So far in Preptober, we’ve tackled your health, support system, and writing goals. By now, you should have six goals in mind for NanoWrimo (two for health, two for your support system, and two for your writing goals). But now it’s time to tie all of those together with your accountability goals. Your accountability goals should be the glue that keeps everything together.
We have the best intentions with goals. We strive to follow through. We make plans to exercise, schedule time with our family in our week, and are determined to reach our daily word count. But at the end of the day, what is holding you to those goals?
Having something or someone holding you accountable can help strengthen your resolve when it comes to your NanoWrimo goals.
Find a Writing Buddy
Writing buddies give me the warm fuzzies. They check in on your writing, see how you’re doing and volunteer to meet up at a cute little coffee shop for a warm cup of tea and a writing sprint. But finding someone like that can be a bit of a challenge.
Ask around your friend group if anyone of them is participating in NanoWrimo. Chances are you might find a kindred spirit looking to finish NanoWrimo.
If you’ve asked around and haven’t found anyone to partner up with, don’t fret. Search in your area or online for a writing buddy. You can always look me up on NanoWrimo.org as well. I’m more than happy to connect.
Your Writers Group
In addition to being a part of your support system, your writers group can also be a part of your accountability goals. Set a date to meet once a week so you can actually get your writing done. The very act of setting up a specific date, time, and location with others means that you know you need to show up. Knowing that you have a group waiting for you can help motivate you to complete your daily word count.
Social Media
If you’ve ever tried waking up early to write before, you might find that it’s difficult to drag yourself away from the comfort of your warm bed and over to your cold desk where a blank page is staring at you. Or maybe you’re working on your novel into the wee hours of the evening where not a single person is awake.
It’s moments like these that I tend to rely on social media as my accountability check. I usually snap a photo of my lit candle and the time or a quick video of my desk set up so others can see that I’m doing what I said I was going to do. Doing a daily post of yourself writing or sitting down to write can help you stay on course.
For my social media accountability, I’ll be using YouTube for daily write with me sessions. I’m debating whether or not I want to live stream them or just record them and put some theme music to each of them, so I’ll need to give that some thought. Regardless, having a channel solely focused on keeping me accountable throughout November is going to help me in my NanoWrimo goals.
Write down two accountability goals of your own and add it to your list of goals for the month. Join me tomorrow for a post on how you’re going to reward yourself regularly for all of your hard work throughout NanoWrimo.
Elizabeth Yuen 