Our critique group has been dragging its feet for quite some time now Not just one of us. All of us. We are all equally guilty of procrastinating, putting other things in front of our writing, and just slacking off in general.
Part of the reason is that life gets in the way. There’s always something else to be done before we can sit down in front of the computer and put words on paper. However, one of our partners decided enough was enough and took the initiative to challenge us to commitment and accountability.
I’ve often heard that the best way to tackle a big project is to break it down into smaller portions. So, this is what we have decided to do. Rather than submit a 10-20 page chapter, we have agreed to submit a 2-6 page scene every week. We all agreed that even with a busy schedule, we can manage to eke out a few minutes here and there to put together somewhere between 500 and 3000 words in a week.
It was suggested that we start in October, but said partner put her foot down and insisted we start right away, as in this Sunday. So, here it is Saturday evening and all four of us have cast our scenes onto each other’s computer screens for perusal, scrutiny, and constructive criticism.
Every time I send out a piece for critique, I ask myself why I don’t do this more often. Yeah, it’s scary, but come right down to it, it’s a lot of fun too. It stirs those creative juices to know someone else is actually looking at the words you labor so hard to put on paper.
So, here’s hoping our critique group is off to a brand new start, committed to making phenomenal progress on our WIP’s and accountable to each to do just that.
Thanks for reading my blog.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Commitment and Accountability
Posted by Patti Shene at 5:46 PM
Labels: critique group, writing accountability
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 Comments:
Good post, Pat. And we are doing good aren't we. All have submitted their 5 pages. Yay us. We can do this.
You know I was talking to someone via email recently and basically giving a brief run down of where writing came in to my life (grade school) but then I had to admit that for most of my adult years, I wouldn't write because I was afraid to. When I saw those words in print in that email, I thought to myself, "How foolish! To finish myself off before I even had a chance to get started!"
But I bet many writers have probably done the same thing - wasting years out of fear. So it's good for writers to encourage one another on. It is hard to share our writing. But harder still to keep it locked away and hiding in the dark.
Post a Comment