Bottom (L to R) Deborah Lee Luskin, Lisa J Jackson, Wendy Thomas
Top (L to R) Lee Laughlin, Julie Hennrikus (me), Dianne MacKinnon
Two weeks ago six of the eight bloggers for NHWN had dinner. Most of us had never met in person. We spent a little (very little) time on small talk. Then we each talked about our work, where we were, and our challenges.
Challenges seemed to fall into three areas: time, inspiration, and motivation.
Now the terrific part of this dinner, and these women, were that suggestions were made to help. Support was offered for new avenues of creativity. Successes (big and small) were celebrated. Ideas were batted around.
And a pact was made.
Both Wendy and I have manuscripts that are in revising/rewriting stages. Wendy has someone willing to look at it. I have a conference this fall, an agent pitch, and a new idea brewing. Neither of us had hard deadlines.
Until dinner. And our deal.
We agreed that we would have finished work by September 1. It gave us both the entire month of August. At stake? If we don’t meet the deadline, we have to write a check to the presidential candidate opposite our choice.
Now, as if that wasn’t motivating enough, Wendy talked about the pact on Facebook, and tagged me. I also posted something. We have a lot of friends encouraging us to write.
We have two more weeks to go. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.
In the meantime, what do you think? Would this give you motivation?
A lucid explaination of challenges!!!!!
Guess I’d have to write 2 checks. I don’t want either of them.
Very, very good for you both! I’ve been following this blog for more than a year and have wondered how you all came to be contributors to the blog and assumed you knew each other personally. In terms of time and motivation,
it’s seems like the natural course of things would be supporting each other creatively, especially since you all write so eloquently and keep the attention of so many of us. Surely spreading that positive energy and sharing your skills and talents with each other will help you accomplish more!
And that spills over, ya know…to us!
As the song goes, “move it, move it, move it…”
As for inspiration, I hope we provide a little of that! You should all know many of us are supporting you and are here for the duration.
We are listening.
ignore my typos…
It’s easy to ignore your typos because I make so many of my own. My fingers work faster than my brain does. LOL
I always check to see if you’ve posted a comment because you always put so much thought into it. I enjoy reading them. When are you going to start that blog?
Laura, the above post was directed to you. Hope you caught that.
Nice challenge with unfortunate consequences. That would motivate me, yes! Writing checks is painful enough, I can’t imagine writing one to.
Good Luck!
Nice job.. Good lck
For the generative phase of novel writing I need to be able to be lazy yet consistent and deadlines tend to kill that. However, for revision deadlines are great. That’s just butt-in-seat work–time and sweat. Good luck to both of you! You can do it!
A great post
The accountability would motivate me. However, the bigger motivation would be knowing that these women are a witness to my life and are my support and and understand my plight. When you witness each other’s lives, you not only see them, but you find yourselves in them as well. What a lovely way to bond over shared interests and life. I am inspired by just knowing you were together.
Hey Julie,
That was a great night and I’m so glad you are so motivated to finish your rewrite. I can’t wait to read it! I would definitely be motivated by the pact–especially in front of so many witnesses. Also, the check to the candidate not of your choice would be very painful. A combination of positive reinforcement (we know you can do it!) and pain-avoidance gets the job done!
Warmly,
Diane
I would hate to have to send money to the candidate not of my choice, so it would really motivate me. It’s great to hear that you finally met each other and were able to share. I have belonged to a Writer’s group in the past and it was so inspiring. This quote from Peter F Drucker says it all: “No organization can depend on genius; the supply is scarce and unreliable. It is the test of an organization to make ordinary human beings perform better than they seem capable of, to bring out whatever strength there is in its members, and use each man’s strength to help all the others perform.”
That’s what this site is all about!
Wonderful to have group motivation like this! YES–it would certainly motivate me!
Wow. What a great challenge. I don’t have anyone to hold my feet to the fire, but I think I’ll use your motivator. If I don’t get it done, writing a check to the other guy…man that would kill me. Game on!
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