Incentives and Progress

So, I'm used to keeping a tally on the site of how many words I've written, how many queries I've sent, etc.  Let's just leave it at this for now:

I have added almost 17,000 words to Wingspan this month.
I have cut out a lot of stuff as well.
Therefore, I am around 44,000 words.
I'm writing every day for Camp NaNoWriMo.

So, I'm closer, but probably not close to that elusive dress that's still in Katey's closet.  But!  I did buy myself some new tennis shoes today to celebrate the 15,000 mark.  When I hit 20,000, I'm going to buy some sorbet.

So, now that I've shared the ways that I'm going to shamelessly reward myself for doing my job, here's more information on how it's all going.

I have been writing a lot of the mushy stuff.  It's been hard to sit alone in my room in my singles housing apartment, knowing that no guy actually looks at me unless I'm leading music in church.  I'm not bothering to get over it right now because I'm too depressed by other things to even care.  I have written too many things out of order, which means that, while I've written a breakup scene, I've also written the scene where the guy first asks the girl out this week.

I wrote an amusing scene and then forgot that it was in one of my shared documents on Googledocs.  Katey mentioned it, I got her honest opinion and then at her suggestion added a character to aforementioned scene.  Scene has been completely transformed and I want to use that character more.

I'm trying to build up more of a relationship with the parents.  Again, not the easiest thing to do when there are so many other things that need to be dealt with in the storyline.

Incentives

So, The Summer of Finishing Wingspan is in its last month and, you guessed it, I have not yet finished Wingspan.  So I took drastic measures.

Step 1 was resolving to write something, ANYTHING every day.  Even if that meant 200 words per day, it was something.

Step 2 was letting my friends convince me to sign up for Camp NaNoWriMo.  50,000 words in August.  Not sure how it'll work out. 

Step 3 was setting up incentives.

Step 2 is going fairly well.  It has a stats page where you can see how close to September 1 you are, meaning whether you'll finish on time or in December.  I am now at September 6.

Step 3 isn't very developed yet.  Mostly, it has been things like, "I finished my wordcount for the day.  Now I can have my popsicle!"  But I have something fun waiting for me at the end.

Last week, Katey and I went dress-shopping for a trip to see Les Miserables.  That show was amazing the fourth time around...  But back to the story.  So, we agreed to share opinions on dresses.  At one point, we stepped out of opposing dressing rooms to find that we were wearing the exact same dress.  She immediately said, "I saw it first!"  (Sometimes, Katey is like a little sister.)  Neither of us actually got that dress, but it made an impression.

So, today, I went back to that dress store and bought the dress.  It was 30% off as well, so that made me feel even better.  Then I handed the bag to Katey and ordered her not to let me wear it until the Sunday after I finished Wingspan.

I have graciously allowed her to borrow it until then.