Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer – aim for a dozen new people each time – and return comments. This group is all about connecting!
Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.
The awesome co-hosts for the March 7 posting of the IWSG are Mary Aalgaard, Bish Denham,Jennifer Hawes, Diane Burton, and Gwen Gardner!
Click here to view everyone in the Blog Hop.
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March 7th question – How do you celebrate when you achieve a writing goal/finish a story?
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*throws confetti*
I’m opening this one with a picture:
This picture was posted to Facebook on November 30th, 2011, at 11:59pm. Many of you can guess what that means, but for those who may not know, let me enlighten you. This is the thumbs up, grin, and celebratory beer of someone who just completed her first NaNoWriMo. Do my fingers look swollen? Because they were! That was the night I wrote over 11k words in 5.5 hours after work in order to win, and I made it to a bar near the coffee shop before midnight! The story was not finished, but the goal was achieved. A goal I’d failed miserably at during the 2010 NaNoWriMo, and a goal I never dreamed I’d be able to meet. I deserved a dark, frothy beer.
I’ve been writing all of my life, but until this point in time, I’d never written that much in such a short amount of time, especially not anything cohesive. I went on to write “The End” on this novel when I added another 35k during the next year’s NaNoWriMo to give me an 85k word manuscript. Writing “The End” for the first time was pretty amazing, too. I celebrated it quietly, however, since the month wasn’t over and I still had to write another 15k on a new project.
This cycle happened again during the 2013-2014 NaNoWriMo events when I completed my urban fantasy draft between the two Novembers. I don’t remember anything particularly grand about celebrating those finishes, but I do remember the sense of peace and elation when I wrote “The End” on that manuscript. My second one!
My big finishes seem to coincide with NaNoWriMo. One way I celebrate that is with the Thank God It’s Over (TGIO) Party that happens the first week of December. Getting together with other writers and celebrating your accomplishments together is always a wonderful experience. No one else truly understands that feeling besides another writer.
I think, perhaps, I need to do more to celebrate. I do a lot of goal-setting, but I don’t necessarily give myself incentives for those goals aside from the obvious: “You completed this cool writing thing!” Maybe if I gave myself some sort of celebration or reward to look forward to I might have a higher success rate. I haven’t had the pleasure of experiencing that “The End” feeling on anything since 2014 when I finished up my urban fantasy. Since then I’ve been trying to work on edits and rewrites on those two manuscripts and haven’t done much of anything new.
Everyone is different. Whether you celebrate by having a drink or by taking a walk or by watching your favorite show on Netflix or by getting to work on that project-you-really-want-to-work-on-but-it’s-not-what’s-due-so-you-can’t-work-on-it-right-now-project, that’s okay! It’s important to remember that writing is all about what works for you, not necessarily what works for someone else. I am, however, looking forward to reading about how other writers celebrate their goals! Maybe I’ll get a good idea to help motivate me towards the finish line more often!
Thanks for dropping by!
Rosie J.