Kicking Writer Butt

First off, congratulations to blog-mate Lauren Monahan and her gorgeous weekend wedding.  I'm hoping that she will blog about it soon but if ever there was a wedding full of beautiful literature and for the lovers of books, this was the one! Wishing her and her wonderful husband Dale an amazing start to a new life together!

Now back to the touch stuff.  I've been back at this writing thing for a few months now and yeah, it's just like I remembered it...hard as #$%#!.  But now that I've started, I'm determined to see this through to the finish line.  Being a part of San Diego Writers Ink has been invaluable and taking Tammy Greenwood's course has been a great re-jump starter.  But the last session was at the beginning of June and the next one doesn't start until the end of July.  So what's a girl to do in the meantime?

Luckily, I'm part of an online group who've attended the Donald Maas Breakout Novel workshop run by Free Expressions' Lorin Oberweger.  We're embarking on a July NanoWriMo or what I like to call July-o-ramo-wrimo, and the peer pressure and goal setting has been just what I need to keep pushing the writing along during this hump time.  Keeping it simple is the only way I'll make it through, so here's a few tips that I've found incredibly helpful to keep the ball (or pen, or keyboard) going.

1) Set Goals and Consequences

Lorin, who is leading our July-o-rama-wrimo had us all input our goals for July and also our consequences for not attaining those goals into a group excel spreadsheet.  I've tried to keep the word count realistic at 20,000 words and also will be reaching out to at least tow subject matter experts as part of my research.  When two weeks sans Facebook and wine are on the line, you bet I'm working my ass off to make that happen. 

2) Setting Daily Word Count Targets

I never thought that this would be such an effective motivator.  But when you see those little words add up while you're typing, it really helps to push things forward.  I use Scrivener and love keeping the tracker on the side.  It allows me to see how much of my daily goal I've attained as well as how close I am to my monthly goal of 20,000 words.

3) Hanging Out With Like Minds

I'm thankful to have July-o-rama-wrimo compatriots who share their daily wins and struggles honestly and without ego online.  It's helped me to say "I can do it to!"

4) Write, Write, Write!

It doesn't have to be perfect.  You don't need to be in front of your laptop with a coffee in hand and scrivener all set up.  It can be a few lines in your notebook ap while out and about or on your iPad at night, with your baby sleeping beside you.  Once the ball's rolling, the most important is just to make sure it doesn't stop. 

Are you in the process of working on a draft?  How do you continue to motivate yourself?