Deadline's can be seen as a dirty word. Almost as dirty as a four letter. But that's what I'm here to talk about today. So, if you don't like the word 'deadline' let's call them 'goals'.
I was speaking with Katy-Rose yesterday and she made the comment about not liking having a 78k book and an 80k one. And we got to talking about goals.
NaNoWriMo is great for writers. It gives you a Word Count goal (50k) and a Deadline (November 30). Combine those two, and it's the kick in the rear most people need to keep going. The community attitude about NaNoWriMo helps as well. You've got other writers not only doing the same thing and aiming for the same thing, but they are also their to hold you accountable.
Any WriMo does this.
But what if you don't participate in a WriMo? Or are writing outside of the boundary of a WriMo? That's okay! Set yourself a personal goal. Is that not enough? Talk to other writers, you can find them by the dozen on twitter, or troll the NaNoWriMo forum at practically any time of the year.
Talk to them, and find an accountability partner. Katy-Rose and I are keeping each other writing, because after edits we are going to exchange books and be each others first readers. I really want her to finish because I want to read it and vise-versa.
A family member is a good choice, if you have a mother such as mine. But I'm guessing few of you do. If you have someone in your family that likes to read, and they like to read what you write, tell them a bit about your book. Not all of it, mind you, just a little bit. Get them interested. And then tell them what date you would like to finish by. Normally, they will bug you and bug you and bug you about it. That's good. But I wouldn't go to a family member for a beta reader. More on that in another post.
Also! In case you haven't already seen it, I have a gadget up at the top right hand corner of my blog where I'm keeping track of my editing scene by scene. Watch as I trudge along, and don't hesitate to post a comment bugging me about it if you don't see it change often enough! You an ALL be my accountability partners!
I love deadlines. I find that I work better under pressure, especially when it comes to writing. It's part of the reason why I love Write or Die and writing challenges.
ReplyDeleteMy encouragement comes from my fellow writers in the WriYe forums. They are very supportive and enthusiastic. Sometimes, it's contagious. My sister is the one who pesters me to finish a novel so she can read it. Unfortunately, I'm no where near completion.
I'll be sure to comment if I don't see your meter changing. It's good to have some encouragement when it comes to editing. It's always the part where writers become discouraged to continue.
Sorry if this comment is all over the place. I'm running on little sleep and no caffeine.
Have a wonderful day!
-Cylee
All over the place comments are very welcome here!
DeleteHalf the time my posts do the same thing. Hah.
I know exactly what you mean, haha! I think we were talking about this earlier, and hen I vanished to work on my own writing goals.
ReplyDeleteI like setting goals, especially when someone else knows. My coworker (and fellow NaNo buddy) got on my case last week, asking me when I was going to finish writing my book. "I've been dying to read the rest of it!" she told me, and I finally dusted off the file and started on it again. Since last week, I've doubled that amount, and it's great!
And on another note... where can I get a tracker for my blog? LOL
To get the counter, just click on the colored bar and it will take you to the website. It's very handy, but you can't update it like you do the NaNo word counts, you have to create a new counter to "update".
DeleteThanks for the mention. I'm also happy to be other writers accountability partners (unless there's 50 of you, but another 2 or 3 would be fine!)
ReplyDeleteAlso, my writing blog is here: http://wingsofflight.wordpress.com/ in case you wonder who I am and what I write :)