Accountability

My newest CP group is strictly romance--my main genre among the labels most often used to identify books and group them within a physical bookstore.

But this practice integrated in that CP group works no matter what kind of book you write, even nonfiction.

It is called accountability.

Basically, we share our writing To Do list with each other via e-mail daily. In theory, we end our day showing what is done and not done. While I may not consistently share my results recap with them, I know in my heart and my mind where I fell short, where I excelled. That is what is important.

I propose that this would work if you just send e-mails to yourself. Try it and see.

This simple tool astounds me. If you choose wisely--items that most deeply affect your biggest goals--you will be amazed at how much more you get done.

Shortly after implementing this eye-opener, I saw where I was asking too much from each day. Life gets in the way, my projects inevitably take longer, perfectionism kicks in, maybe a little procrastination too.

Plus you need to listen to your body. After the Aurora event, my mind was too polluted and distracted to be effectively applied to my future goals. It shut down. And I personally knew none of the victims yet was moved in a profound way.

In the Bible, God allowed his people to mourn the passing of Moses for thirty days (Deut. 34:8). Give yourself time.

My daily routine seeks to encourage mind, soul and body health which can only help me in reaching my goals. Like eating well, sleeping fully, being inspired.

So, if you just put two key items on your daily action list, think what you could accomplish in a week, a month, a year.

I maintain even fifteen minutes well spent will yield maximum results when repeatedly acted upon.

Can you spare a quarter of an hour for each square on a calendar to make your life better, more aligned with your dreams?

What if you carved out three-quarters of one single sixty-minute period in your daily allotment of time?

One for health (fifteen minutes of weight lifting or a walk or yoga).

One for organizing your residence (start with your home office and declutter--think about how you can transform your own place into that of a five-star hotel, with no guilt-inducing reminders of things to be done and a streamlined proficiency of function).

One for baby steps toward your highest, biggest, maybe scariest goal. I find whatever fear (doubt, worry, anxiety) is trying to hinder me will actually dissipate once I step closer, take action, no matter how small.

The consistent and persistent practice of doing something EACH DAY is magical--like compound interest.

This is what The Daffodil Principle teaches (my previous post), what FLYlady teaches (FLYlady.net), what Margie Lawson teaches (MargieLawson.com) and what John Assaraf spoke of in a short video on procrastination (see his link in my post of http://livingthedreampublishing.blogspot.com/2012/07/great-two-and-half-minute-video-re.html).

Experiment with accountability in your life and watch for the results.

Denise Barker, author + blogger +

Freelance Copy Editor, http://bit.ly/freelanceCE

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NaNoMo

To novelists all over, NaNoMo (or more exactly NaNoWriMo) means National Novel Writing Month and occurs each November as far back as the early 2000s.  Its tagline is "Thirty days and nights of literary abandon!"  Check out www.nanowrimo.org for more details.  Click on the link found on the right-hand sidebar under "Favorite Links."

It is a great event.  I recommend it.  You write like mad for thirty days/nights and hopefully have the bones of a short novel done at the end of the month.  In my seat-of-the-pants way of writing, I did just that.  And was pleased to see some order of a book, even though I wrote scenes out-of-order as my intuition and imagination led me, placing them where I thought best each day.

Post-NaNoMo, I added in descriptors, of people and places.  I beefed up the internal world of conflict with thoughts and emotions.  I added clarifying words to sentences and some rhetorical devices to style.  That is why I also recommended in an earlier post the great (screen)writing book by Robert McKee called Style (in its truncated title form). Because I was doing more of a screenplay during NaNoMo--hitting all the action and dialogue.  It works for me.

As a NaNoMo participant, you post your word count (WC) for each of the thirty days of November.  It is a big deal to be among the various authors with WCs greater than 50,000 at the end.  Plus there is something about the accountability factor that can spur you on to write--even 250 words--after a grueling ten-hour shift at a day job you have come to despise. And chatting with a fellow NaNoMo author from the Netherlands as you do it.

While searching through the NaNoMo website, I found a NaNoMo 2011 widget you can add to your blog, too.  Pretty cool all the way around.

If you don't choose to visibly enter into NaNoMo, that accountability factor works wonders for those who just exchange WC totals daily with a trusted critique partner. However, there is something magical when a mass of authors get together via NaNoMo.  I can compare it to watching a football game on TV at home, or being among the crowd at the stadium with the footfalls rattling your seat.  What a ride!

And what do you have to lose?  Some time working on your dream?  Oh yeah, you may lose some TV-watching time, some sleep, but you'll gain momentum as an author, maybe self-confirmation as well.  It feels euphoric to type "The End" on page 204 of a book where you wrote it (albeit a rough first draft, double-spaced) to completion.  And in a month.  One month.  Thirty days.  Thirty days that will pass regardless.  Those calendar pages fold over, gone, without your permission.  Whether you wrote those six-and-a-half pages daily average toward the novel that resides in your heart and soul--or not.

Go for it!  Whatever your dream . . .