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

[green]

I'm gonna just squeak into my 200k pledge this month, so I'm gonna pledge the same for 2020. 250k is tempting, but I think it'll make me anxious if I can't do it. So no woes for me, yay!

[jenett]

I love the "*This advice is somewhat dubious if you are currently pledging 75K or 350K." note, because that's where I am. I pledged (and met) 350K both this year and last year, but I'm still not ready to try a jump to 500K.

I've decided I'm going to pledge 350K, but actually aim at averaging 1250 words a day (which comes to 457,500 due to the leap year), and see how I feel about that next December. If I manage that (or even come pretty close), then the jump to 500K is a smaller change.

[dragonjournal]

I'm going for the 120 day pledge. I write mostly on weekdays, but like, I'm never consistent and can't guarantee I'm going to be around on any given day...

[bjornwilde]

I'm 90% certain I will be trying out the Habit pledge this year. I did the word count for 2019, my first year, and while I fell far short of the pledge, I still feel good for writing as much as I did because it is far more than I'd ever done.

[ebonwinged_nova]

I signed up for 250k this year and I'm on track to make 300k. Next year I want to go for 350k, but I think I might make my official pledge 250k again anyway. I noticed this year that it's really motivating for me to outpace my goal on the spreadsheet, and I think that will be the case even if I unofficially go for a higher word count from the start.

[annofowlshire]

I wasn’t going to pledge at all this coming year, but I’m wibbling now XD

The project currently tickling me is turning a WIP into a serial. (And then figuring out how to publish it...) The story is partially written in a very skeletal way and not only do I not know whether or not I have 150k more words in there but I also just don’t want to be hassled with keeping track :P

On top of that, there is a more-than-likely chance of a cross-country move during the first half of 2020, and all the disruption that will cause before, during and after.

So as suggested in another thread, if I sign up it’ll probably be the 120 Day Habit pledge, because it’s the most flexible the project and also for a year with some expected chaos (not to mention the unexpected stuff that also usually happens....).

[delight]

I barely made -- but have made! -- my habit pledge this year, so my plan is to pledge the same and try to exceed it. XD Not quite ready to jump to 240, but I think I can beat 120!

[theemdash]

That's a great plan! I love the idea of personally planning to increase your pledge difficulty without biting off too much.

[theemdash]

If you've been using the GYWO Word Count Tracker and don't already know, it provides a day count for you on the Get Started tab. It's a great way for Word Counters to switch to a Habit Pledge.

[theemdash]

I signed up for 250K this year, and I should make it by the end of the month, but it was a slog in which I was behind most of the year. That was the plan—to be behind until NaNoWriMo—but I hated it. It was stressful for me to be behind, and I felt much happier the year I pledged 200K and wrote about 230K. Sometimes we have to consider our mental health over what pledge level it says on the community page.

[theemdash]

I think the 120 Habit Pledge would work nicely with what you described. Also that still allows a lot of time for other creative pursuits.

[theemdash]

That's such a great goal. I love it!

[slightweasel]

I'm very tempted to make a 200k pledge for next year. I'm barely going to squeak by at 150k this year (at least, I hope I still make it! 6006 words to go...), but I was on fire with my word count until July, despite having gone back to work in March. Then there was a death in the family, and we started house hunting a couple months later, and now we just finished moving, and now I'm writing again, and maybe 200k would be within reach in a (I REALLY hope) quieter year? On the other hand, since this year was so rough, it might be kinder to myself to go with the regular 150k pledge, and then do 200k for 2021 if it still seems like a good idea a year from now. So that's probably what I'll do.

[bjornwilde]

Nice. I will look it up. Thanks. =)

[linaewen]

I've been doing the 240 Day Habit Pledge the last two years, both times successfully completing it in December (though a bit earlier this year than last year). I found it helpful in keeping me on track with writing and editing, yet I feel like I need more of a challenge to keep me honest in actually writing words. I am considering going back to a Word Count Challenge. I have done the 150K twice before and I was woefully short! My word counts both times were more in line with 75K, so I'm wondering if I should go with that one, or try to challenge myself again with the 150K? I have a tendency to think I will do better and be more consistent than life actually allows me, so I'm a bit nervous about biting off too much in an effort to challenge myself!

[newsbypostcard]

I breezed through 350k this year and am on track to hit 500k, so I'll be back to try 500k next year officially. I do this knowing I may be going back to school in September, so I'll be frontloading earlier in the year in an attempt to hit 400,000 before September even starts. This is 50,000 words every month Jan-Aug—but since I've managed that Sept-Nov (and in some cases blown it considerably out of the water), I'm hoping I've built up enough habit to meet it. Lofty goals, but I'm really looking forward to the challenge.

[belovedmuerto]

I did 150k this year and I'm coming in short, but not as short as I was thinking I would (my initial goal was to choose a stretch and if I even made half the goal it would still be more than twice what I wrote last year), so I'm going to do that again next year because it feels a bit more within my grasp! Plus I've written more than 3x what I wrote last year at this point, so I'm pretty chuffed.

[oldestcharm]

I'm thinking of going for the 350 habit pledge. While I did hit my 150k word count earlier than I anticipated, it's been an exhausting year and I've kind of screwed myself over with some of my non-writing goals. Besides, I'll be working on different projects comics that will require me to figure out how to cut down the word count instead of boost 'em, although I think I'll still write some fic. However, working on something every day sounds like a delightful challenge. I can't wait for all that outlining, scriptwriting and thumbnailing. It'll be interesting for sure.

[seerofheart]

I'm havering a bit even after reading this, haha

I know I want to drop down from 200k, because I've got a) a dissertation coming up next year b) a new job with more hours and c) I want to focus on getting back into visual arts as well as keeping up with writing
On one hand, I know I found 150k easy enough last year, but I did still have less going on in my life at that point, so finding time to write was simple. Finding it this year has been tricky, and I've been more prone to writing binges of 2-7k words on a free day, because getting into the necessary headspace hasn't been easy for anything more than 100-500~ word short bursts.
If I drop to 75k, though, I know I'll make it, even with other stresses on top - but if it's too easy, I might fall out the habit entirely.
And I don't think habits pledges are for me, either - I'd be more prone to chucking 100 words down and calling it a day then hahaha

I think I'll spend some time considering what's best for me before I pledge. I am contemplating the option of going for 75k on paper but making my 'real' goal 100k, nicely in the middle of the two options I'm thinking of. Then I can stretch goal to 150k if life turns out to be less hectic than I'm envisioning.

Either way, 2021, I'll probably go for 150k again!

[velithya]

I'm definitely going to swap to a Habit Pledge this year! I was way off with my estimates of what was achievable for me while working and I gave myself permission mid-year to stop stressing/being upset with myself about how far behind I was and just deal with life. I think a Habit Pledge will, firstly, help me set a regular writing routine, and secondly, be a lot less stressful than trying to reach a set number of words if my time is limited again in 2020!

[ayebydan]

I might try jump to 150 but I think I will change my mind several times before I finally commit to anything.

[theemdash]

I also had a very rough year, so you have my sympathies. You've hit a 200K pledge in the past, so I think a good way to gauge is to think about if you'll be recovered from this past year in January or still struggling with residual fallout. If you're not 100% certain everything will be settled on Jan 1, I say 150K for sure.

[theemdash]

If you've been tracking word counts the last two years or can estimate, you might see if your word counts have increased as your habit has become more regular. If you don't have evidence of that, I say go with 75K. It would still be a stretch based on your previous attempts at 150K and could be a great way to get push your writing life forward.

[theemdash]

I stand in awe.

[theemdash]

That's amazing! Congrats! It sounds like the 150K pledge is exactly the motivation you need.