Choosing Your GYWO 2022 Pledge

[gywomod]

With GYWO 2022 Pledges opening next week, which pledge to choose 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 2022 will be released the week of Dec 13.

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 you want to emphasize the habit of your writing life—encouraging you to sit down to write more often—a Habit Pledge is built to support that. 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 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 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. 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 most challenging 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've participated previously and 120 Days was too easy, but 240 Days was too hard, try the new 180 Day Pledge to land right in between!
• If you haven’t tried writing daily before but want to, we recommend the 180 Day Pledge as a way to ease into a semi-daily writing habit before tackling a more challenging 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 2021.
• 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 2021.
• There are no penalties for not meeting your pledge, so don’t be afraid to choose a pledge 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 50,000 words or more above your 2021 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, 350K, or 500K

Step Back on Word Counts

• If you wrote 50,000 words below your 2021 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 non-writing projects, 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 (which we all know, thanks), 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, 150K, or 500K.

Keep Your Word Count Consistent

• If you're going to hit your 2021 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 2021 pledge level works for you, let it work for you in 2022.
• If you came close to hitting your 2021 pledge level or it was a challenge to make it, this might be the right pledge level to try again in 2022.

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.

As a reminder, your GYWO pledge is locked in for the full year.
You cannot change pledges mid-year.
If you hit your goal early, you're still part of the same pledge group.
So choose a goal to sustain you ALL year.


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 2022. Come back next week and follow the instructions in the Pledges & Requirements post to make a pledge for 2022.

Comments

[the_islander]

I'm super undecided which pledge to pick this time. I've been participating since 2016 and never once managed to hit the 75k target, but I got really close/over 70% in both 2018 and 2019 (and hit the 120 days habit target). Last year and this year were a total mess in more ways than just one (lots of health + work/financial stuff on top of the pandemic)* and now I'm super unsure what to expect for 2022.

I'll definitely not aim higher than 75k because I know I'll likely have more health stuff upcoming (and possibly a move), but I'm wondering whether it wouldn't be a good idea to go for a habit pledge instead of a word count one. Most of the writing I do - and most of the writing I know I'll do in 2022 - is non-fiction (book reviews for my blog, academic articles, and my PhD thesis) and for all of those more time spent writing doesn't always translate to a higher word count. Plus, I suspect it would help both my blogging and my thesis work if I focused more on my writing habit than on the amount written? I think?

(I've felt like writing more creatively again in the last couple of weeks but I don't trust that urge just yet; the pandemic has done terrible things to my ability to commit to creative writing/let my imagination run wild)


*(I spent three weeks in hospital in November for a planned surgery I didn't even know I'd have to have when I pledged in January; it's the first year I didn't even attempt NaNoWriMo since about 2009 and even though it was the right decision, it still annoys me.)

Thoughts?

[theemdash]

It sounds like you'd more easily hit a habit pledge than a word count one, so it comes down to which you think would be more motivating—being on pace or ahead most of the year, or pushing yourself to complete a more difficult challenge.

Depending upon how many articles you'll be writing and the length of your thesis, you might find that you've got enough to his the 75K goal. Maybe list out the word counts of your expected projects and see where that takes you. If you're way under 75K, you'll for sure have an answer.

[the_islander]

Ah, thank you for your feedback! It's actually really helpful especially since you somewhat confirmed my gut feeling.

Re: motivation - I think being on pace or being ahead might actually be more motivating for me, or at least much less discouraging, than being behind (especially since one of the reasons I tend to fall behind is limited energy/ability to focus due to wonky mental health, and I really want/need to be more generous with myself in that respect).

As for the expected word count, it might just be enough for 75k but only if I write the same amount of blog posts as I did the last couple of years on top of way more thesis writing. I don't have a required word count for the thesis but I expect it to be around 80k/150-200 pages, of which I have written about 30k already, and I've averaged 20k of blog posts the last two years. Article-wise it might be another 5k-8k per article (1-2).

The main issue is that I suspect I may have to cut back on blogging to make sure I get the thesis/papers done (see: wonky mental health), which means it's probably wiser overall to go for the 120 day habit goal and keep track of my wc to see if I can/could make the 75k after all. And if it doesn't work out, I'm already used to that. XD

(Anyway, thank you again!)