A couple of years ago, while reading something inspirational about writing (probably procrastinating,) I read a question along the lines of “If you continue writing at your current pace, when will you meet your writing goals? One year? Five years? Ten?” What an obnoxious question! It made me feel exposed and uncomfortable since the answer was that I had no idea. I had no idea, since I have no actual plan, much less a timetable, the dedication and resources I needed to succeed.
Now I have all of those and am going to share them with anyone out there who hasn’t gotten there yet or needs a nudge to get back into a good groove. Even though I’m using getting organized to revise a manuscript as an example, these methods can be used to achieve any long term goals, creative or otherwise.
I love to get organized and to make a plan, but without breaking those goals down into smaller steps, I soon get off track. I know I’m not alone since I read that January 17th has been dubbed national ditch new year’s resolutions day.
Fortunately for me, I have a fabulous accountability partner. That has made all the difference and is a big part of how much I accomplished in the last year or so. Everything is easier with someone with similar goals keeping you on the straight and narrow, cheering you on and sharing resources.
CJ and I had stopped doing our weekly accountability check ins for some reason, and during a zoom call we agreed that it would help both of us to start up again. Our first order of business was to send each other our goals for the year. I had suggested working back from each of them, setting smaller and smaller goals to make it easier to achieve our larger ones. We both knew that. It is perennial wisdom to break large, overwhelming seeming tasks into small achievable steps. We’d been accomplishing quite a bit by doing just that for over a year.
Since I had run my mouth about it, I felt obligated to not only actually do all of that planning and organizing ASAP, but to send the whole thing to CJ. It was a case of putting my pen where my mouth was, so to speak. See how far having an accountability partner got me so early in the year? It’s not that CJ is hard on me, she is kindness and sensitivity itself. It’s that I don’t want to let myself down by having to tell CJ that I did not complete my goals. Barring some sort of emergency of course. Running out of cookies or a new season of a favorite show dropping doesn’t count as an emergency, although in an ideal universe…
My goals for the year included revising my National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo,) manuscript and getting it ready to publish.I created a micro movement wheel to break that down into the necessary steps.I got the idea from the writer and illustrator known as SARK, and I’ll provide a like to her mini-book about them below. For this sort of thing, I use micro movements a little differently than SARK. Each of the steps will take much longer than five minutes, but it is an extremely helpful organizational exercise anyway. Having said that, there are times when I can only take the tiniest steps on an emotionally difficult project and I use it SARK’s way. That would be, 1. Open manuscript document. 2. Congratulate self on opening document. 3. Read first two paragraphs. 4. Make brownies to celebrate…
It is extremely helpful to think through and list each step, and arrange them in the correct order in which they need to be completed. In the past, I have wasted a lot of time feeling overwhelmed just for lack of knowing where to start and where to go from there. Just a big, buzzing mess of vagueness in the back of my mind that made me want to procrastinate.
For a simple micro movement wheel, draw a large circle on a blank sheet of paper and write the purpose of the wheel in a small circle in the middle of the that one. For instance, “Revise mystery.” Then draw lines to divide the big circle into sections like slices of a pizza. Number each slice, insert steps in the correct order and include a completion date for each. It’s helpful to include an estimate of a length of time or number of days you project it will take to complete each task. That way, the goal date should be feasible. Be generous with the amount of time it might take since it is motivational to complete each smaller step.
If you find yourself regularly missing smaller goal deadlines, then they may not have been realistic. You might feel overwhelmed, procrastination may cause inertia and your dreams go up in smoke. As the Italian woman my nephew watched online to learn what to do and not to do in Italy liked to say, “No, no, we do not do this!”
Before I started NaNoWriMo, I had about three chapters written and during NaNoWriMo, I wrote many scenes out of sequence. So this is what my micro-movements looked like without the wheel and colored pencils.
1. Begin sorting the NaNoWriMo scenes into the correct sequence. This could take several days or even a couple of weeks, working around other projects.
2. Fold early NaNoWriMo scenes into the three already written chapters.
3. Make sure the plot points are in the right place following K,M. Weiland’s plotting
4. Make a list of missing scenes
5. Write those missing scenes
6. Insert them into the right places in the manuscript
7. Start revising one chapter a month, send it to my critique partners and revise it from their feedback. Note: When I reach this point, create a new micromovement wheel. Do all 3 of these steps every month.
8. Run through whole manuscript and send to two or three beta readers.
9. Create a new micro-movement for my pre-publishing plan.
Next, I put dates on each of those steps. After printing that out, I put it up on my bulletin board.. I can read the next step every morning and have the satisfaction of checking off each one completed, I put the goal dates to complete each task into my cell calendar and set alerts a week or month ahead to keep them straight.
Accountability Partners
How it works: Once a week, send each other an email with up to three writing related goals for the coming week. We try to keep them specific and measurable. “Revise Chapter 6 of my Amazon Woman manuscript,” or “Complete my research on Celtic dance helping people with Parkinson’s for my mystery character, Trad.
Note any potential obstacles you both foresee and how you plan to address them. So many obstacles are predictable and thinking it through ahead of time really prevents me from being derailed when they occur.
After the first week, the weekly emails include how you each did with that week’s goals. If you achieved them, share what you did or didn’t do that we think helped you meet your goals. If you didn’t meet them all, tell your partner what happened and plan how to ensure the same issue won’t knock you off course again.
I first heard about accountability groups and partners from cartoonist and author Jessica Able. Her book Growing Gills was great. She detailed the accountability process and how a group should work. I began with a group I met on her FB group, Creative Compass, but it looks like it is defunct. Her book is still available for those interested. When we were a group, we had Zoom calls to check in once a week. Now that it’s CJ and I, we have a call every other week and check in via email the rest of the time.
I have accountability and critique partners for different writing projects. You might meet one at a writing conference, in writing forums and groups online, among your friends or an in-person writing group. You could also try posting at a college or other places offering writing classes.
Do any of you have accountability partners? If so, where did you find them? If you’ve used micro-movement wheels, how do they work for you?
Resources:
Micromovement wheels: http://planetsark.com/miracle/
For links to K.M. Weiland’s plotting and to find out more about National Novel Writing Month, check out December’s post.