RE: Weekly Writing: Sign up!
04-30-2012, 09:22 PM
Since a lot of people are saying "GB posts", I thought I'd lay out some thoughts of mine.
I think it's useful to have some other writing-type things that count towards your goal, even if you make GB posting a priority. There are three main reasons I think this way.
1) It gives you motivation to work on other projects.
Do you have an adventure or game or something you've been meaning to update, but you just keep putting it off? You can write a script for the next update and have that count for your weekly goal! (Of course, there's still putting images together if it's not text-only, but at least you've got something concrete you can start working on.)
Plus, there might be something you've always wanted to try your hand at writing but never got around to. This can be a reason to start it at last!
2) It makes writing more of a habit.
If you happen to get a week where there aren't any good posting opportunities, it means you're still thinking about writing. If you get a few weeks in a row like this (maybe you're not in that many battles, or maybe you had one really productive week where you posted in everything and it's taking people a while to catch up), then if you take that as a reason to take a break, you might find you're not used to keeping up the pace any more and start falling behind again. Whereas if you keep writing through the slow weeks, you'll still be focused on finding time to write.
3) It lets you meet your goals more often.
Maybe you try to write a GB post a week, then find you're struggling with every single battle you're in. If you keep having this happen, your motivation will start to sap as you keep missing your goal week after week.
But if you have "write something else" as a backup plan, while you may still be disappointed about not getting posts done if you felt you should, this will be mitigated a bit by the fact that you're still getting something done writing-wise. It especially helps if you enjoy writing the other thing. This can be good for keeping your motivation up even as you hit rough patches.
Anyways, those are just my thoughts, as someone who's tried to write every day and mostly succeeded. Ultimately, this is about what works for the individual; I'm just sharing what I've noted about how regular writing has helped me, and how I think it might be helpful for you guys.
I think it's useful to have some other writing-type things that count towards your goal, even if you make GB posting a priority. There are three main reasons I think this way.
1) It gives you motivation to work on other projects.
Do you have an adventure or game or something you've been meaning to update, but you just keep putting it off? You can write a script for the next update and have that count for your weekly goal! (Of course, there's still putting images together if it's not text-only, but at least you've got something concrete you can start working on.)
Plus, there might be something you've always wanted to try your hand at writing but never got around to. This can be a reason to start it at last!
2) It makes writing more of a habit.
If you happen to get a week where there aren't any good posting opportunities, it means you're still thinking about writing. If you get a few weeks in a row like this (maybe you're not in that many battles, or maybe you had one really productive week where you posted in everything and it's taking people a while to catch up), then if you take that as a reason to take a break, you might find you're not used to keeping up the pace any more and start falling behind again. Whereas if you keep writing through the slow weeks, you'll still be focused on finding time to write.
3) It lets you meet your goals more often.
Maybe you try to write a GB post a week, then find you're struggling with every single battle you're in. If you keep having this happen, your motivation will start to sap as you keep missing your goal week after week.
But if you have "write something else" as a backup plan, while you may still be disappointed about not getting posts done if you felt you should, this will be mitigated a bit by the fact that you're still getting something done writing-wise. It especially helps if you enjoy writing the other thing. This can be good for keeping your motivation up even as you hit rough patches.
Anyways, those are just my thoughts, as someone who's tried to write every day and mostly succeeded. Ultimately, this is about what works for the individual; I'm just sharing what I've noted about how regular writing has helped me, and how I think it might be helpful for you guys.