Choosing Your 2020 Pledge

[gywomod]

With GYWO 2020 Pledges opening this week, which pledge you're choosing is hopefully on your mind. Instead of letting everyone stew in their personal hells, we're running down a few of the common things the mods tell panicked participants, and then offering 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 2020 will be released the weekend of Dec 14.

Word Count Pledge Vs Habit Pledge
Deciding between a Word Count Pledge or Habit Pledge can be a difficult decision. Here are some things to consider as you make your choice:

• 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. Our 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.
• If you've completed a Word Count Pledge multiple times, but don't think you can hit the next highest Word Count Pledge, consider working on your writing habit this year with a Habit Pledge.
• 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 with a 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 the 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 2019.
• 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 2019.
• There are no penalties for not meeting your word count, so don’t be afraid to choose a pledge that you may not be able to meet!

If you’ve done GYWO before but aren’t certain which goal you want, you’ve likely narrowed it down to two goals. Here’s our advice for choosing between two word count goals…

Go Big on Word Counts

• If you wrote more than 50,000 words above your 2019 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 your goal, 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 2019 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 2019 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 2019 pledge level works for you, let it work for you in 2020.
• If you came close to hitting your 2019 pledge level or it was a challenge to make it, this might be the right pledge level to try again in 2020.

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. After some discussion, hopefully you'll come away with a confident decision.

Note: Commenting to this post does not constitute pledging for 2020. Come back this weekend and follow the instructions in the Pledges & Requirements post to make a pledge for 2020.

Comments

[derry]

This is some great advice!

I'm thinking about making a Habit pledge for 2020. This past year has been very turbulent, writing-wise, and I think overall consistency is the key for me to keep my head in the game (and, most of all, to meet my own expectations and be happy with my progress). It's also good for me and the quality of my work to write a little bit every day, rather than churning out 5k once a week.

On the other hand, I love making word count spreadsheets and watching the numbers go up, pushing myself to complete the next 1,000 marker before midnight... so I'm not completely sure what I'll do yet. I'll give it some thought! ^_^

Million words?

[kevinmc]

Hi! New here - just heard about this site from other writers. I’m a full-time author; I’ve managed 750k and 850k these past two years, but I’m planning to break my target of a million in 2020.

Is there a setting for that level of commitment here? I only saw the “ludicrous” setting at 500k, but I’ve been beating that for several years now. I’m hoping to challenge myself this year, and a group of folks to do it with would be awesome. :)

Re: Million words?

[gywomod]

Our highest pledge offered for 2020 is 500K, but we usually have one or two members per year who aim for 1 million, so you wouldn't be alone. The trackers that the community provides allow you to set your own goal, so while you will "officially" track to 500K, you can have your tracker set up to help you reach the 1 million mark. (Or whatever other tracking you use.)

Re: Million words?

[kevinmc]

Oh, awesome! Thanks for letting me know. :)

Word count goal

[jessmountifield]

I'm new to this, but I love having a community to talk to about this stuff and I feel a bit lacking lately.

I just hit 500k for this year, so I think I'm going to aim for something higher if that's an option. Especially as my eldest tiny human goes to preschool soon

Re: Word count goal

[gywomod]

500K is our highest pledge goal. You can see all the pledges we offer on our website. (Here's a tip: the more people who sign up and hit higher pledges, the more likely we are to eventually offer higher pledge goals.)

If you're looking for an active community, this is a great one. There's somewhere between 7 and 12 discussion posts every month, not including challenges and community announcements.

Re: Word count goal

[jessmountifield]

Fantastic. Thank you so much for the response. I don't mind picking the 500k goal this year and having something not too difficult to smash.

[craterdweller]

Been a while - but thinking of giving this another go ... I think I'm much more of a word count person - as I tend to write in spurts and will be moving sometime in Jan/Feb. There's usually an exchange or challenge that catches my eye in the beginning of the year - which would give me enough words to get me past the hump of the inevitable missing days that the move will cause. And then there's the NaNos and Camp Nanos. I'm thinking maybe the 75K pledge or should I go for the 150K? I'd love to complete the basic pledge, but trying to be realistic with the upcoming move ...

[theemdash]

If you're comfortable completing the 50K during November and are planning to participate in both Camp NaNos, it sounds like 75K will be possible with ease. The last time you pledged 150K was in 2016 and you surpassed the 50% mark, so 75K looks fairly achievable for you.

Will knowing you'll hit your pledge help motivate you to stay on task? If so, make your life easy and go for 75K!

If you feel like you need more motivation to stay on track all year, 150K is still within reach—even if you'd have to push a little more.

[craterdweller]

Thanks so much for looking up my last pledge! I think I am going to try the 150K pledge - I don't trust myself not to "coast" knowing that I've managed more than 75K words the last time. (Feel free to razz me if I am pulling my hair out this time next year :)

Thanks for the advice! I find myself looking forward to the start of the new year already! (Of course moving to a warmer/drier climate might have something to do with that too)

[meridian_rose]

I was very behind but caught up later this year. I'm nearly at 114k out of 150k and hope to get in a bit more this week, so I've signed up for 150k again for 2020. I'd like to make 120k but given I was at one point over 50k behind, 115k would still be pretty damn good :)

[fadedwings]

I signed up for the 300k goal for 2020. It was my goal the first time I signed up in 2017 and I failed to even come close. I did hit about half that amount though. The following year I think my goal was about 200k and not only did I miss that but I wrote even less than I did the year before.

I dropped out last year in Jan after a bit of a snafu with my sign up. For that the plan was the habit goal and I don't think that's the right fit for me. I like the idea of writing more consistently, but after all these years I'm realizing that it just isn't me and that's okay. I seem to need to take a month off here and there during the year, and it's not like I'm trying to do this professionally, so there's really no problem with that.

Not only that but during this past year I tried writing daily for a couple of months and while I did succeed, I did the bare minimum each day and nothing more, getting only 100-300 words a day. I had no drive to try any harder than that. I didn't keep track of my word this year for the most part (except for stuff I actually posted to A03) and while it was relaxing in a lot of ways, it seemed less productive.

I am realizing that a lower word count isn't in my best interest either, as long as I am comfortable with not reaching my goal. When I aim higher my daily word count is higher on the days I do write.

I know I probably won't hit 300k, but I'm going to aim for it and see how close I can get. As long as I keep trying I'm going to consider it a success, and if I do actually hit 300k it will be all the sweeter.

[theemdash]

For me, I needed to create a writing habit for myself wherein I was writing daily rather than writing large word counts sporadically. It actually made the difference between being able to hit GYWO word count goals and not.

In full disclosure, I achieved the daily writing habit outside of the Habit Pledges, BUT it was an important step in positioning myself to be able to tackle the Word Count Pledges.

If you need to write more steadily, I think a Habit Pledge would be great. (And if you use the official GYWO Habit Tracker, you can still track your word count and push yourself to the next 1K before midnight.)

If you want to keep your focus on producing words/drafts, I think the 150K or 200K pledge might be awesome for you. A slightly higher goal might also help you write more often and create a steady routine.

[theemdash]

That's AMAZING progress. Yeah, nailing 115K is great.

[theemdash]

Writing daily is a difficult task and it's not productive for everyone! Absolutely choose the goal that you think will be most motivating and keep you writing in a way that you want to write. I think 300K sounds perfect for you and your process. Good luck!!

[tassosss]

Are there ever going to be more options for habit pledges? The jump between 120 and 240 is huge and it'd be really nice to have something in the middle. Right now I'm not motivated by 120 (too easy) or 240 (doomed to failure).

[gywomod]

Short answer: Likely, yes.

More detailed answer: We're not planning to add any pledges until the website is fully functional, and pledging and tracking can be fully automated. To the outside, adding a pledge may seem like a simple thing, but while we're still operating manually, it adds quite a bit of time and effort.

The data supports adding a pledge between 120 and 240 absolutely, so I think you can expect to see a pledge there, but it is dependent on how quickly we can develop the website we need to support more pledges (and more people).


In regards to this year, if the Habit Pledges aren't working for you, how do you feel about taking on a Word Count Pledge? Or you could sign up for 120 days, but also track your words with the intention of using your word count as your motivator once you pass 120 days?

[tassosss]

That's great to hear! That make sense to wait for the website to be ready.

I'll mull over options. I really like the habit pledge, I'm just right in the middle of the available ones for what's achievable and a bit of a push, but I may try the word count this time around.