Choosing Your 2019 Pledge

[gywomod]

With GYWO 2019 Sign-Ups opening next week, which pledge you're choosing is hopefully on your mind. Instead of letting everyone stew in their personal hells, we thought we'd run down a few of the common things the mods tell panicked participants, and then offer the comments section as an opportunity for members and future members to talk to each other about their concerns and hopefully help each other come to a pledging decision!

If you're new to GYWO and have a question related to our membership requirements, general guidelines, monthly check-ins, or what words or activities count, please visit our website. More information about pledging for 2019 will be released on Dec 14.

As a reminder, the GYWO pledges are:

• Word Count Pledges track a specific number of words you write—75K (Light), 150K (Modest), 200K (Basic), 250K (Moderate), 300K (Difficult), 350K (Insane), and 500K (Ludicrous)
• Habit Pledges track a specific number of days you write—120 Days (Apprentice), 240 Days (Journeyman), and 350 Days (Master)

Word Count Pledge Vs Habit Pledge

• If tracking your word count is stressful or confusing, try one of the Habit Pledges. You’ll only need to keep track of the number of days you write, instead of all those fiddly words.
• If you want to emphasize the habit of your writing life—encouraging yourself to write x-number of days a month or a week—a Habit Pledge might make more sense. With a Word Count Pledge, it’s easier to write in sustained sprints to reach your goal, but a Habit Pledge forces you to write more days than you might with a Word Count Pledge.
• If you are planning to have a year that focuses on revising or on planning stories, a Habit Pledge might be right for you. The Habit Pledges allow you to count days you work on recorded creative writing activities beyond drafting or revising, including outlining, written brainstorming, and completing world building or character sheets. The website has more details about the Habit Pledges and further explains what writing activities count toward this pledge.
• You could, potentially, miss a Habit Pledge by running out of days in the year. The highest Habit Pledge allows missing up to 15 days, which doesn’t give much wiggle room for accomplishing the pledge later in the year. The Word Count Pledges offer more flexibility since you can catch up at (nearly) any time.
• If you’re already consistent (and happy) with your writing habit, choose a Word Count Pledge to continue to challenge yourself and grow your writing life.
• While you must pick one pledge for GYWO, you can unofficially keep track of a secondary pledge. Your secondary pledge may give you information about choosing a pledge for a future year!

Habit Pledges

• Choosing between Habit Pledges comes down to deciding how much you plan to write each month:
  
  • If you plan to write mostly on weekends, choose the 120 Day Pledge. That’s weekends + 16 days.
  • If you plan to write mostly on weekdays, choose the 240 Day Pledge. That’s weekdays – 20 days, giving you a few days off.
  • If you want to write every day, choose the 350 Day Pledge!
• If you haven’t tried writing daily before but want to, we recommend the 240 Day Pledge as a way to ease into a semi-daily writing habit before tackling the Master Pledge.

Word Count Pledges
First Time GYWO Word Count Pledge

• If you’ve never tracked your word count for the year, take a moment to assess how many words you think you’ve written in a past year. Consider things like whether or not you participate in NaNoWriMo (50K), how much you’ve published in the last year (self or traditionally published, fanfic, blog, etc), and how much you tend to revise your work (writing it entirely over or just editing lines).
• If meeting your goal is more motivating, choose a goal that matches a conservative estimate of how much you wrote in 2018.
• If you think you’ll lose interest if you meet your goal early, choose a goal that matches a liberal estimate of how much you wrote in 2018.
• There are no penalties for not meeting your word count, so don’t be afraid to choose one that you may not be able to meet!

Go Big on Word Counts

• If you wrote more than 50,000 words above your 2018 GYWO pledge level, choose the next pledge level up.* You've already "beaten" it once, so do it again officially.
• If having a big goal motivates you, choose the bigger goal you're between. There's no penalty for not meeting it, so if having the big carrot will push you to write, set yourself up with the most motivating goal.
• If you look ahead and see a lot of free time, a more relaxed year, or fewer obstacles between you and your writing time, choose the bigger goal you're between. Just keep an eye out for unexpected things that might take away that time!

*This advice is somewhat dubious if you are currently pledging 75K or 350K

Step Back on Word Counts

• If you wrote 50,000 words below your 2018 GYWO pledge level, consider the next pledge level down, if knowing that you will meet your pledge is more motivating to you.*
• If having a big goal intimidates you, choose the lesser goal you're between. It's great if you write above your pledge level, so if hitting your pledge early will keep you in a happy writing mood, set yourself up for success.
• If you look ahead and see a lot of travel, a major life change (moving house, changing jobs, getting married, having a child, etc), or another serious obstacle between you and your writing time, choose the lesser goal you're between. While life can be unpredictable, there are some things we can predict, so there's no reason to stress out about your word count on top of your real life.

*This advice is somewhat dubious if you are currently pledging 75K or 150K.

Keep Your Word Count Consistent

• If you're going to hit your 2018 GYWO pledge level within the month of December and it was a comfortable pace, keep it the same! The community goal is to keep you writing, so if your 2018 pledge level works for you, let it work for you in 2019.
• If you came close to hitting your 2018 pledge level or it was a challenge to make it, this might be the right pledge level to try again in 2019.

The best advice we have is to look at your schedule and figure out where writing fits into it. List out the projects, ficathons, and stories you might write next year and consider the word tallies or time involved. Really think about what's motivating for you—knowing you'll hit a goal or chasing down the finish line.

In the comments, let us know your pledging woes! Wonder how difficult another pledge is? Still need clarity on the pledge types? This is your opportunity to ask about pledges. After some discussion, hopefully you'll come away with a confident decision.

Note: Commenting to this post does not constitute pledging for 2019. Come back on Dec 14 and follow the instructions in the Pledges & Requirements post to make a pledge for 2019.

Comments

[theemdash]

For 2019 I'm thinking about signing up for the 250K pledge. This would be my first time going for a goal this high, so I'm nervous about committing.

I wrote over 230K in 2016 and 2017, which isn't far off the 250K pledge, and I'm planning for this year to be more about drafting than revision. BUT I'm also trying to focus more on rediscovering the joy of writing—getting lost in the drafting process, being silly with my words, embracing ideas I might abandon—and be less concerned with hitting daily word count goals. (However, I think that if I do those other things, I'll naturally write more words because writing will once again be fun and not just a checkmark on my to-do list.)

Also, for the past 3 years I've been a daily writer and have been trying to slowly increase the minimum number of words I write each day. Last year the minimum was 150, and next year I'd like for the minimum to be 250 words per day. I'd also like to write 1K a day more often, which overall seems to point me toward choosing a higher word count goal.

I don't have many projects planned for the year, but I know I will participate in NaNoWriMo 2019, I have two novels I want to develop, and I have at least two short stories I want to revise.

[slightweasel]

I actually managed to finish my 200k pledge for 2018! Very exciting for me since I usually pledge 150k and write between 95k and 105k. But I'm torn between pledging 200k again vs. 150k for next year. On the one hand, 200k was quite successful this year, whereas my track record with 150k is all failure; buttttt, I'll be going back to work in the first quarter of 2019, and it would be easier (and more demotivating) to get behind on a 200k pledge than a 150k one.

Right now I'm leaning toward 150k, with the hopes that I can get a little ahead in the beginning of the year before going back to work. But we'll see.

[momebie]

I've really appreciated the inclusion of habit tracking, because counting the individual words stresses me out as someone who likes to write longhand. Counting individual words also makes me feel like I have to prioritize drafting over planning, which is silly. Planning and research are just as important as drafting. (You know, if you don't do ONLY that. >.>)

I think I might go for 240 again. I'm not going to reach that this year, but I have already surpassed 120 by a month or so, so dropping back just for the easy win isn't going to motivate me any more in this case. Also, I really am trying to build the habit, even though I am apparently bad at all habits that don't have sugar in them.

[jenett]

I'm really dithering between 350K and 500K.

I did the habit pledge (240 days) this year, and it's been great for me (I've written all but one day, when I was so sick I couldn't sit up for 10 minutes at a time.) But I feel like I've got the habit now.

I did about 220K in 2017(before I found GYWO, and with very erratic writing scheduling), I'm at 405K so far in 2018.

I average between 1000 and 1200 words a day most months (though there are days with a couple of hundred, and days with several thousand, and November is noticeably higher because of NaNo) so the 1350ish needed to do 500K is a bit of a stretch day in day out.

But I also need to block out more time for editing and self-publishing. So, um, writing this out, I'm thinking I'll pledge 350K and then see how much beyond that I get, but I'm interested in other people's thoughts.

[theemdash]

I had a similar thought this past year, which was why I pledge 150K. I knew that staying ahead would be more motivating and I had things going on during the first part of the year which meant I thought I might struggle with the 200K pace.

I think one of the most important things is to think about what's most motivating for you: staying ahead or chasing the carrot.

And congrats on completing 200K!!

[theemdash]

I think 240 Days is a really good goal for you. And goals are just that goals. It's an ideal that you want to reach, which means that you might not on the first try, but keep trying and you'll get there.

[entrenous88]

I might try a habit goal for the first time. And now, very rambly thoughts on this...

I've done word count goals for several years now, and have typically met my goals.
So though that's definitely something that's gotten me to produce words, I wonder if having the habit goal would open up a different sort of challenge. Idk, just spice things up in terms of what I expect or hope for.

Also, though a tiny part of me still despairs of ever finishing the full draft of this original fiction novel I'm writing, realistically I actually think I will complete the full draft in the first half of this calendar year at latest. And so it might be good to be able to check off days for the habit challenge, if I'm revising and changing scenes around and thinking about broader arcs instead of adding on words.

ON the other hand, having the word count goal has always kept me writing steadily, and reporting my monthly total gives me a chance to calibrate where I'm at and focus to reach that goal in whatever time's left.

If I choose the habit goal, ugh - I want to say 350, because honestly, days off from writing tend to make me more antsy than not. But I would hate to feel discouraged if I run into a spate of days where I can't work for whatever reason and then fall very far short of the 350. This year I had a concussion, and it was probably two full weeks away from writing, and then some extra days where I would start up again and need a day off. Not that that will happen again necessarily, but, hmm.

240 days almost seems too easy, though perhaps it's appropriate? It just doesn't sound like a challenge I guess, which seems an essential part of the community and my goals.

...and now I think I should reorient back to the word count goal because it doesn't come with that built in issue for me, of wanting to choose the 350 but worrying that will prove discouraging should some interruption to writing/plotting/planning arise...

[entrenous88]

The 350K goal sounds great based on your current total, and you can always go over, like you mentioned.

[entrenous88]

The 250K pledge seems like such a great fit for you! Maybe also knowing you need to write more words could be a way to encourage some of the other joyful approaches - you can certainly play around with words when you figure you might as well write more of them, or you could try out an idea you might have otherwise abandoned because why not plus it'll up your word count. Good luck!

[entrenous88]

I bet that the 150K goal would work well! I think meeting the 200K goal (which, yay, so awesome) will bolster you to meet whatever goal you set this year. And it seems smart to factor in adjustments to your schedule, and choose 150K rather than the next highest. Good luck!

[entrenous88]

It's nice to read feedback from someone who chose the habit goal; I think I've encountered more fellow word-count goal people this past year, but I'm contemplating the habit track a little this round.

Anyway, it sounds like you've gotten a really good number of days in this past year - 240 days seems like it's been productive and motivating for you (getting over 120 days is great)!

[theemdash]

psst, that's because two thirds of the community chose word count pledges.

[peaked]

Considering how many times I've signed up for the 150k pledge and the one time I won it (thanks to collaborative RP writing, not my individual projects), I am the closest I've ever been to my goal with 117k words so far. I know I'll most likely be aiming for this pledge again for next year, but if I happen to write the words I need in the next few weeks, I might bump up for the first time ever!

The habit pledges look so interesting to me, but I know my writing routine is really out of whack these days and I think a habit pledge may stress me out a bit more than a word count pledge. If I can only miss 15 days, I'm screwed. I think I missed well over that this year when it comes to writing. /o\

Considering how I did with Camp NaNo and NaNoWriMo, I think it's safe to conclude I am definitely more driven by the word count than the habit. Having a goal has helped me divide up how many words I expect myself to write a day (if I want to write every day). Taking my pledge a little more seriously with trying to give myself goals every month has really helped me learn how much I write per month and how I end up achieving that (and that includes a lot of stuff that needs way more pre-planning!)

I am definitely taking the bolded advice and am going to try and see what projects I can work on next year. This year was just a "let's try and get back into writing" year, and I've done it with the various challenges this challenge introduces. I think next year should be a little more serious and a touch more planned out! I'm kind of hoping I can bump up to 200k, but we'll see ... my goal is to see where my word count is on December 14 and go from there.

[peaked]

I'd stick with 350k and see how you go! You might end up finding with a slightly bigger word count for next year, you meet your 1350 daily word count, which might give you the confidence and comfort to tackle 500k in 2020. It's awesome the habit pledge also helped you develop a habit!

[peaked]

Why don't you pick two pledges? One official and one unofficial. You could always pick a word count goal as your official goal where it works as a safety net in case it doesn't work out, but do a habit goal as your driver and unofficial pledge. That way you're kind of testing if the habit goal works for you, and if it doesn't, you can easily fall back onto your word count goal.

[theemdash]

It sounds like a challenge doesn't intimidate you and like you know how to manage yourself month to month, so I say if you feel ready for 200K, go for it!

[peaked]

I'm glad it comes off that way! Honestly, if it wasn't for half of the spreadsheets and challenges that exist within Get Your Words Out, I don't think I would've written as much as I have this year and figured out how best to track/motivate myself. Here's to hoping I go from Moderate to Basic. It's so hard to pick a challenge for the entire year!

[peaked]

Writing is definitely easier when you're into the idea or you're having fun and you just stop judging every word you write. I think what you have ideally planned for 2019 will most likely get you back into enjoying writing, letting go, and give you the opportunity to step outside of your list of projects you're comfortable thinking about (writing might be a completely different ballpark!) with ideas that may not crop up until 2019. Considering you're so close to 230k, you should definitely go for it. Give yourself some word count breathing room for those ideas that may come settle themselves onto your lap but then never really stick.

I do like the minimum word count you've set for yourself each year. I might steal that for myself!

[peaked]

Maybe go 150k so you can finally say you conquered it! If you go over 150k, your unofficial pledge can then shift up to 200k. Considering you've already identified work as a big risk of setting you back motivation wise, perhaps 150k is the one to choose so you can get into a rhythm at work, identify that you can kick your pledge's ass, and then pick 200k for 2020.

[prisca]

This year I have had two pledges; one official habit pledge = 240 days and one unofficial pledge = 100K. I won't reach any of them, because writing was very difficult for me this year; there were three months where I've written only for 3 or 4 days. At least I'm back on a regular writing habit - since November 1 I didn't miss one day, but the word count is still way behind from my pledge.

I guess I will choose the habit pledge '240 days' again next year. I know I can do it if I don't fall back in a depressive phase again. Not sure about an unofficial word pledge, though, maybe I will set it aside for 2019, or choose 75K. For the moment it is much more important for me to write regularly again, even if there are only a few words.

[olivermoss]

I think I am going to go for a light word count and only count words in completed/published works. If I make it, it will be a lot more than I did this year. But this year I did a lot more than last. (And I am not done yet.)

The habit tracker started out good for me, but I am bad at tracking things. I need to be able to figure out my count at the end of the month.

[raxeira]

YOU CAN DO IT.

Seriously, your goals sound so great, as far as getting into the joys of writing again. I think that's something that I want to do as well, though I also want to balance that with staying focused and finishing some big revisions. Not sure how I'll mange that.

Go for the 250K! I think you'll surpass that with ease!

[raxeira]

Having chosen the 350 day pledge for Habit this year, I think that next year I'l going to step it back to 240. While I'm proud of all the work I did this year and will likely hit the goal by the end of the month, it's been so stressful for me this year. Between working out Book Club and managing life, the 350 day commitment made me feel like I'd been backed into a corner. I made it work, but that meant that some days I was up past midnight writing, or I had to drag myself out of bed to get words down.

Next year I really want to cultivate a more valuable writing life. I want to have the option to take off when it's too hard to write, or take days off to read and just read. I think that it'll help me focus more on craft and quality, since I know that I can manage an every day practice already. I need to be more reflective, and less challenging, I think.

[gorgeousnerd]

I tried the habit pledge this year, but bad stuff in my personal life killed my writing time. I was thinking I would go back to word count because if my year is even half as bad next year as it was this year, I could theoretically make up for lost time in my quieter moments...but I kind of want to try the habit pledge again and really go for it this time. Guess I'll decide next week!

[paragraphs]

Definitely going back to word count goal this year, and will be going for 250k for the first time.

This past year as a habit tracker was too much editing and not enough new stuff and it left me cranky. And forgetful.

I like the pressure of striving for word count!