Posted by admin Jan 11 2012, 12:01 am
We now declare the Winter Writing Festival OPEN!
Let the Games begin!!
1) define how *you personally* will earn your Festival “points”
and
2) declare your commitment to earning 50 points by the end of February. (Further details on goal-setting follow below).
But to get the most from the Winter Writing Festival, leave your comment on the regular Ruby site, then jump over to our special Festival site, rsswwf.com, and officially register. (You can reach the Festival site from the regular Ruby site at any time by clicking on the Winter Writing Festival Participant badge–the bright-blue box–in the upper right of the rubyslipperedsisterhood.com home page.)
Grab yourself a Participant badge (right-click on the one below and then click on “save image as”) to upload to your personal website. (You can also find the Participant badge in the About section of the Writing Festival site.)
And when you visit rsswwf.com, join us for chat-room sprints, share your experiences on the daily Brag Blog (scroll down towards the bottom of the rsswwf.com site), find inspirational quotes and links to Ruby posts on craft, make connections with other Participants, and make inspiring daily updates of your point total on your profile page.
Also, check out the fantabulous Winter Writing Festival swag you have a chance to win if you meet your goals each week. (For the first time this year, you can also purchase some cool Winter Writing Festival swag yourself–including coffee mugs, tees, sweats, and totes with the Festival logo–at our Cafe Press store.)
What’s not to love? (Our thanks to mega-talented Ruby Sister Liz Bemis of bemispromotions.com for designing both sites!!)
If for any reason you have technical problems registering today: don’t panic!! Just leave us a message here in the comment trail, and get started earning points for the Festival. We’ll make sure you get registered ASAP.
If you’re not sure how the chat room sprints work, check out Ruby Sister Kim Law’s great instructions here. You don’t want to miss out on those sprints!!
A quick review of the goal-setting and point-scoring rules:
Everybody gets one BONUS point TODAY for coming to the Ruby blog and leaving a comment that makes a public declaration of your commitment to take part in the Festival and a public announcement of your goals. Then, for each of the 50 days of the Festival (including today), you work to earn an additional point—and you define what it takes to earn that point.
Here are some examples of the sorts of things you might define as worth one point (you fill in the variables with the amounts that work for you):
-writing X number of words or pages
-deep revising Y number of pages
-polishing Z number of pages
-freewriting / brainstorming for Q number of minutes/hours
-doing R number of 20-minute writing sprints
-keeping butt in chair and hands on keyboard for S number of minutes or hours
For instance, one person might commit to earning points according to the following terms:
-writing 500 words per day OR
-deep revising 10 pages per day OR
-doing a final polish on 25 pages per day
Any day that person meets ANY of those goals, she gets a point.
YOU set the goals that meet your personal writing style and writing needs. (For more advice on how to set up your goals, see yesterday’s post here).
If you can’t meet your goal on any particular day, you can certainly double or triple or quadruple your goal on another day to catch up. And if you know ahead of time that you can never work on certain days (say, Saturdays) feel free to add something like “keep balance in my life by taking Saturday off” to your personal list of ‘ways to earn a point.’ Don’t be shy.
Remember, we all have different life commitments and different approaches to our writing lives, so we all need to set our own goals. All goals are equally worthy. This isn’t a competition, it’s a supportive process for MOVING FORWARD WITH OUR WRITING.
We want the Festival to work for YOU!
Check in at the Ruby blog every WEDNESDAY during the Festival to report your progress (and be entered in random drawings for some of the Festival Swag).
If you reach the end of February with a nice round 50 points, YOU WIN!!
Good luck all, and GET WRITING!!
I registered yesterday (1/11) but I never received an email. I tried to login but no go. Help! Can someone point me in the right direction to fix this? Thanks!
We’ve forwarded your issue to our Webmistress, and she’ll be on it soon.
For now, don’t worry about registering. You’re here, so as far as we’re concerned, you’re part of the Festival.
Go ahead and declare your system for earning points, and get going.
You can join in the writing sprints over in the rsswwf.com chat-room, and visit the Brag Blog, and join us back here for Check-In Wednesdays whether you’re registered or not.
Glad to have you!
500 words or
editing 10 pages or
crit group get-togethers
I’d love to throw in “work an hour of overtime at the dayjob”, since I will probably be doing that too, but I think that kinda goes against the whole goal-setting thing….
LOL, Kristi!! I hear you on that one!
Your goals sound great. Delighted to have you with us!
Count me in! (a day late) My overall goal is to finish edits to my WIP. Goals:
Deep edit 1 scene of any size (doesn’t include scenes that don’t need much), or
Polish 25 pages (if deep edit is done), or
Write 1500 new words on new ms (if entire edit is complete)
Thanks, Rubies!
It’s never too late around here…and the Festival is all about flexibility.
Your goals look great! We’ll be behind you all the way!
I did this last year and loved it! So I’m back for more! Here is what I’m giving myself 1 point for accomplishing:
*writing 1,000 words per day OR
*deep revising one chapter per day OR
*doing a final polish on 3 chapters per day OR
*story development work for 3 hours per day OR
*completing a synopsis OR
*commenting on my critique partners’ manuscripts for 2 hours per day OR
*for every third blog post written for my blog tour OR
*resisting a pastry or cookie at Panera per day OR
*selling a manuscript=50 points LOL
As I’ve got different things going on for two different manuscripts, I need all these different activities to be rewarded! And I commit to getting my 50! My most overarching goal between now and the end of February is to draft my next novel!
Good luck everyone!
I have absolutely no doubt you’ll meet your goals, my friend.
I’m so excited to be here this year too. This is much more my speed.
Welcome back, Laura!!
A little bit late but I made it.
I will do the following
* complete the daily assignment set by my instructor in a Savvy Author course
* write 500 words or
* participate in a sprint
Glad you made it, Samantha!!! Welcome!
Well, that’s what i get for trying to first, sign up at work and second not remembering until the end of the day to log my goals. Ended up misreading and put them on the WWF brag blog instead of here. :/
Goals!
I will give my self a point for:
Writing at least 100 a day OR
Scheduling both of the weeks blog posts by Sunday.
These are things I need to really do and I’m hoping the writers here can encourage and help me stay accountable. Good luck everyone!
Melanie
It’s all good, Melanie! Glad you’re with us!
I strongly encourage you to join the writing sprints in the rsswwf.com chat room. GREAT way to get those 100 words quickly, with lots of support.
Yeah, been doing the sprints a week now. Totally(!!) addicted to them. Gotten more accomplished in one week than I ever anticipated!
Fabulous!
This is my first time so I hope I don’t miss anything! I am declaring my commitment to earn 50 points by the end of Feb. by writing 250 words per day to meet my Nov. goal to have a first draft finished.
Thanks for including me! I look forward to working with all of you!
Hey there, Jennifer!! Welcome to the Festival!
You’ve got your goals, so you’re all set! Do check out the special Festival site, rsswwf.com (if you’re on the home page of this site, you can jump straight there by clicking on the blue Participant badge on the upper right). You can formally register there if you like–then you get a profile page where you can record your progress, if you like. And you can visit the Brag Blog for daily support, and best of all join the writing sprints in the chat room!
Also, check back here on Wednesdays to report your weekly progress and have a chance to win swag.
-writing 200 number of words or pages/day
or
-revising 5 number of pages/day
Welcome, Stella!
Are you stormbruin?
If so, nice sprinting with you this morning! Welcome!!
10 queries written and sent
-or-
2,000 words a week (for a total of 12,000 words for the 50 days)
Great goals, Karen! Glad to have you with us!!
Okay, here goes:
1. Write 500 words a day on the existing book.
2. Revise 5 pages a day on the existing book.
3. Start interviews for the new book.
4. Research the new book.
5. Start submitting the poetry and short fiction I already have accumulated.
And, I will get this all done by the end of February.
Writing 500 words per day OR
Edit 1 chapter of my ms OR
Story development work (any, plotting, character, etc) for 2 hrs per day OR
Comment on 1 chapter of CP’s ms OR
Full week of blog postings (5) published for Mare’s Place blog OR
Blog post for PNRF OR
Crit group get together OR
RWA chapter meeting I just joined for support/networking in my area OR
CHRW PR co-chair duties (every 2 hrs total work of duties gets 1 pt.)
I have many health issues going on right now, so I need all these tasks to be supported and rewarded. I commit to getting my 50!
I forgot to add
for the 500 words per day is Monday – Friday
Add
Off on Sat and Sun for mental health day & family time
(the point is to get me into a reg. M-F writing/work routine)