Incentives to Write - by Sandi Somers

New Year’s Greetings for 2019 to everyone!!

January is usually the time we write new goals for the coming year. This month, our writers will look deeper, exploring incentives that help them keep on track with their writing goals.

Goals and Goads?

Several years ago while reading comments on a blog about goals, I came to this typo: “I have realised the importance of writing the goads down.”  (She wasn’t an InScriber. Whew!!)

This writer spoke more truth than she realized.

Now a goad is a club, sometimes with sharp nails, that ancient farmers used to get a balky ox to cooperate. While Saul (later called the Apostle Paul) was persecuting Christians, God was speaking to him, but he was kicking against the goads (Acts 26:14).

Sometimes we need goads—er—incentives to keep us on track with our goals.

* * *

Our Courage, God's Strength

Humour aside, as I was thinking of this blog, God brought to mind the following verse:

“Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart” (Psalm 31:24).

God was prompting me to rethink "incentives" from the viewpoints of my courage and His strength.

Courage to bring my goals before God

God has a message for me to write and speak, and opportunities come up that point me in His direction. For example, this Fall I was given an opportunity to lead a healing prayer time on a mission trip to Haiti (to come in February). This project involves preparing a training seminar for Haitian prayer leaders. I needed to write a training manual so that it can be translated into Haitian Creole.

God’s strength and inspiration to focus on this project comes with His reminder: “We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps” (Proverbs 16:9).

Courage to set long-term goals while focusing on short-term plans.

          While attending one writers’ conference, I found a secret that made sense to me: to break down my goals into three-month or even one-month or weekly plans. This helped keep my focus whereas longer goals sometimes got derailed by other life events.

          God’s strength comes from His promise: “Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure” (Proverbs 4:26).

Courage to keep my vision in mind when other events in life overtake me.

          One of my coaches suggested that when life takes over, we still write for five or ten minutes each day—a thought, an idea. It may not seem like much, but it captures a key component which contributes to one of my current projects. And often those five minutes add up to a few more moments stolen from a busy day.

God’s strength comes with His promise: “May your strength be sufficient for each day you live" (Deuteronomy 33:25).

* * *  

What incentives keep you on track with what you hope to achieve? How are God's nudgings part of your incentives?

You may wish further suggestions. These blogs (Jeff Goins here, James Clear on repetitions here and our own InScribe Shirley Tye here) may give you some food for thought.

Breakthrough: One Giant Leap by Sandi Somers

On July 20, 1969, astronauts stepped on the moon for the first time. Neil Armstrong celebrated this historic event with a now-famous quote: “This is one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Our prompt this month asks writers: What “small step” in your writing life turned out to be a giant leap? Perhaps it wasn’t a giant leap but a bigger step than first imagined. Perhaps you haven’t even had a bigger step. If so, what would you hope that experience might be like? Would you be prepared for what happens next?

On the Edge of a Miracle

Last November I participated in Nina Amir’s, WriteNonfiction in November.

As the month began, I sensed God saying, “Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again” (Ecclesiastes 11:1 NIV).  Which in today’s language meant, “Go for it! It will take time, but eventually everything will come together. God will bless your efforts.”

But how to proceed? What to write? I had a lot of first drafts in my computer, so I decided to revise a partially-finished series of articles. I kept a chart with my daily and cumulative word count as a visual incentive to keep ahead of my 1,000-word daily goal.

The goal of the month was to write every day, but I needed one day a week—Sundays—for rest and other activities, coming back Mondays refreshed and ready to tackle a new challenge.

Throughout the month, Nina posted frequent blogs encouraging us, providing strategies and tips, coaching us through the mid-month slump, and cheering us on as we neared the finish line.

* * *

When I began, I didn’t realize how valuable this month would become—and how it would improve my writing habits in the long term. I didn’t realize that just doing the next day’s work would become one big step after another, like moon-walking in an atmosphere of little gravity.

It motivated me to focus on one writing project over the month. Sometimes I’ve been an Alice in Wonderland writer, following rabbit trails down rabbit holes to off-task adventures. But now I saw how distracting those rabbit trails were.

It focused my attention on production. Some days I felt mentally ready to stop, but was below my word count. I pushed to write just a few more minutes, just a few more words—and often those counts grew beyond the 1,000 words.

The month built up endurance to finish my revision project for the day, complete with conclusions. Conclusions can be hard for me, and I sometimes stop writing before I think of a clinching ending, a poignant punch, a surprise O. Henry turnaround, or even a good summary. And so I kept working at this aspect, giving it extra thought and attention.

These principles carried forward into my regular writing.  It has been said that habits take thirty days to form, and I discovered that God had shown me better habits and a firmer action plan.

* * *

As we take “little steps” towards our goal, we may not know we’re on the edge of a miracle until much later, when we see the great strides we’ve made with the footprints we’ve left behind.

“Thou hast enlarged my steps under me…” (Psalm 18:36 KJV)

Now over to you.

Tell us the story of what God did with one of your small steps.