JB's Aphotic Scriptorium

Okay, by "Goals" I don't mean the ones that your teachers made you write out when you got your report card (I abhor those. Really). This only involves writing if you want it to.
Now, since you've read the post below this one and yes, I know, it's very long, but to save time throughout my posts I might reference it, so take a look.
Going back to my personal experience, I find goals to be very helpful (see "On Writing: Aspiring Writers..." post for my story). They not only put things in perspective for you, they add some motivation into your daily writing life.
Having a goal is productive, in my opinion, but at first when you set them, they might not be realistic. The first writing goal I set was few months ago (and I definitely should have made one sooner). I wanted to finish four chapters by my birthday, which is only a couple days after New Years. Sufficient to say that goal wasn't realistic. I finished doing a whole chapter in one weekend, so my goal was way to easy.
Advice #1: Set your writing goal, whatever they may be (i.e. one chapter a month, a book a year etc.), but make sure they fit you. If it's too easy, don't take the easy way out: make it more challenging, and makes sure it fits you. Don't say you want to write two full length books in one year like one author did, because you are yourself, not that one author, so you need to tailor you goals to fit you. And don't be vague with yous goal! Write them down if you won't remember, but make sure you have a specific target.
Advice #2: Stick to it. Once you have what you believe to be a realistic goal, don't change it around to make it easier or harder. If you become a published author, and have a deadline due, unfortunately to say, you are not going to have the option of moving it around, so practice for it now. Okay this is important; When things get tough, whatever you do, don't change your goals! That was always my first thought when I hit a rough patch in my writing. I would completely put myself down, and say that the goal now seemed to ridiculous to achieve, and I needed to change it. But that is normally when we doubt ourselves the most, and see things through black-coloured glasses as it were. You need to have confidence in yourself and believe you can do it, especially when things are hard. Which leads me to my next point...
Advice #3: Okay, so you set you goal, stuck to it and guess what? You did it! Now what do you do? Easy: Reward yourself! You achieved your goals and now it's time to feel accomplished about it. Do something out of the ordinary that makes you feel good, because after all that work, you deserve it.
Advice #4 (thought that was the last one didn't you?): Start all over again. When you think about it now, you probably don't think you'll want to, but once you hit the point where you are celebrating your newly accomplished goal, you'll want to start all over again. Not only that, but it's productive for you to have a motivation when things get tough. Instead of thinking "There's no point in doing it anyways" hopefully you'll be thinking "Okay, I have to reach that goal. Only one month. One month, one month...". It'll help you to push through the things you might not want to push through. But if you find yourself doubting, read the post below!
But what type of goal should be set?
I left this until last, because that is something you'll have to figure out. Factor in what you do with your day (work, school etc), and how much time you can reasonably devote to your writing (remember, you always have more time than you think you do). Also consider what type of writing you are doing, and how you are doing it. I have chapters that consist of about eleven Microsoft Word pages. I figured that I could finish at least eight chapters by my birthday, but I thought of the amount of time I can spend on it, the length of the pages, and I included editing and a little writers block into it too. You need to put it in perspective. Key word being YOU because no one else can do it but you, so step up and get it done. When you get to advice #3, you'll be glad you did.

JB