An Experiment in ‘Getting it Written’

My synopsis has grown and changed so much over the last ten years, but the skeleton is the same. I have a fantasy world with a gods and scorcery-created crisis and a strong heroine who joins her country’s militia, is taken as a prisoner of war and eventually saves the world. Five years ago, I would have flat out said that I needed more life experience before I could write the book I wanted to write. This year, I thought I was ready.

But the book remains unwritten.

I’ve been at home on maternity leave for ten months now, and my partner, Ian, suggested ten months ago that I should use as much of my time as possible to write this book. I’ve kept my older kids in daycare, and I don’t do housework while I’m home with the baby, and now I’ve got the baby in daycare for three hours a day to free up time. But the book remains unwritten.

I’m actually very good at getting things done, when the circumstances are right. I’ve spent my adult life being very effective when I’m working for clients and on a deadline. But now that I want to take the time to work on something for me, it feels like a waste of time and I feel very blocked about actually doing it. So I thought, well, I can spend a lot of time on self-discovery, I can try to uncover the issues behind why working for myself doesn’t feel worthwhile when I sit down to write for my own enjoyment. Or I can work within the parameters of how I know I do get things done, and just get on with it.

So here’s my experiment. I’m going to make myself accountable to a client (or clients) in order to get this book written. I’m approaching four or five friends, whom I trust to be supportive and interested. I’ll suggest that for the price of $.25/week, I will promise them a minimum of 1000 words every Monday. I’ve become very good at answering the novel-inquiries of family and friends in the shame-faced-negative - after all, if I’m not writing right now, I’m only letting myself down, and my friends are just well-wishers who will understand. For $.25/week, they become clients, and I have a deadline. And if I don’t write in a week, then I will have to return their money, which is only a dollar, but it’s a dollar that must be given out in four payments and with four apologies to valued clients.

While I won’t be making the book, itself, public (hey, that’s for subscribers only), I’m going to blog a bit about the process. Like many people, I’ve fought with a lot of my own resistance to working on things I’m passionate about, and I’m curious how this will go. It’s my hope that once I get rolling, the momentum will carry me through more than 1,000 words/week, and I’ll be able to finish the novel in under a year. Even if we abandon the experiment prematurely, I’ll still be a few-thousand words ahead of where I am now, and it will give me an excuse to shamelessly solicit feedback as I go.