It's the first Wednesday of the month, and that means it's time to convene another meeting of The Insecure Writer's Support Group. Our leader Alex J. Cavanaugh has assembled another cohort of excellent co-hosts: Jacqui Murray, Lisa Buie-Collard, Sarah Foster, Natalie Aguirre, and Shannon Lawrence.
Be sure to check out the IWSG website for great writing advice!
I wanted to take the time here to talk a little about my writing strategies for this year. One of my main challenges has been getting words on the page. I can come up with all kinds of excuses for not getting any writing done. The housework never ends. The kids always need something. I'm often tired. And those are all valid in their own ways, but sometimes I use those excuses as a crutch. I know I can make some time to get at least something written, and that if I want to make serious progress as a writer, that's what I need to do.
That's why I made a New Year's resolution. I set some goals for myself. I decided I was going to write a minimum of 500 words every single day, no excuses. My weekly minimum was 5,000 words. My monthly goal was 25,000 words. I told myself I wanted to exceed those as much as I could, but as long as I met the minimum, then I was doing okay. I got myself a planner and gave myself a star for every 500 words I wrote in a day. It may seem silly, but each star I gave myself felt like it's own little reward.
I'm happy to say that, so far, I've stayed on track with my goal. I haven't missed a day, even though it wasn't always easy. I contracted a nasty chest cold thanks to my children, so writing through that was a challenge. To prove my progress, here are the first two months of writing I documented.
I've now surpassed 70,000 words in my WIP. It's my goal to wrap up the first draft within the next few weeks, and as long as I stick with my word count goals, I should have no problem doing that.
What methods do you use to motivate yourself to write?
