you to victoriously pursue.

Put all together, you’re able to commit to the goal of writing that perfect project. You believe you can do it, you believe you should do it, and you’ve got a month to prove it! Good luck!

Marissa O’Leary is an aspiring writer from Florida. Her favorite color is purple; her favorite book is Slaughterhouse Five, and her favorite sport is soccer. When she’s procrastinating from writing she likes to knit while watching Netflix or listening to podcasts. She studied Chinese in college and has been living in Hong Kong for the past two years with her husband and her cat, Yuki, who you can follow on Instagram at @yuki_the_goblin.