IWSG - February edition: It's the little things...

It's the first Wednesday of the month, which means it's time for IWSG! This hop is the brainchild of Alex J. Cavanaugh, and it's a great way for writers to encourage and support each other--check out the website or Alex's blog for more info!

This month I want to talk about motivation and reward.  I'm on a deadline for book 3, which has provided plenty of motivation, believe me.  But as I worked, I needed to find a way to measure my progress so I would know if I was on track, ahead of schedule (yeah, right!) or falling behind.

Basically, I took the number of words I had left to write, divided them by the number of days until my deadline, and voila!  I had my daily word count.  Simple, right?  I know, I know--you're shaking your head right now, thinking when is she going to get to something good?

I took it one step further.  I made a spreadsheet that calculated the number of words I had to write based on my current day's progress.  If I had an awesome day, word-wise, my minimum number of words for the next day decreased.  If I didn't get far, the number went up.  That was quite helpful when it came to planning my writing and figuring out how I was going to fit things in with the day job.  Before, I was doing this by the seat of my pants--I knew if I had a busy day coming up, I'd have to write more on other days to make up for a loss in productivity.  But having the actual numbers in front of me made it easier to see exactly how my project was coming along in the face of a looming deadline.

Finally, I wrote down my goals.  Every day, I wrote down the targeted word count, followed by my actual word count.  If I hit or exceeded my goal, I got a sticker for that day (thus rewarding my inner 5 year old. Because who doesn't love stickers?!).  Here's a picture of what my January looked like:

Yay for stickers!

There are a few things I hope you notice about this picture.  The first is that I have a lot of stickers.  That's because I used them as motivation.  On days when I was tired, when I couldn't think of the words, when I wanted to do anything but sit in front of the computer--those are the days I motivated myself by looking at the calendar and thinking "I got a sticker yesterday--I want to keep that streak going!"  It's a small thing, but having that tangible reminder was powerful for me.  So I forced myself to write, and you know what?  The words came.  And they weren't all crap.  Yes, there will be edits, but at least now I have something to edit!

The other thing I hope you notice is that there are days when I don't have a sticker.  But look closely: I still have a word count for those days (with one exception--we all have bad days!). Even though I didn't make my goal, I put words down on the page, and it got me a little closer to the end. Every little bit helps.

So, fellow writers, I encourage you to find your own motivation, and to reward yourself when you meet your goals, even if it is just a sticker on a page (I would have used chocolate, but I want to live long enough to write more stories!).  I've told you what works for me, but now I want to hear from you.  If you have a tried and true strategy, please share it in the comments!

IWSG - February edition

Can you believe it's already February?  That means it's time for another Insecure Writer's Support Group post.  Check out the full list of participating blogs on Alex Cavanaugh's blog.

This month, I'd like to talk about how to handle criticism.  I'm a professor, and you may know that there is a website where students rank their professors in terms of easiness, helpfulness, etc.  I recently discovered that my ratings on this website are abysmally bad--these students are essentially doing the digital equivalent of burning me in effigy because I'm apparently too mean, too hard, too uncaring, too whathaveyou.

On the other end of the spectrum are the students who call or email to tell me they think I'm doing a good job.  They're not quite as vocal as the haters, but there is definitely a non-zero number of people who like what I'm doing and want me to continue.

I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle.  I am not the 'worst professor evah' but neither am I the greatest.  I am human, which means I'm going to have bad days and make mistakes, and that's okay.

I think the same is true for writing.  There are going to be people who absolutely love what you write, and they can't wait for you to put something else out so they can read that, too.  These fans sit on the edge of their seats in breathless anticipation as you spin magic from your keyboard.

Then there are the people who hate your work, who think you're the worst, most untalented hack to ever pick up a pen.  These are the criticisms that are going to stick with you, that will keep you up at night and make you wonder if everyone else feels like that, too.

I'm not saying we need to dismiss our critics.  Far from it--I think it's important to try to parse out the truths in any critique.  There is, however, a nice way to criticize, and a not-so-nice way to criticize.  I most definitely prefer constructive feedback, but not everyone will provide that and sometimes I have to put on my armor and wade through the thicket of snarkiness, looking for the nuggets of truth that I can polish up and put to good use.

It's important not to let the haters get you down though.  There will always be negativity, there will always be snark, there will always be someone who enjoys crushing the dreams of others.  You can get a thousand compliments, but it's always the insult that sticks with you the longest.  The trick is to let it go.

And if you figure out how to do that, I hope you'll share your secret :)