This is my carrot for completing PiBoIdMo 2014.
When it is in my kitchen it reminds me to follow my heart and go write.
When I carry it upstairs to the office, it reminds me of what is essential for writing success.



Heart. Brain. Tea. 

ESTABLISHING INCENTIVES
by Francine Puckly
            
The journey to honing your craft and completing large projects is a long, arduous one. It takes dedication and commitment, and even the most driven and confident individuals need incentives to keep going during those hair-pulling, “why-am-I-doing-this-anyway?” moments of doubt. It is imperative that we take the time to reward and recognize our creative spirits for the completion of the hard work we tackle each day.  

As Annie mentioned in The SMART Key to Your Carrots (Sept. 22, 2014), it’s critical that your established goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant to the task at hand, and timely—a realistic timeframe in which to complete the work. In creative work, it’s easy to lose the long-term focus as we march toward the completion of a project that may take six, twelve or eighteen months to finish. In the novel writing I undertake, large projects are broken into smaller tasks, and rewards are set in proportion to the completed work.

I establish a large carrot that encompasses the entire project, but each of the smaller tasks has a small reward associated with it. These baby carrots are nothing big and expensive—I’m a starving artist, remember! It might be a single rose for my desk, a steaming cup of chai from my favorite café, or an hour to play hooky and browse the travel section at my local bookstore. But the large reward at the end of the project? Now that’s something pretty special. It has to be in order to keep me moving toward the horizon.

So what projects need carrots?

Ask yourself: What are the things standing between me and my long-term goals? What am I having a hard time completing, either from procrastination, time constraints or intimidation? What task haven’t I started because I’m afraid to fail?

These are carrot-worthy tasks.

Afraid to dip your toes in the ocean of social media but your agent or editor expects a strong presence? Give yourself a reward for opening a twitter account. Indulge in a bigger reward after you’ve made 10 tweets and learned how to retweet something you loved.

Struggling with designing your website? Give yourself a carrot for setting up and purchasing your domain name. Then give yourself little rewards for each page you design (your home page, your blog page, etc.). Then a BIG reward when it goes live!

Illustrating a picture book? Reward yourself when you complete the sketches. Pamper yourself after each completed spread. Reward yourself handsomely for the completed project. It doesn’t matter if it sells or not. You must keep rewarding your creative spirit.

Try it for a week. A month. A year. See how much you can accomplish when you give yourself the credit you deserve! 
             
      --FRANCINE

THE SMART KEY TO YOUR CARROTS
~Annie Cronin Romano

If you’re planning on jumping aboard the writing carrot cart, the first thing you’ve got to do is set a writing goal. This may sound straightforward, but it’s not quite as simple as you might think. Setting goals is, in itself, a kind of art. “I am going to write a novel” is not going to cut it. Why? Believe it or not, it’s too broad. Of course, you need this overall objective, but you’ll want to break it down. To be viable, writing goals, like all goals, need have certain elements. In business and education, these are called SMART goals. Really! I’m not making this up. Let’s take a look at these, shall we?

SMART is an acronym which stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely (or Time-based). These are the characteristics you want your writing goal to have.

First, your goal needs to be specific. What are you going to be working on? A poem? Generating ideas for picture books? A chapter of your novel? Researching agents? Decide what project your goal relates to and specifically state it. “I’m going to work on a picture book draft.” Good start.

Making your goal measurable will help you gauge your progress. How much are you going to accomplish? You need your writing goal to state how you are going to measure your progress. Are you going to write three poems? Come up with five picture book ideas? Complete one chapter of your novel? “I’m going to complete a 600-word picture book draft.” Even better.

Is your writing goal attainable? That means you’ve got to be realistic. Ah, we writers are totally based in reality, aren’t we? When my book hits the NY Times Bestseller List… Be honest! We’ve all thought it! And there’s nothing wrong with that. Yet it’s crucial that your writing goal is based in reality, or you’ll set yourself up for failure. Life will get in the way and prevent you from meeting goals from time to time. That’s okay. But if you only have two hours free this week, then setting a goal to write ten chapters of your book is probably not feasible. Make sure you have--or are willing to make—the time. You want to push yourself…just not over a cliff! “I’ll draft, revise, edit and my entire novel, research editors, and have my manuscript submitted by the end of this month.” Whoa! Really? Good luck with that. “I’m going to complete a 500-word picture book draft by the end of the month.” Now you’re getting somewhere, Sparky!

Be relevant. “This week, I am going to teach myself how to make the perfect chocolate soufflé.” Good for you. I always wanted to try making one of those myself. But what does that have to do with writing? Unless you’re writing a cookbook or a culinary memoir, that goal isn’t relevant. Make sure to keep your goals in line with your writing project. “This month I am going to read four middle grade novels with 1st person narrators to get myself in the mind frame of 1st person point of view for my book.” There you go! Relevant!

Timing is everything, isn’t it? And having a timely, or time-based, goal is key. Saying you’re going to write a novel is terrific, but if you don’t give yourself a time frame, you could still be saying that ten years from now. Set a deadline and stick to it.  “I will draft the first three chapters of my novel by May 15.” Ha! You got it!

Consider all these SMART goal elements when setting goals for your writing. Of course, you’ll have a big-picture goal (I’m going to write a young adult novel), but breaking that goal into specific, doable pieces and sticking to your deadlines will help you make progress and meet your ultimate writing goal.

Now go set those SMART-y pants goals and earn those carrots! Chocolate, that bottle of wine, a round of golf, a trip to the book store, a beach day, chocolate…did I suggest chocolate already? Hmm…

~Annie

Like everything in life, your writing career will require balance. A balance between writing and the work of writing. 24 Carrot Writing is a mental tool you can use to find that balance.

Every month, set two writing goals. One goal will focus on writing, while the other should focus on the business or work of being a writer. 


Writing Goal

Once you have found the amazing writing community, you will be overwhelmed with all the buzz and activity: blogs, webcasts, seminars, conferences, Facebook groups, pages and pages of information and sharing and support. But don’t get so lost in the sea of community that you forget to write.  Or worse, you use it as an excuse not to write.

While it is essential that we continue to work on craft, like we have to keep going to the gym, we also need to just write.  Don’t let that wonderful basic act of writing get lost in the slew of learning, rules and marketing.

Your first goal each month will be a writing goal. The writing goal you set involves just you and your manuscript. No blogging, no websites, no chat rooms and if it frees you up – no grammar or spelling. Just write.  In the words of Jane Yolen, butt in chair!

Make sure your goal has a purpose by assigning it a measurement like words, pages, or chapters. You can target a picture book revision, or a rough draft, or a plot outline. The only rule is that it needs to be a quiet moment just between you and your writing. Think a date with your writing. No kids and no distractions. Light a candle and get in the mood to write!

Work of Writing Goal

Your second goal each month will require you to spend time managing the business of being a writer.

Put your manuscript away. This is a time for learning and connecting with the craft of writing and with the writing community.  Use this goal to set targets like researching agents, attending a seminar, reading those writing bulletins sitting in your inbox, or managing your website.

Again, give yourself an attainable but measurable goal. I will research five agents or I will read bulletins for an hour a week this month. Or be brave and use the time to write two query letters and send out two manuscripts.

This is the goal that asks you to  improve your craft. You can take a writing class, expand your writing community by having tea with a fellow writer, or move yourself toward publication by connecting with an agent or editor. This is not a solo goal but rather asks you to interact with the industry and community of children’s writing.

Carrots

Now that you have set your two goals for the month – and written them down to keep yourself honest – it is time for carrots.  Carrots are the rewards you offer yourself for hitting your targets. You can motivate yourself to complete your goals by promising a manicure, or a trip to the book store, or a treat from TJ Maxx (the place my husband calls the crack house because I am addicted to TJ Maxx carrots!).

Just like your goals, carrots need to be specific and attainable. You cannot pick a fourteen day trip to Paris with Brad Pitt as a travel companion as a carrot, but you can decide to spend the day dreaming about that trip as your carrot. Personally, I’d rather have a new pair of shoes from TJ Maxx but we all have our own carrots.

 Everyone needs carrots on the long road to publication. Reward yourself for every step you take towards realizing your dream of being a successful children’s author.

 If you set two goals a month and hit them, by the end of one year you will have rewarded yourself with 24 carrots and you will be a 24 Carrot Writer.

Set your goals and pick your carrots!

Kelly