This week: Pick a Team Edited by: Annette  
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"Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships." – Michael Jordan
"Teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability." – Patrick Lencioni
"It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed." – Napolean Hill
"If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else." – Booker T. Washington |
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Pick a Team
There are many things only you can do for yourself.
There are many things that you can outsource and have done by someone else.
Writing is somewhere in the middle of those opposites.
The first bit of writing: the idea, the outline, the first draft, plot and story revisions, character sketches and more are all up to you.
You can think about outsourcing your grammar check and spell check. Even some machines can do that for you now.
The one thing that is smack in the middle of it is collaboration, accountability, team work. This is where your writing has a chance to go from grammatically correct to emotional, rich, colorful, and just plain fun to read.
Most things that are worthwhile to achieve take work. Sometimes the work either feels easy or it's fun to do. A lot of the time; however, doing something right takes time and effort. The best way to stick with it, even when it doesn't feel easy or even fun, is to make yourself accountable to others. Having someone who will cheer you on when you show up and ask where you were when you didn't show up is a huge motivator to keep coming back and keep working. We see it all around. In education, grades given by teachers can help to give us the drive to do well. In fitness, having a steady group or a personal trainer to respond to helps a lot. Writing is the same. Some can and will do well on their own. Most of us do better when there are stakes attached to a task. Even when the task is something we started because we wanted to do it.
The new year is approaching fast and I want to quote a little bit from Shadow Prowler-Spreading Love  's 2023 writing activity "Invalid Item" that has the goal to get participants to write four (4) novels in one year. This is how she plans to get you there: "It won't be done by rubbing a unicorn's horn, or by dancing under the glittery sprinkles of pixie dust. It will take tenacious determination, it will take sacrifice, it will take hard work with long hours."
If this is how dedicated you want to be to your writing next year, give this activity a good look. Sign up for it. You have nothing to lose and everything to win. This is going to be the place to: "push yourself to write those books that keep simmering in your head"
Find your crew here on Writing.Com. There are several places where you can find at minimum accountability for writing regularly. You can also find groups that will actively work with you on a specific genre of writing. There is much writing to be done.
Which creative writing and other teams will you join in 2023? |
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I received these replies to my last Contest & Activities newsletter "Stretch Your Imagination Muscles" that asked: Can you really grow as a writer if you don't stretch yourself beyond your current skills?
Elfin Dragon-finally published  wrote: I don't think you can grow. If you only write one thing, you become stagnant. I think stretching your mind and writing a variety of things causes you to think on different levels.
Nobody’s Home  wrote: I loved this, Annette, because I feel it's so true and it needs to be said again and again. Your question: Can you really grow as a writer if you don't stretch yourself beyond your current skills? -- This is so basic and obvious, yet it seems that some writers continue to write the same things, never learning or growing. And if they're happy with that, I guess that's fine. For me, I can say that my writing has improved exponentially since I came to WDC and started challenging myself to write in new genres and practice different skills.
It's like working out to strengthen your muscles, as you alluded to in the title of the newsletter. If you don't keep lifting weights, your muscles will stop growing. You won't get better. Even published authors need to strengthen their writing skills, get better, grow as people by practicing new skills and taking on new challenges. And WDC is a great place to do just that!
Elfin Dragon-finally published also replied to my past Contests & Activities newsletter "Winning" that asked: What does winning mean to you and what would you do to win?
In answer to your question on which mood is best for my creativity...it really depends. I've found that for my poetry I often write more when I'm on the downward side. It helps me cope with all the feelings I have. It is the same on the super high, but more on the backside. But for any other of my crafts, it helps when I'm in a good mood.
For your question of what winning means to me? Not as much as it used to. I think the recognition is well worth it, but I don't have to win for that. I could be 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th. As long as people could say, "look, there she is." |
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Contests & Activities: November 30, 2022 Issue [#11671]
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