I ask all writers to set a writing goal for themselves for their time at the retreat.

It is important to keep our goals simple and realistic, of course. This helps us to avoid burning ourselves out or feeling like we’ve failed to use time effectively.

This goal should be doable within the window of time the retreat offers. In most cases, less is more. Many people will come to a retreat or a month-long class with the idea that they will write a few articles or a full novel; this is far more than we can accomplish in our time together at a retreat. In my experience, even the most productive writers rarely write more than 7 pages (about 3000 words) a day, even when at a retreat.

What type of goal or benchmark would be most helpful for your ongoing work on the project?

For a three or four day retreat, an effective goal might be to complete a “zero” or very rough draft of an essay, chapter, report, or article. A writer might also choose something more useful to the process of a larger project (an outline, initial research reading and note taking completed, etc.). 

For those working on longer projects (like books or scripts), I recommend thinking about a “chunk” of that project for the goal. A skeleton draft (with areas that are fleshed out and areas that can be filled in later) can also be effective.