Writer Accountability in 2017
A great way to commit yourself to being a productive writer this year.
A great way to commit yourself to being a productive writer this year.
Following up on the 10 part series I ran last month — Writing Goals: 2017 — I wanted to promote an initiative started by screenwriters Gary Graham and Michael Hennesy: Writer Accountability in 2017. Some background:
As you are well aware, writing can be a lonely endeavor. Twitter has been and continues to be an incredible writing community that helps a great deal but the thought occurred to us: Why not step that up with goals and accountability?
THE GOAL OF WRITER ACCOUNTABILITY is for you to complete a solid final draft in 2017.
This project can be a screenplay, teleplay or novel. Some of you may accomplish this in just a few months. Others may take the entire 12 months. Since all of our lives are different, we will all be working on separate deadlines so take what time you feel you need. The important thing is for you to stick to the goals and deadlines you set and for the rest of us to encourage you to do so.
Plain and simple, writer accountability is setting goals and doing one’s best to stick to them. Incremental goals work best and so we will set goals as follows:
CRAFTING AN IRON CLAD LOG LINE.
CREATING A 2–3 PAGE OUTLINE
WRITING THE FIRST DRAFT WITH INCREMENTAL GOALS (ACT 1, ACT 2A, ACT 2B, ACT 3). If you are writing a novel or teleplay, you will work in quarter increments. Same applies if you are writing a script but not using a three act structure.
Creating goals allows us as a community to remind and encourage you to accomplish them.
I see this as going hand in glove with the two Zero Draft Thirty Challenges I host here at Go Into The Story in March and September, and the day to day Zero Draft Thirty support group on Facebook now over 1,400 members strong.
I also want to promote again, as I have in the past, the GG Film Club which Gary has been hosting for over a year:
Join us every Sunday at 11 AM PT/ 2 PM ET/ 7 PM GMT for a globally coordinated movie screening and discussion on Twitter using the #ggfilmclub hashtag.
It’s a great way to get inspired to watch movies which is a key part of my mantra: Watch movies. Read scripts. Write pages.
Social media may be a psychic sinkhole for some people, but writers should make use of what’s available online to learn and practice the craft. If you’re not on Twitter, you ought to be. There are a lot of pro writers there who provide ample and free advice in tweetstorms (I have archived dozens of them here). Plus there are writers like Gary and Michael who create initiatives like Writer Accountability and the GG Film Club to benefit the online writing community.
So check out these links:
Hashtags: #WRAC17, #GGFILMCLUB.
Don’t forget come March and September, two new Zero Draft Thirty Challenges: Go from FADE IN to FADE OUT in one month. Join the Zero Draft Thirty Facebook Group. Go there and check out the 10th Monthly 24 Hour Writing Scamper-A-Thon which starts at Midnight (Eastern) this Friday, January 6.
Instead of clickhole hell, let social media work for you and make 2017 your most creative and productive yet!