What if I told you that you could finish your book faster, reduce rewrites, and keep your creative fire lit—all without smothering your artistic soul?
Welcome to the art of strategic authoring.
This isn’t about locking yourself into rigid outlines or spreadsheets. It’s about writing with intention while leaving room for rebellion. It’s about thinking like a CEO but creating like an artist.
Here’s how to build a writing practice that’s both productive and magical.
1. Know Your Why
Before you plot your chapters or set a word count goal, ask yourself: Why do I write?
It’s not a trick question. It’s the anchor beneath every scene you craft, every character you love (or kill), and every hour you spend alone at the keyboard.
Your why is your core motivation as a writer.
It’s not your plot or your publishing plan. It’s deeper than that. It’s the emotional heartbeat behind what you create and why it matters to you.
Some examples:
“I write because the world needs more wonder.”
“I write to help teens feel seen.”
“I write to escape—and to give others a place to escape to.”
“I write to challenge injustice with imagination.”
“I write to show young women that courage doesn’t always roar—it sometimes whispers, ‘Try again.’”
Your Why Matters Because:
💡 It becomes your creative compass.
When you lose momentum (and you will), your why reminds you what you’re fighting for. It guides story decisions, marketing choices, and even what projects you say yes—or no—to.
💬 It gives your stories emotional cohesion.
When your why is clear, your books start to echo with a unique emotional tone—whether that’s hope, defiance, curiosity, healing, or empowerment. That consistency becomes your fingerprint as a storyteller.
🛡 It protects you from comparison traps.
In an industry full of bestseller lists and “overnight” success stories, your why helps you define your own version of success. It gives you purpose beyond rankings.
🎯 It helps you build an authentic author brand.
Your why naturally shapes your voice, message, and connection with readers. When you know why you’re writing, your outreach becomes clearer, stronger, and more aligned.
🌱 It sustains you through the hard parts.
Every writer hits creative deserts—doubt, rejection, burnout. Your why becomes the well you return to so you can refill your cup. It’s a reminder that what you’re building matters, even when the results haven’t bloomed yet.
2. Define Your Destination
You wouldn’t embark on a quest without knowing what you’re trying to find—and that also applies to your writing journey.
Once you’ve uncovered your why, the next step is to ask:
Where am I headed?
This is about defining success—your success—not the industry’s, not social media’s, and not your critique partner’s. Yours.
What Does Success Look Like to You?
Forget the one-size-fits-all version of “making it,” and please know there are NO wrong answers here. This is what success looks like to you. Maybe this means:
- Finishing your first book
- Publishing a trilogy
- Getting fan messages from readers who have connected with your story
- Hitting a sales milestone
- Securing an agent
- Building a consistent writing routine
- Growing your newsletter list to 1,000 engaged readers
What I’m getting at is success doesn’t have to mean fame or fortune… though it might. It also might simply mean writing consistently again. Or falling in love with your story after a long creative drought.
The key is to make your destination clear and personal—so you can celebrate progress and stay aligned when the path gets steep.
Why This Matters
🎯 Clarity drives focused action.
When you know what you’re aiming for, it becomes easier to say yes to what serves it—and no to what doesn’t.
🔥 It protects your energy.
Creative burnout often comes from chasing someone else’s goal. By defining your own, you protect your passion from getting diluted.
🗺 It helps you map your steps.
If your goal is to write a book in six months, your daily and weekly writing targets become clear. If your goal is to grow your readership, your focus shifts toward platform-building, newsletters, or reader engagement.
🎉 It gives you milestones to celebrate.
Writing can be a long journey. Celebrating key achievements keeps morale high and builds momentum.
Use SMART Goals to Set Your Destination
Dreaming is wonderful. Most passions start with a dream; however, please know that if your goals are too vague, you may find yourself spinning your wheels far longer than necessary. Having SMART goals where you can measure progress allows you to more easily move forward.
- Specific: Clear and detailed
- Measurable: Trackable progress
- Achievable: Within your reach
- Relevant: Aligned with your values and purpose
- Time-bound: A deadline or timeframe
Example:
❌ “I want to write more.”
✅ “I will draft 75,000 words of my fantasy novel by October 1, writing 5 days a week.”One is only a dream… a want… while the second one is tied to SMART goals which will help this writer progress forward.
Tie Your Destination to Your Why
The most powerful goals are the ones which reflect your heart. And tying your why with how you define your destination will give you your north star.
Ask yourself:
- How does this goal serve the why that drives my writing?
- Will this make me proud, even if no one else sees it?
- Will this path bring me joy, challenge, or growth?
When your destination reflects your deeper purpose, your journey becomes more fulfilling—because you’re not just chasing achievement. You’re living your intention.
Defining your destination doesn’t mean the map won’t change. What it means is you have the compass—a direction to walk, even when the road winds.
So don’t be afraid to dream boldly. Just make sure you know where you’re going… and why it matters to you.
3. Reverse Engineer the Journey
Reverse engineering isn’t just for plotting your novel—it’s also for building a writing process that works with your life instead of against it.
Let’s start with your story.
📚 Reverse Engineer the Story
Begin with the end in mind. Where do you want your protagonist to be emotionally, physically, and thematically by the final page? Then work backward:
- What internal and external events must occur to earn that transformation?
- What’s the emotional turning point (the moment that changes everything)?
- What obstacles shape the arc, and in what order?
- How does this journey reflect or challenge your why as an author?
This helps you break your novel into meaningful milestones: inciting incident, midpoint twist, climax, and resolution—anchoring both your plot and character arc.
Pro Tip: Use a visual layout like index cards, a whiteboard, or a digital storyboard to track these beats and move them around as needed.
⏳ Reverse Engineer the Writing Process
Now bring that same strategy to your schedule.
Let’s say your goal is to draft a 90,000-word novel in 3 months. That breaks down to:
- 90,000 words ÷ 90 days = 1,000 words/day
But life isn’t that neat. So ask yourself:
- How many days per week can I realistically write?
- How much time do I actually have per session?
- Do I want buffer days or room for research/revision?
- Are there life events or travel that will interrupt this?
Then build your plan:
“I can write 4 days a week. That means 12 weeks × 4 = 48 writing days.
90,000 words ÷ 48 = ~1,875 words per writing day.”
Not as gentle as 1,000/day—but more realistic for your life (in this example) so it’s more likely to be achieved.
Bonus: Use tools like Pacemaker, Toggl, or 4theWords to visualize your progress and stay on track.
🔁 Align Story + Schedule
As you map your writing sessions, tie them to key scenes or beats. For example:
- Week 1–2: Opening scenes, inciting incident
- Week 3–4: First plot point
- Week 5–6: Midpoint twist
- Week 7–8: Dark night of the soul
- Week 9–10: Final push + climax
- Week 11–12: Resolution + wrap-up
This timeline gives you clarity and a sense of direction, with space for improvisation along the way.
Reverse engineering your journey—on the page and in real life—turns the foggy forest of “someday I’ll finish my book” into a mapped trail you can actually walk.
Even if you veer off now and then (because inspiration will strike), you’ll always know how to find your way back.
✨ Wrapping up the First Three Steps
When you know your why, define your destination, and reverse engineer both your story and your writing process, you’re no longer wandering—you’re journeying with purpose. These foundational steps turn vague ambition into actionable momentum. They give you clarity, confidence, and a sense of direction that fuels both your creativity and your discipline. Basically… Strategic authoring helps dreams become goals
But clarity alone isn’t enough—you also need systems that support your momentum. In the second half of this blog post, we’ll explore how to build a creative container that energizes you, develop strategic writing habits, and still leave room for the inspired rebellion that makes your voice shine. All this will help you move from planning into practice and also thriving in the process.
This blog post is based on a presentation given on Apex-writers’ Strategy–one of its weekly zoom calls. To learn more about apex-writers, visit apex-writers.com
