accountability

Mind the Gap!

Published on by Kristi Holl

goal gap

I love the ringing sound of “Mind the Gap!” when British train doors slide open at a station platform.

“Mind the Gap!” is an audible (or visual) warning. It’s issued to rail passengers to take caution while crossing the space between the train door and the station platform.

“Mind the Gap!”

The phrase was first introduced in 1968 on the London Underground. But when I see my “Mind the Gap” mug on my writing desk, it means something different. I look at where I am in my goal (writing, marketing, or a health challenge) and where I want to be (the dreamed-of finished manuscript, increased social marketing numbers, or a healed lower back).

Then I calculate the distance from Point A to Point B. That’s the gap. 

Making the Leap

If you fearfully procrastinate stepping off the train (with rolling luggage bumping along behind), you risk getting caught in the closing door or being run over by passengers behind you. Conversely, if you move too fast, without truly calculating the gap, you can guage it wrong and step down into it instead of over it, breaking an ankle. So minding the gap is critical. 

It’s critical with your story too. When a writer procrastinates too long on finishing a story, a similar story can be published by a faster writer overtaking us. But moving fast before assessing how much revision your work-in-progess still needs is risky too. It can result in your manuscript disappearing in an editor’s Inbox or sinking out of sight on the date of publication.

Someone to Stand in the Gap

Years ago, when my four children went back to school in the fall, I also felt energized and motivated. I bought new school supplies for my writing office, then took a good (compassionate) look at my current novel. Where was I? Where did I want to be?

If I can help you get off the writing train and land sure-footed on the station platform, I’d be happy to do it. Check out my critiques page for fall openings, plus a “back to school” price cut for September.

Good Intentions, Plus RELIABLE Accountability, Spells Success

Published on by Kristi Holl

intentionsWhat do all success stories have in common? Action. Success is the result of action.

What sustains and maintains that success? Repeated, reliable sustained action.

You can’t succeed by doing nothing. You must recognize the importance of being intentional, or having good intentions. But that isn’t enough. The often overlooked step is making it tangible. This intention can’t merely be in your head or scribbled on a scrap of paper that you’ll lose in your car. You must have a system you trust. (paraphrased from Stephen Guise’s blog The Minimum Requirement for Success)

Tracking Progress? Or Losing Track?

One of the hardest things many of us struggle with is not backsliding after getting a grip on a habit we want to establish. I have health habits I work on (drink eight glasses of water each day, exercise thirty minutes each day, no screen time after 8 p.m. so I can sleep, sugar-free day), writing habits (write 25 minutes and rest 5 minutes, don’t check email before 10 a.m.) and spiritual (devotional and prayer first thing). The trouble is, once I establish a habit well and then move on to work on another habit, I tend to forget (and backslide) on the progress I’d worked hard to establish.

There’s too much to remember! And yet, most health and writing habits are only valuable if you are consistent, if you do them daily or almost daily. I’ve blogged about mini habits in the past, and I’ve run several 30-day mini habit challenges which were very successful. Mini habits are much more reliable than motivation to help you meet your goals. I’m still a firm believer concerning mini habits, but I have been unable to find an easy and reliable way to track both earlier habits and new ones I’m working on. 

Until now.

The Best Way I’ve Found to Track Habits

I have tried various ways to track daily habits: wall calendars with check marks, notebooks with a list of daily habits, an erasable board on my office wall. They all had their benefits. I could see the wall calendar and erasable board whenever I sat down to work in my office, so it reminded me then. The notebook idea meant I could take my reminders on the road, thus keeping up with my habits on trips (which is a real challenge.) But nothing worked for all situations.

Then I read Stephen Guise’s idea about habit tracking on a smart phone with a free app called the Habit Loop tracker. It took me an hour to set it all up, but I have used it faithfully for weeks now. It’s fun. It’s colorful. And it’s the only thing visible on my smartphone’s home screen. (In other words, it’s not just a productivity app that is lost among two dozen other apps.) It goes with me everywhere. I don’t have to be online to track a habit. It keeps track of all the statistics for me. It allows me to set reminders, if I want to. And did I mention that it’s FREE?

For a simple tutorial in setting it up, read The New Best Way to Track Mini Habits by Stephen Guise. He takes you step-by-step through the process of setting it up, including screen shots of how he did it. My home screen looks different than his though. I only have the Habit widget and my ten mini habits on the home screen.

Good Intentions Versus Intentions That Work

intentionsGood intentions, for our writing or anything else, only work if we have a way to hold ourselves accountable. If you’re still hunting for a system to keep building reliable habits, I hope you’ll try this Habit Loop idea.

If you do, let me know how it works for you!

Why Accountability for Writers? For the Simple Reason that IT WORKS!

Published on by Kristi Holl

If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go with a group. (African proverb)

It’s the end of the first week of Camp NaNoWriMo, where a writer friend and I created a private two-person cabin and set some hefty writing goals (hefty, considering what else is going on in our lives). Using my kitchen timer, I marked on my calendar each hour that I spend writing this week. I wrote more in three days than I had written in the previous three weeks.

Why?

Accountability

What’s so important about accountability? If you click on the tag to the right called accountability, you’ll see that I’ve written about this topic five or six times in the past already, mostly when running accountability challenges. If you haven’t tried an accountability challenge or group before, you might want to consider it. Knowing that someone “out there” is waiting for your check-in at the end of the day is very motivating. 

For Inspiration This Weekend

For this weekend’s reading pleasure, I’m going to give you other writers’ perspectives on the subject. This just might be the missing piece you need to get your book written.

Holiday Challenge: Writing Through December

Published on by Kristi Holl

What do many writers wish for in December?

Time to write. Support for their writing. Someone to cheer them on so they don’t give up during the wonderful holiday hub-bub.

I have two solutions for you this December. One is another challenge group. [See sign-up instructions at the bottom.] The other is a pair of fantastic articles on the subject.

Writers’ Holiday Survival

I want to point you to a couple of posts with suggestions for holiday survival in case you need and/or want to keep up your writing practice during December:

A Writer’s Holiday Survival Guide: Part One by Bess Weatherby  (Part 1)

And it’s seven in the morning on January 1st. You got a haircut. You’ve just been for a run. You still have an hour before work. You feel incredible. You sit down at your desk to write, because this is the year, and it starts now. And you realize you haven’t written in six weeks and barely remember how. We all know the feeling, the feeling of not having written in a while. The feeling of not knowing where to start. 

There are some great suggestions in this article for scaling back your writing, yet continuing a daily habit through the holidays. (NOTE: The challenge at the end of this post is designed to help you avoid this slump with our buddy system.)

A Writer’s Holiday Survival Guide: Part Two

I’d advise looking at the entire month of December this week. By now, you’ll already know your travel plans, most party dates and family events. You also know your goals. So you can see the blank spots in your calendar, and make a game plan. Just remember–go for achievable, not ambitious goals–you’re much more likely to stick to your schedule if it’s a feasible one!

December’s Holiday Writer Challenge

As readers of this blog, you know that we’ve had writing challenges in April, October and November. It’s no coincidence to me that those are the three months this year in which I accomplished the most writing. I even went over the 50,000-word goal at NaNoWriMo this morning.

And because I want to keep writing in December–and a couple of deadlines in 2014 demand it–I am going to run another challenge for the holidays. It will be scaled back, and it will be individual. In other words, YOU choose the goal you want to set for December. For myself, it will be two goals: (1) writing daily, even if it’s only for ten minutes, and (2) a weekly word count goal (undecided at the moment).

If you are interested in signing up for the challenge, email me at kristi.holl@gmail.com with “Holiday Challenge” as your subject line. In the body of the email, tell me the goal(s) you hope to attain by being part of the challenge. NOTE: I’d recommend reading the articles above before deciding on your goal for December. NOTE #2: The cut-off date for being added to the list is December 5.

NaNoWriMo Accountability Challenge: Sign Up Now!

Published on by Kristi Holl

Last week I posted some links and information about the National Novel Writing Month (November). I mentioned that I would do a November accountability challenge if enough interest was shown.

I heard from plenty of you to have a good-sized group!

Modified Children’s Writers NaNoWriMo

As many of you know, NaNoWriMo has its own website with its own competition and qualifications. To be considered a NaNoWriMo winner, you must write 50,000 new words in the month of November.  There have been many years that I wanted to participate, but I was working on smaller projects than that. Other times, like last year, I had a deadline that demanded a lengthy book revision during November.

So, to accommodate children’s writers who would like to be part of a November “writing frenzy,” but they don’t plan to write a 50,000-word novel, I am going to run a challenge in November through email. This will be for a modified NaNoWriMo experience. [Sign-up instructions are at the end. Even if you have already expressed a desire to be part of this challenge, I need to have you sign up officially now.]

Can You Do Both?

You can certainly sign up to participate at the NaNoWriMo website, plus participate in this email daily check-in with the group. That’s up to you. (I will probably do that myself this year.) But to participate in my email challenge group, you only need to sign up below.

Think about what BIG project you want to work on for NaNoWriMo. What project during November would you dearly love to accomplish? Maybe it’s something you’ve dreamed about writing for years. Maybe it’s a novel you actually outlined at some point, but never got any further. Whatever you choose, it should be a big challenge for you. (Keep in mind that what is “big” for one writer isn’t going to be big for someone else. It’s personal to you and your current circumstances.)

Remember: because it is Nation Novel Writing Month, your project needs to be fiction. Novels, multiple picture books or short stories, a poetry collection: some fiction project that is challenging for you. [We will NOT be posting manuscripts to prove how much you wrote. I will take your word for it.]

So do not sign up for this particular challenge if you plan to write a nonfiction e-book or thirty blog entries, for example. Yes, that is definitely writing, but it’s not for this fiction-writing challenge.

How to Sign Up

I will collect all the email addresses that come to me with the correct subject line. Email it to me at kristi.holl@gmail.com.

Subject line: NaNoWriMo Challenge

Body of email: Tell me what kind of fiction you plan to write. And specify your goal, so will know if you achieve it. (e.g. write MG rough draft novel about 25,000 words; write a poetry collection about the holidays, at least a dozen three-stanza poems; write two easy reader mysteries, about 10,000 words each)

That’s all! I will collect your emails, and then you will hear from me again on November 1 for the first check-in.

Bringing Back the Accountability Challenge

Published on by Kristi Holl

Last spring I set up two 30-Day accountability challenges. Four groups of writers signed up for two different challenges: the Early Morning Writing Challenge and the Scheduled Writing Challenge (or both).

Many asked to be notified if I ran the challenges again, so this is your notification!

Time to Sign Up

Life has been incredibly full this summer and fall, and I couldn’t find a full thirty days to do the challenge. However, I decided to run both challenges for 25 days instead, from October 1-October 25. Many people claim it only takes 21 days to make a habit, so we’ll go with what time is available.

If you’re unsure about the benefits of such a challenge, I did a guest blog about our experiences, Writers at Work: Making On-line Writing Challenges Work for You. Below is an excerpt of what I wrote, including the experiences of some of the participants. It might help you decide if you want to join the October challenge. [Sign-up details at the end.]

Each group mentioned different difficulties when they checked in throughout the day. The early morning “dump it on the page” groups had the highest number who completed the challenge. At first they had a hard time putting the writing first, feeling like they were squandering time they didn’t have to waste. Gradually they realized that the early morning “dump” writing was clearing the decks—priming the pump—for the more structured writing later. As Heather W. said, “I forgave myself and wrote what I needed to write in the morning to get into my day. The ‘real writing’ is always waiting for me.”

The scheduled writing groups had more challenges because they were trying to squeeze the writing into their already crammed days of small children and day jobs. At first, many scheduled their writing session late in the evening, after their day job ended and the kids were in bed. If they got the writing done, often they were exhausted from staying up too late. Gradually, over the month, I noticed a number of them shifting to writing during newly discovered “down” times during the day: waiting room times, sitting in the car pool lane, sitting in bleachers, while cooking supper, etc. They became better at noticing previously wasted times throughout the day, and consistently they reported at the end of the week that they couldn’t believe how much writing they finished just by fitting it into odd “unused” times in their busy days. That was a major paradigm shift for many of them.

Another big benefit was reported by McCourt T. “During the challenge I attended a writing conference, and I really appreciated how writing every day boosted my confidence. I felt that I could confidently talk about my works-in-progress because I was actually spending time on them!” This confirms what professional writers frequently say: nothing makes you feel more like a writer than writing.

One surprising result was that one participant decided she didn’t want to write professionally after all. As Kim T. said, “I stopped checking in 2/3 of the way through the month because I realized that I don’t want to force my writing. I don’t want to schedule it in my day and be held to that… I have realized that I don’t want to be a full-time author. I want to keep writing as a hobby—to write what inspires me when I am inspired to do it.”

Did the challenges actually help the participants? Heather W. thought so. “I signed up for the early morning challenge. The theory was that if you wrote in the morning before your brain really kicked into gear that, when you sat down to write later, there wouldn’t be as big a struggle to focus and find the right words for your story. I hoped that would be true. It was… I initially felt I wasn’t ‘doing it right’ because my early morning writing was a more of a diary, a place to vent frustrations, count my blessings, organize my day, etc. I thought I wasn’t really ‘writing.’ Well it turned out that the ‘non-writing’ was one of the best things I could do with that time. It just made the rest of the day better.”

Many participants noted that even writing fifteen minutes daily reactivated the feeling that they truly were writers. As McCourt T. said, “I was surprised that some days were so busy, I really only had about 15 minutes to write, but those 15 minutes made a difference. Just focusing on my writing each day, even if for only a small amount of time, made my writing seem like a priority again… this challenge helped me realize that writing every day is good for me—not just for my writing itself, which definitely improves the more I do of it, but also for my mental well-being and sense of personal accomplishment.”

The participants exchanged email addresses when the challenges ended so that those who wanted to could continue. Many expressed the concern that Jennifer R. voiced here: “I would love to continue to stay involved in an accountability group. I have never written more consistently than I did while participating in this challenge. I am afraid that without the accountability group I will fall back into my old habits and writing will only happen when I get a chance instead of making time for it.”

If you would like to be part of either accountability challenge, all you have to do is  email me BEFORE OCTOBER 1. Email me at kristi.holl@gmail.com. In the SUBJECT LINE, put “early morning challenge” or “scheduled writing challenge” or the words “both challenges.” That’s all I need from you to add you to the appropriate group. You will hear from me by September 30 with instructions.

A bonus: if any of you plan to do the NaNoWriMo write-athon in November, this October challenge will give you some much needed writing habits so that you can hit November already in the writing zone!

 

 

Writing Strategy: Acting AS IF

Published on by Kristi Holl

(First re-read the last post: New Twist on the Thought-Feeling-Behavior Writing Cycle.)

After three very busy weeks (two new grandbabies, lots of travel, a conference, two work-for-hire deadlines), I was finally able to sit down for a lengthy time yesterday and write on my novel.

Or so I thought.

I sat down all right, but once I finally had an uninterrupted moment to think, a certain situation that has been bothering me for months came flooding back. I couldn’t concentrate on my novel, and I was up and down. I walked. I ate. I sorted laundry. I worried. I ate some more. Later in the day, I Skyped a friend. But I didn’t write until…

Ah, Yes, I Remember

I picked up a book by Kelly L. Stone that was still sitting on my desk. She’s the author of Living Write: the secret to inviting your craft into your daily life. I flipped through it and landed on the chapter called “Acting As If.” I knew this was a phrase from my old recovery group days basically meaning “fake it till you make it.”

I reviewed the thoughts-feelings-action cycle. Since my thoughts were unruly, and my feelings were haywire, I figured that “acting like a writer anyway” was my best option. I read her chapter on “Acting As If.”

Writing Strategy

Here are a couple snippets to think about:

  • People draw conclusions about themselves through observation of their own behavior just as they draw conclusions about other people based on observation of their behavior.
  • Simply act a certain way based on your ideal Writer Self-Image, and over time, you become what you are acting.

Attack that Cycle!

A licensed professional counselor, Stone had many practical suggestions about how to act “as if” you’re a confident writer, act “as if” you’re a self-motivated writer, act “as if” you’re a self-disciplined writer, act “as if” you’re a future-focused writer, and act “as if” you’re a task-oriented writer. [I definitely recommend her book.]

I used one suggestion in the “task-oriented” section, acted “as if,” and got to work. Even though it was later in the day, I had the evening free and ended up with one of the most productive writing days I’d had in a long time. (I’m re-reading Stone’s chapter first thing today though!)

Don’t give up. We’re all in this together, and I’m grateful for writers like Kelly Stone who share what works for them!

Writers at Work: Accepting the Accountability Challenge

Published on by Kristi Holl

Many of you know that we’ve added two new grandbabies to the family in less than two weeks. (Photos below.)

Because I’ve been spending many wonderful hours holding babies, I am going to post a guest blog today, but it’s actually one that I wrote myself for the blog of good friends of mine.

It’s about “Making On-line Writing Challenges Work for You.” A number of you who participated in my two writing challenges in April are quoted in the article on making use of writer accountability groups.

And new baby pictures? I thought you’d never ask!

Meet Sophia below (two days late) and

and scroll down to see James (six weeks early)!

Accountability: It Works!

Published on by Kristi Holl

Back in January many of you joined me in the “31 Minutes for 31 Days Challenge.” That jump started many of us for the new year.

In February I did my first 28-Day Challenge with two writing friends, and March began our second 28-day Challenge. (The Challenge has been to write at least 30 minutes daily.)

Strength in Numbers

Several of you have mentioned that you’d like to try an accountability challenge, and I’m going to start two of them on April 1st. They will each run for 30 days as we work together to become writers who write daily.

Today I’ll talk about the “why” behind daily writing practice. This coming Friday I will describe one of the challenges. Next Tuesday I will describe the second challenge–and the reasons for it. On Friday of next week, I’ll tell you how to sign up for one or both challenges.

“Many who want to be writers–who are in their hearts, writers–have followed the same beaten path that doesn’t come to a dead end so much as it peters out,” says Judy Reeves in one of my favorite writing books, A Writer’s Book of Days. “Even though their spirit longs for it, they have never made writing a priority in their lives; that is, they have never set aside a special, specific time for their writing. They don’t practice their craft.”

What’s So Special About Accountability?

I want to do these writing challenges with you because I’ve seen the huge difference this year that regular writing practice has made in my life. It isn’t just getting more writing done–although that is certainly true. Even nicer, I feel more like a writer. And when you feel like a writer, your confidence goes up INDEPENDENTLY of the market (whether you sell anything.)

And one thing is true: your writing really does get better.

Practice. Practice. Practice.

Writers are artists. We paint with words. And we need to practice our craft daily like other artists who are working on their craft.

No one expects a pianist to go from Chop Sticks to Cargenie Hall. No one expects a painter to go from paint-by-number pictures to a one man New York showing. Dancers, actors, singers, athletes, artists: we only get good at our craft by daily doing the drills.

Writing practice is simply making an appointment with yourself to write–and then showing up. You treat that commitment to write, even if it’s only for fifteen minutes, as sacred. Only true emergencies keep you from that appointment. (True emergencies–yours or other people’s–usually involve lots of blood or lots of smoke. If the interruption doesn’t fit that description, chances are good that it can wait until after you write.)

“Writing practice is showing up at the page,” says Judy Reeves. “One of the best things about writing practice is that it IS practice. It’s not supposed to be perfect. You’re free to make mistakes, fool around, take risks.”

As I said, I will be starting two writing challenges for the month of April. They will involve two types of writing, equally important to your career, I believe.

Why Daily Accountability?

Is a daily writing practice really that important? You won’t know until you try it for several weeks, at least. But according to Judy Reeves, it has great benefits.

“A daily routine that includes writing will have more benefits than you can imagine, but just for starters (a) the writing will come easier, (b) you’ll write more, (c) your writing will improve, and (d) you’ll realize that you are, after all, a writer.”

I don’t know about you, but all four of those reasons sound wonderful to me!

What has been your own experience with accountability?