How do you personally set goals and stay focused when writing, espeically when writting long-term fiction? What do you do, and how do you do it?

I find myself struggling to have the time and motivation to actually write, though I really love to write.... if that makes sense.

What do you do, and what are some of your techniques?

I think the "Butt In Seat" technique has to be the best. Just set aside an hour or whatever you can spare every day and sit down and write. Setting targets, say 5000 words this week or 30,000 words this month can seem daunting until you break it down into smaller, more manageable chunks.

I try to sit and type, but am always compelled at a major turning point to turn away, leave it there for now. Then I try to stay motivated by posting in months old posts just because I need to wind down before bed. It helps to read motivational books at some point during the day, by motivational I mean things like 'the right to write' and 'on writing'. Reading stuff by Authors who have made it in their own rights gets me hitting the keys. 2,000 a night is my achievable average.
Anyways, offto bed now. Then do it all again tommorow.

It's tough. I try to tell myself to suck it up and just sit and write the next chapter, but that doesn't always work.

I find that watching a particularly good movie I haven't seen before or reading a really good book I haven't read before gets me motivated to bring my work to that level.

And when all that fails, a little Jack Daniels can go a long way toward greasing the old creative wheels :)

Nothing in life that is worth doing is easy, I guess the best way is just to keep at it. Keep reading regularly and of course writing.

For me? I don't set a goal, then I don't annoy myself by not achieving it.

For university (I'm studying Imaginative Writing) I plan a lot and then tend to rush my work, but with a stuctured plan it doesn't, often, go wrong.

I have to agree just telling yourself to do whatever it is you intend to for an hour is a very good idea, but writing is a labour of love and shouldn't always be pushed.

but writing is a labour of love and shouldn't always be pushed.

That's true.

For myself, I find that if I don't set goals, I fall behind. So I suppose one must find the medium between.

why not try setting yourself achievable goals. I want to write several novels but I'm not going to try for many years because I know I won't succeed so I'm starting small.

make sure it's possible for you to do it time and other commitment wise..

I'll let you know how I do it once I've actually found a method that works for me.

One thing I know:

I can't have a working internet connection.

I'll let you know how I do it once I've actually found a method that works for me.

One thing I know:

I can't have a working internet connection.

lol!!! That makes two of us ST!

Excellent question, and this thread should actually be used more of as a regular discussion and for it not to be swallowed by future threads.

For me I take an A4 writing pad and write in it pointers or "goals" of the direction in which I want the current chapter to go (development wise). It's always in either bullet point form or short hand. Then when I get home from work and write out everything and it usually fits really nicely and rarely do I ever get stuck for ideas because I have already previously made ideas during my lunch hour.

This is all after I have done my initial research.