Writing and accountability
Or why you may need someone to give you a poke
I woke up with big ambitions. Two half-baked Substack articles to finish. This shambles of a manuscript for a poetry contest. A new verse lingering in the back of my brain. Edits, always edits, to the novel.
But then I had to bake my sourdough loaves. And I burned my finger. Emails to reply to. Finished watching a Drag Race France episode. The Olympics/#Paris2024 Twitter feed is GOLD. Nasturtiums needed misting. Also, so sleepy.
It’s a problem for many writers who live alone. If we indulge in procrastination or inspiration is fleeting, there’s no one to check in, no incoming pep talk to motivate us.
I don’t even have a cat that I can anthropomorphize into shaming me back to work.
So I pulled a tarot card for a nudge. The three of cups. The card of celebration, friendship and creative collaborations. The card that encourages you to gather with friends to talk, share and support one another.
Okay, okay, I get it—it’s time for me to ask for help.
Maybe it’s the Roman Catholic upbringing, but I do respond well to a healthy dose of shame. If I know that someone is going to check in on my progress by a certain date—and if I anticipate having to justify missing that deadline—I will find the wherewithal to get it done. I sometimes even take my own advice and just write something, anything, because, magically, it always leads to a breakthrough or even (gasp) momentum.
Right now, I do have writer buddies that I casually chat with, but no one is actively checking in on me. And because I don’t have much freelance work to plan around, the lack of structure has hobbled my focus these last two weeks.
What’s my action plan to get back on track?
Call a writing buddy and ask her to give me a deadline. She will also promise to follow-up on said date. We have done this before for one another, it works!
Take a walk, go get a coffee somewhere and do a free-writing exercise, long hand, in a notebook (no devices means no getting distracted by TikTok).
Stop overthinking this post and send it off already. If it doesn’t gain traction, at least I have exercised the writing muscle and I can do better next time.
Put ZERO pressure on myself to finish this poem quickly so that I can balance out the appearance of my Instagram grid. No one needs to tell me how silly this is.
If you’re having trouble getting the writing done, who in your life is loving-slash-scary enough to provide the boost and accountability you need to hit those goals? Do you maybe need a workshop or writing group to give you structure?
What other creative ways do you use to keep advancing your writing?
Gosh, this stuff can be hard.