Commitment and Accountability

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.

Catching Up

Hi. It’s a warm day here in SE Colorado and the smell of spent fireworks still lingers in the air. We had a nice display in town, preceded by a great barbecue at our daughter’s home. Later, there was an array of any number of bottle rockets, roman candles, poppers, and other assorted noise and light makers that brightened the night sky. Hope everyone had a great Fourth of July!

Sorry I have not posted for a while. I have a wonderful interview with Kassy Paris, who’s book, First I’m Nobody, is now available in E-book format. Unfortunately, when I attempted to post the interview, I got some kind of HTML error. I have no idea what in the world that means and have referred the problem to my web master. You should see the interview soon. Check back to learn about Kassy’s book and her thoughts on E-book publishing as well as the advantages and disadvantages of writing with a collaborator.

I’m pleased to have recently joined an online critique group. It is through ACFW and we are all writing stories set in the 19th Century. My crit partners are astute at picking up my errors and I’m looking forward to learning a lot from them. A couple of them are published, which I consider an advantage. I feel like I’m getting advice from “experts”, or at least from writers who know a whole lot more about the profession than I do.

Profession? You bet, and I have to keep reminding myself of that. I’ve rewritten Chapter One of my WIP more than I would have liked to and still don’t have it right. Yet, it reinforces the fact that I am in the process of learning. It took me three years full-time to acquire the skills I needed for my basic nursing degree. Add to that another six years part-time to obtain a bachelor’s degree. Another thirty plus years in the work force and I still learn something new all the time. So, it stands to reason that the five years I’ve invested in seriously learning about writing are just the beginning. I only get time to read a writing craft book maybe once every two months, I’ve attended only one writing conference a year for the past two years, and my time to actually write is limited. So, I feel like I’m crawling along at a snail’s pace, but even a snail reaches it’s destination eventually!

Membership in the online critique group gives me a sense of responsibility. I have to meet a deadline, and for me, that’s a good thing. If I’m told that I need to have something done by a certain time, I manage to do it, even if I’m completing it at the last minute. We have each chosen a week during the month to submit our work. Mine is week three, so I want to have a revision of my Chapter One and the subsequent Chapter Two ready by Monday the fourteenth. Gives me a little over a week to get my work in top shape.

Oh, in case you’re wondering, I’m way past “Chapter One”. I’ve written twenty chapters, well over 200 pages, and the rest is in outline form, but I keep going back to that first chapter because I still don’t like the way the story starts. Many writers say that is the hardest part, figuring out where and how to begin the book.

Now that I’ve found the time to write a few lines for the readers of my blog, I’m all keyed up to keep on writing. But, unfortunately, it is time to quit and get ready to go to work at my paying job. Maybe it will be a quiet shift and I can add a few lines to my story during my dinner break or late in the evening when my work is done. Now, if I can just take Rosalynn Carter's advice, who says, "you have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through."