Does peer pressure work?

Today, I was reading the blog of another writer, and I noticed that they had a little note in the sidebar about the number of words that they have written in their current project. Which brings me to the question---does peer pressure work for any writer?

One of the suggestions that the Nanowrimo people suggest is telling people that you are working on a novel. The theory is that people will hound you to keep up your stream and complete the project in a timely manner. Who are these people who can make a writer get to work?

My friends are the last people who can motivate me to work. In fact, it is almost certain that my friends will cause me to slack off. And my beloved wife is no help either. I think it is mainly because she doesn't picture me as a writer.

(Honestly, can you picture me as a college professor? That is what my wife thinks I should be.)

I have never found peer pressure to be a good motivator for me. Maybe I am weird; perhaps there are writers who find that posting their process helps motivate them.

For myself, I have found that self-motivation is more important. Then again, I have OCD tendencies. A project gets under my skin, and I can't focus completely on anything else until I work it out of my system. Not even the threats of an editor matches the head of stream I can generate when my touch of insanity rears its head.

(I call it insanity not because I think that I am insane, but rather because of how other people [non-writers] react to me when I am in its grip.)

And if you are curious about my latest project---I have written a whole three words. C'mon peer pressure! Bring it on!

Tired and--oh, look shiny

So I have fallen greatly behind in my quest to write a novel in the space of a month. In large part, this is due to the terrors of term paper season. For some reason, writing a couple thousand words of research paper just saps all the creavity right out of me.

But on a bright note, I did get my microeconomics paper back yesterday, and I got a hundred on it. A large part of it, I was talking about the writing business and its nature, was about my own top earning articles on Helium.

I am still working on the rough draft of my political science paper, and have finished my philosophy paper (though that one was short, and I have one more philosophy paper to go).

I also have to type up all the bullet points that I wrote in group during political science. One of my fellow group members believes that my handwriting is unreadable. Hey, I can read it perfectly fine--they write in block letters; feel free to draw your own conclusion here (I have).

So I am really tired. And I can foresee having to finish the rough draft of this novel sometime next month. Besides the politicial science paper, I have astronomy homework to do.

And have I mentioned studying for finals?! No. Well, there is that too.

I am so tired. So much so that I have already wasted an hour looking at shiny things. Yes, I am one of those people. When I am tired I am easily distracted by bright shiny things, or just things in general.

Today's tour started off with me viewing a slideshow of the ten worst keyboards of all time. Hey I used to own one of those. I won't tell you where I went from there, but one shiny interesting thing led me to another, just like a magpie. An hour later, I realized that I was wasting time. Sigh, that is a sure sign that I am really tired.

So I would like all of you to do me a favor. Go take a hour long nap for me. Thanks, I need the sleep.

Lost some more ground

Well, I lost some more ground (word count) on trying to finish a rough draft of a novel this month. On Thursday, I only got 578 words done. But on the bright note, I got 2184 words done yesterday, so don't count me out yet.

I have noted several scenes that I am still missing, so I don't have to worry about not having any direction for the next couple of days. There are some things that I am wondering if I made the correct initial decision on, such as the time period the story is set in. There is also the fact that I haven't done any research for this story.

Given my ability to be distracted easily, doing research is a hazard for me. On several occasions, I have (in the past) went to look something up and hours later, still had not learned what the answer to my original question was despite spending hours on the interent or with my nose stuck between the pages of books. Call it ADHD--everyone else does (though in my defense, I have never been formally diagnosed with it).

Anyways, I am making progress still; I am just falling short of the ideal 1667 words a day.

Day twelve

Well, I didn't get a lot done on the novel yesterday--a mere 345 words were the final count for the day.

But that was better than I expected. Yesterday was one of my "recovery days." Something I learned long ago is that I have certain limits as a writer; if I surpass those limits I suffer for it.

Yesterday was one of those days. The limit I surpassed was I wrote too much for too long without a break. I really had no breaks during the writing of my economic term paper; it was done in two days, with no breaks in either day's work batch. Basically, I was like an over-cooked chicken nugget.

I couldn't even summon up the energy to do simple editing yesterday. Susan asked me to look at her English 121 paper, and I am not sure if the writing was that rough, or whther I was just that tired. Either way, not much got done yesterday.

Day seven

Well, I am slowing catching up to where I should be at this point of National Novel Writing Month. I am currently at 9441 words, having wrote 1777 yesterday.

So I am only behind 2228; if I want to be where I should be by midnight tonight, I need to write 3895 words. I do not see much more than 1667 happening today--after all, it is Thursday and that means political science.

Learned yesterday that my sister, Mary, is coming to Colorado thanksgiving week. I think I better gain a headstart because I am sure to lose a thousand words of my lead that day. Good thing I am a self-employed college student.

Short term vs long term goals

Occasionally, I notice that I am out of step with the rest of the world. Whether it is a result of my viewing the world differently or just not giving two hoots, I am not sure.

For instance, one of my friends has given up completely on Helium. He also refuses to join any write-to-paid site that pays as low as Helium does. Or that remind him of Helium.

I understand his distaste of Helium and if I didn't take the long view, I would probably share it.

But I don't. I think it is because I have the option of taking the long view of the potential of Helium and its effect on my bottom line.

Yes, Helium is low paying for the most part. After all, it is royalty based (ad revenue share). But that is only the short view.

Let's say that I write an article that earns ten cents a month on Helium. Ten cents a month will not make a dent in my bills. Yet over the course of a year, that will be an additional dollar and twenty cents of income in my pocket. Mulitply that amount by a dozen articles and it becomes fourteen dollars.

It does not sound like a lot. But that is exactly how the best writers on Helium are approaching Helium--by writing a lot of articles in the right categories (some subjects pay better than others there).

At the moment, I have fifty articles on Helium. That is earning me twenty-five dollars a year. It is not a lot of money, but then again it is only fifty articles. Several of them I should not have bothered writing--they had a really short shelf life.

That is one thing that you do not want to write on Helium is an article with a short shelf life. One wants to aim for subject matter that a lot of people are interested in which has a long shelf life. Ideally, one should aim for articles that will still be useful (making revenue) twenty years from now.

That same ten cents a month article if it has a shelf life of twenty years will net you twenty-four dollars. And do not worry about inflation--ad revenue shares are based on advertising rates; as they go up, so will your share.

Now, I do know why my friend has a hard time taking the long view of that site and all others that are built around the same premise. He has been unemployed for awhile and is desperately looking for a way to make up for lost income.

I understand his needs. It is just that I chose to take the long view when faced with the same problem. After almost a year of unemployment, I rolled up my sleeves and decided to go to college. Basically, I am living off of student loans and what little I make as a writer.

And for me, anything that brings in a tickle of money is a good thing. Especially things that I can do around my school schedule.

After all, I am playing the long game. If I build up enough stock, the tickle will become a river.

It is the same game when one is working on a novel or any other project. You do a lot of work upfront in hopes of cashing in later. It is not quick or easy. Yet it is the way that all people who make their living from royalties started out.

To see my Helium profile, click here.

...but I am only ten days worth of words behind.

So I mind some progress today. Not much, only 700 words worth unless I get more done later today. Unfortunately, tommorrow is the online ZAM class, and Sunday is a lodge day; I am quite sure that I am going to fall further behind over the weekend.

I am now up to 5090 words. Short 16,581--ten days worth, figuring that I should be doing 1,667 words a day if I want to spend the pain evenly across the entire month. Obvivously, that is not going to happen. Maybe in November (yes, I am actually considering taking part in the National Write a Novel Month during term paper season--call me insane).

I am learning a lot about what is going on in the book I am writing. In many ways, it is like reading a mystery novel that someone else wrote. Like today, I learned something about one of the secondary characters that I didn't know, as in it wasn't planned by me.

And hopefully, I am learning what I absolutely need to learn--how to self-start and continue going on a project. One thing I have never developed as a writer, or as a person for that matter, is sheer discipline. I have always depended upon being brilliant. The closest thing I have to disciplince is my bloody-minded stubbornness. It may look like the same thing, but it is really not. As a professional writer, I need discipline. Hopefully, next week helps me towards developing that aspect of myself. *crosses fingers*