Planning for a more satisfying writing life? Set values, not goals.

Have you ever struggled to meet a writing goal, only to feel major letdown once you reached it? Or worse, only to find that the story you wrote isn't at all what you wanted to create?

If this sounds familiar, here's the bad news: Your goals may be getting in the way of your creative vision. But there's a surprisingly simple mindset shift that can get you back on the right course.

This is one of the fastest ways to create a truly sustainable writing practice and nurture your creative confidence. But defining your writing values isn't just good for your wellbeing. It can also make you a better writer.

I'm not here to completely rain on your goal parades—sometimes you have to set a specific endgame you're aiming for, so you can determine the steps most likely to get you there. That's especially true if you're melding creative expression with a monetized industry like book publishing.

Know what you can control

This first point applies to anybody who shares stories with readers, whether that's through pursuing publishing or joining a writers group.

If one of your goals is to get a publishing deal, there's only so much you can control when it comes to making that happen. Put another way, publication is never guaranteed for any story (and if anybody in the industry promises you will get a book deal if you work with them, that flag is so red it's scarlet).

For self-publishing authors, there's only so much you can do to ensure your books will find the audience you're hoping for.

And however your story gets in front of readers, you still can't control how they receive or interpret it. This is one of the toughest things about writing—although that uncontrolled, collaborative experience through the written word is also rewarding and beautiful.

This is where your creative values become so important. If you create your work from an inner compass of defined values, rather than only chasing an external goal, you'll have a deeper connection and satisfaction with your stories (no matter how the external things shake out).

When your stories grow out of that deeper, defined vision, you can weather the uncontrolled and the unpredictable with more grace, fulfillment, and confidence.

But like I said at the start of this post, defined creative values aren't just good for your writing mindset. They also make for better storytelling.

Chase creative possibility, not restrictive goals

By definition, setting a goal limits your possibilities. That's not always a bad thing—limits give us manageable actions to take and help us make what we imagine concrete.

But the more specific and external your goals, the more they place limits around what kind of story you can write.

If you want to reach a certain niche of readers, you need to write a marketable story those readers will want to grab off the shelf (physically or virtually). If you want to get picked up by a certain publisher, you may need to agree to their suggestions for your final revision.

Sometimes those limits and compromises are productive. But sometimes they take you further away from creating the type of story you really want to write.

The best way to tell whether a limit is a guidepost or a deal-breaker is to check it against your writing values.

Following those aligned possibilities will lead you to more vibrant and meaningful storytelling—even if you have to give up a goal to get there.

Define your writing values first (and sacrifice them last)

To make sure your goals have a good chance of aligning with your values, take some time to make a list of key creative values before setting any major new goals. (Or, if you have some old goals you're not sure are still a good fit, making your values list now will help you re-evaluate.)

When making your list, think both about the types of stories you love most and about how you want your writing practice to feel. A creative value isn't a number of words you want to write—it's how you want the experience of writing those words to feel. That's just as important as the final outcome.

A writing value can be expressed as poetically or as simply as you like, but it's helpful to make them somewhat specific. This will help you do those gut checks when it's time to assess a goal or a decision.

Here's what I mean: A creative value of "love" certainly sounds nice, and it would be an excellent value in some other contexts. But it's a bit too broad to be useful when making choices about a particular writing project.

Instead, here's an example of a more specific writing value: "I write stories that help readers imagine new ways of finding and nurturing family."

That's still fairly abstract, but it's specific enough to form a solid point on a compass of creative values. Let's say this is one of your values, and a critique partner has suggested you add a love triangle to your novel to ramp up the character arcs.

You know that having a strong romance plot will make the book more marketable to your target readers. And one of your goals for this book is to reach a larger audience—but you really hadn't pictured this story with a love triangle.

So, you check your values list. Does the potential triangle help you explore how your characters create a strong chosen family?

If it does, you can be confident this suggestion will create a story aligned with what you value. But if it doesn't, you'll avoid chasing a goal at the expense of writing something you really love.