Christmas season—it must have been December 22 or 23, I was shopping.

Standing next to me in a large store was a woman who was handling merchandise, assessing pieces and placing them back. Then she picked up another piece and repeated the process. She was obviously browsing for something that would strike her fancy. In other words, she was “shopping.”

Next to her was a man who seemed to be growing increasingly impatient. He seemed to be her husband.

“Charlotte,” he said, ”we need a plan. Christmas is only a few days away. We need to decide on gifts and then go get them.”

“But, I don’t want to get just anything,” she responded. “Want my gifts to be just right.”

“Charlotte, we’ve only got a few days! We need a plan.”

Déjà vu

Remembering this story has always made me smile as it reflects an approach to solving problems that is all too common.

If Charlotte were shopping in July for Christmas gifts, there would be no need for her to have much of a plan. She’d have much time to initiate and complete her Christmas shopping to get the gifts that are “just right.”.

However, as we were a few days from Christmas, her husband—let’s call him George—had a point. If they were to be ready for the holidays, they needed to have a plan about how to prepare to have everything done in time.

I never knew if Charlotte and George were able to arrive at a plan, but the scene reminds me of how so many writers approach their writing.

Some writers work slowly—whether methodically or haphazardly—and feel comfortable taking five or ten years to write a memoir or a novel. They are looking for the right word and can alternate between “house” and “home” and then back to “house” again. You meet them years later, and when you inquire about their manuscript, they confess—sometimes sheepishly— they are still at it, still struggling again between “house” and “home.” They want the perfect word, after all.

If you ask how much longer they are going to take to write their manuscript, they answer that they are “slow, methodical writers. The manuscript will be finished when it’s finished.”

Perhaps it will…or perhaps it will never be finished.

Another sort of writer.

There is another sort of writer who, while not neglecting process and the search for appropriate language, focuses on producing more text in the time available.

Perhaps they are writing with a self-imposed deadline—“my fiftieth birthday”—or for a submission deadline for a contest or a publisher’s timetable, or because they want to start another manuscript.

They write according to the time available. They set a schedule that includes days and months, and they understand that they can’t be mired in writing the current piece indefinitely.

The quality group and the quantity group

Essentially these two sorts of writers can be called members of the quality group or the quantity group. There is a seeming contradiction between the two.

While the quality group is not ever likely to produce quantity, can the quantity group produce quality?

In their book, Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking (1994), authors David Bayles and Ted Orland write about an art class in which, one semester, half of the students were asked to produce a pot—a single pot—that represented the best they could create. They were to go for perfection. It was on this single pot that their grade would depend.

The other group was told to produce as many pots as they possibly could. They would be judged on quantity. A certain number of pots would merit an “A,” another number a “B, “etc.

When, subsequently, the grading was assigned and over with, all the pots were placed together to be critically evaluated. Critics assessed each of the pots for quality. The critics did not know by which group—quality or quantity—the pots had been created by.

The group that worked on quantity produced a number of the pots that placed ahead of the pots in the quality group.

How would this be possible when the quality group went for perfection?

One can imagine the quality group being fearful to experiment as their entire grade depended on one pot. They were probably more apt to ape what they believed the professor wanted and so were they more likely to produce derivative pots? (We might call this overthinking!)

The quantity group had nothing to lose by experimenting as their grades depended on quantity not quality. Perhaps to amuse themselves, they began to try different techniques. They felt perhaps freer to add flair and flourish to their pottery.

In the end, a large percentage of their quantity pots were deemed more interesting than the quality pots and generally placed better.

Writers in the quality group and the quantity group

Over the years, I have worked with many kinds of writers. Perhaps I can divide them into the same two general categories:

• The first is composed of writers who are writing slowly, largely moved by inspiration, propelled (knowingly or not) by the romantic movement in literature which believed that no writing could be worth anything other than that which is produced by inspiration. These writers often take many years to write their memoirs, novels and poetry collections and seem to insist on having just the right word and just the right phrase, believing that this kind of perfection is the saving of the story.
• ·other writers are somewhat eager to express themselves via many books. They often come to writing via the memoir which they think of as easier to access than a completely created work of writing. Many of my memoir writers come hoping to become “real” writers. (The kind of writer I call myself.)

This writer wants to write a memoir and then, having learned to write, to move on to another book. This focused writer is not particularly in the “best word” camp of writers. S/he realizes that many words could be appropriate.

A template for writing more in a shorter time

In our last monthly Zoom Gathering of Writers, I offered a template for maximizing writing production. I emphasized the value of planning and scheduling and offered a template for breaking down the year into push goals: twelve-month goals, monthly goals, weekly goals and daily goals.

I emphasized the value of this planning if you want to ramp up your output and not spend a significant portion of the rest of your life to write your book.

Push Goals

A Push Goal is a goal that you are committed to achieving in a period of time. The weekly Push Goal, for instance, focuses on five days – that is in the week between Monday and Friday. Push Goals are not “to do” goals. An example of a Push Goal might be to finish chapter 4 of your novel by Friday.

What this will entail is that you finish chapter 4 satisfactorily in five days. This is entirely possible, but not if you spend time erasing house for home and then return the word house where home was. (Sounds ridiculous? Well, this example is derived from a client of mine who did just that!)

What happens very frequently when you don’t work with a Push Goal in mind?

Creating text takes as much time as you are willing to allot to it. On the other hand, when you have a specific time allotted to achieve a big Push Goal, you are much more likely to be clear thinking and to move forward with your writing.

Writing without a timeline is deciding to take an inordinate amount of time to write your novel, memoir, book of essays or poetry.

If that’s ok with you, then go for it, but if you want to maximize your production, working with a push goals with a timeline is the way to go

With a weekly Push Goal, when you arrive at Wednesday morning, you assess how much of your writing goal you have achieved. If you have accomplished 2/5 of your writing goal, then you are set to succeed by Friday. If however you have reached less than 2/5 of your goal then you need to go to Plan B. Perhaps write more pages than you normally would in the next three days. Perhaps write in the evenings or commit to writing something on Saturday morning to achieve your push goal.

Push Goals can be manipulated.

Recently, I had a push goal to edit a story by Friday. However, I found a section of the text that needed major revision. Meeting my goal by Friday was impossible. Push Goals are always subject to revision—but not too easily or quickly!

Push Goals don’t imply total time of work—just the quality. They apply whether you are putting in 6o hours a week or 5.

Begin to increase your productivity today