Accountability for Writers

Setting goals, devising a plan, and sticking to it. It sounds easy, but many people struggle to stick to routines—especially in the beginning. For many of us, when we start working towards a new goal and we start out well, focused on what needs to be done. Then we falter. We lose the energy to keep going, or something comes up unexpectedly to throw a spanner in the works.

There are many reasons for this, and for the most part, it all comes down to personality. Even if those routines are nicely tuned with the way we work, we still find reasons to procrastinate, avoiding what it is we should be focusing on. And it's often on a subconscious level.

Are you one that readily meets deadlines, even self-imposed ones? Or are you one that meets externally imposed deadlines but not the self-imposed ones? Or are you a person who laughs at deadlines? ("I'll do it when I feel like it." Yeah, I know people like this.)

In today's post, I want to talk about the way in which we respond to meeting our deadlines and expectations, and I want to explain why accountability is one of the best tools that writers can use to keep them on track.

Goal Setting with a Theme

When setting goals, we are told to use SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. We are encouraged to define our goals with clearly defined constraints and requirements to achieve the goals (specific), using something that we can measure our progress against (measurable). While it's important to dream big, we should never set ourselves up to fail by shooting for the stars from word go when there are a lot of little steps that we need to take along the way (attainable and realistic), and we need to put time limits on those goals (timely).

While I strongly believe in the ethos behind using SMART goals, it's the R in SMART that I believe is a little troublesome.

Commonly, I'll see R as Realistic, but I think Relevant is a better word to use. We might set a goal based on a certain task, but does that task have a purpose that is in service to our long-term hopes and dreams? For example, building that active Twitter following probably won't be of any help to the writer whose target audience is filled with young readers.

Today, I want to talk about shifting our SMART goals into something that has a stronger relevance to not only our hopes and dreams, but with our subconscious motivations too.

Finding balance in your writing routine

There is something in the way that many of us approach life where we feel it is important to do it all. We have to be a mother, a loving wife, successful in business, a sex goddess, and mentally stable. We give so much of ourselves to others that we often forget to leave something for ourselves. And when the pressures of life become too much, multiple things from that list go out the window.

Our friends might see the disaster coming and tell us that we need to slow down. Yet, there is something in our psyches pushing us to keep going. We have to be Wonder Woman—until we can't function anymore and we break down.

Numerous times in recent years, I have been forced to face this very situation. There are things that I want to achieve, and I know what it will take to get there. But there are only so many hours in the day and sleep is a necessity—unfortunately. So, other things get neglected, and the question of my mental stability is often left on the table for discussion.

I know I'm not alone in this struggle. When I have a conversation with others about time management, common threads seem to surface. It doesn't matter if you're a woman or not. It doesn't matter if your writer or not. Finding the balance between what you do and who you are is a struggle for everyone.

“Am I wasting my time writing?” the client asked.

Some time ago, a prospective client reached out to me regarding their manuscript that they were still writing; they were approximately a quarter of the way through the first draft. They were seeking quotes for editing (which is hard to give without having a full manuscript to consider), but more specifically, they wanted to know if I thought their story would be good enough to get published. (They actually asked this in their initial contact email.)

Let's ignore the fact that the story wasn't written yet, because any story that isn't written can't be published. I knew what the writer was asking. They wanted to know if I thought their writing style was good enough to be published.

That particular question is incredibly difficult to answer, because there are so many factors involved—and many of those factors are subjective.

So, I evaded the specific question (yes, evaded), and carried on like I do with any other prospective client under normal circumstances. I gave my thoughts about what I saw in the writing sample and proposed a path forward.

For this writer, I suggested that they just write. I would be more than happy to work with them on any story that they wrote (I liked their natural writing voice), but unless they wanted mentoring or coaching, there wasn't much I could do to help them until they had a finished manuscript. I suggested they finish their manuscript, get some feedback from other writers and edit their story to the best of their ability, then come back to me for a manuscript assessment. It was the most cost effective option for them.

But they really wanted the answer to their question, and their persistent email trail would not let it rest. "Do I have enough to make the grade and get this [story] published or am I wasting my time?"

As a writer myself, I understand the motivation behind such a question. We spend so much time pouring our heart and soul into our writing, and we want to know if we have a shot at breaking into this business with the manuscript that we're working on.

But for the first time, I had to push back and challenge a prospective client about their motivations for writing.

9 Questions to Examine Your Writing Habits

Becoming a writer is simple: Start writing. There is nothing more elaborate to it than that. So, it's not surprising how events like NaNoWriMo attract so many participants. It's all about getting your butt in the chair—and writing.

I'm a fan of NaNoWriMo myself, taking part every year since 2014, becoming a municipal liaison (NaNoWriMo's representative for my region) in 2015. In that time, I've noticed a few habits that writers have during this season.

It's common for writers to decide that the best approach to getting more writing done is by ignoring everything else that might be going on in their lives—including the family. I've been there. I've done it. And let me tell you that it's not sustainable.

Whatever schedule writers come up for the NaNoWriMo season works in the beginning, but as life carries on—interrupting us—things start to fall apart, and we start to fall behind in our daily goals.

"I'll just make it up tomorrow."

Yeah, I've said this to myself too, countless times. But again, I've noticed that when we struggle to meet our daily goals as it is, adding yesterday's goal to today's goal only makes things worse, adding unnecessary pressure—and making us cranky and a nightmare to live with.

So much for working our writing life into our family life.

9 Questions to Focus on Your Hopes and Dreams

The last month was a whirlwind dose in reality for me. There are parts of my psyche still wishing I could wake up from the nightmare. No matter how I look at it, life in my little corner of the world changed forever. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.

When life-changing events happen, we often step back and review our lives and priorities, realigning our paths with what really matters. Are we on the path we originally set out on? If so, is it still the right path? If not, is this new path the right path, or have we deviated so far from the dream that we need to shift our focus?

That's what the last month turned out to be for me. That's really what the last few months have been about for me. And this is what I want my readers to do today.

Sit back and examine the path you're on. Are you still working towards your hopes and dreams? Or did life take an unexpected turn? Do you need to adjust things to get yourself back on track? Or do you prefer this new path better? Be honest with yourself.

It's time to assess how far from the dream your current path has taken you.