‘Finishers Edition’ Writing Camp Day 4
Adjusting goals
Gooooooooood morning, afternoon, or evening, wherever you happen to be! And welcome to Day 4 of Writing Camp: ‘Finishers Edition’!
Today, we want to set ourselves up for victory on Day 5. In our world, ‘victory’ means having something finished—making it good is not our primary objective (though obviously if what you’re producing happens to be good then that’s awesome!).
What Day 4 is all about
On this fourth day of Writing Camp, we’re going to focus on how to adjust our goals when necessary. Hopefully, as you’ve been working your way through this edition of Writing Camp, you’ve managed to tick a few of your daily tasks off your list. Maybe you’re even on target to wrap your project up at the end of Day 5. If so, that’s wonderful! But even if that’s the case, there are always times when we get thrown off course or fall behind. What happens then?
Remember why we’re here
A couple of months ago, a writer named
published a piece on his Substack titled ‘The First and Best Writing Advice I Ever Received’. Happily, for those who didn’t have the time to read the full post, its subtitle explained what that advice had been: ‘Finish things. Just finish. Really, finish them!’Finishing things is what this edition of Writing Camp is all about. Within this 5-day period (which may or may not take place within the space of a single working week), we are aiming to get our respective projects into a finished state.
Not a pretty state.
Not a final state.
Just a finished state.
Today is a good day to check in with your Writing Camp schedule and ask yourself, What do I need to do between now and the end of Day 5 to be able to sit back and call this thing ‘finished’?
The answer to this question is going to vary from person to person and project to project. Maybe you can call it ‘finished’ when you have an outline with breadcrumb notes throughout. Maybe you can call it ‘finished’ when your project has all its parts, but also has notes like ‘ugh, this is really awful and I need to change it later’ (I leave these kinds of notes for myself all the time). Maybe, for you, ‘finished’ is all about having a certain number of words on the page. Even if you’re revising a piece of writing, there are a lot of different versions of ‘finished’, ranging from ‘I’ve taken a first crack at all these revisions and now I need to let them sit before I do a final check’ to ‘yay, I’ve done everything and it’s perfect and I can hit “send”’.
So before you tackle your Day 4 writing task, take a look at the goals you’ve set for yourself, and make whatever bloodyminded adjustments you need to make in order to get your project to some kind of finished state by the end of the day tomorrow. Remember: all we’re aiming for is finished.
Day 4 Writing Prompts
Pick whichever one feels right for you today. If you’ve found something that’s working for you and you want to stick with it, great! You can even repeat one of the prompts from Days 1-3. If, on the other hand, you want to shift gears, level up, or just find a new way to get writing today, try one of the options below.
Option 1: Set a new goal
Look at what you’ve written during Days 1-3, and at what you want to write today. If you’re having trouble keeping yourself motivated to keep writing this week, try setting yourself a different writing goal for your first writing stint of the day. Choose any one of the following goals (or make up your own!), as long as it’s not what you did yesterday:
Aim to write 200 words.
Aim to write for 20 minutes.
Aim to write until you’re hungry. [I’d find this one super hard!]
Aim to write an outline of the piece you’re working on.
Aim to draw a diagram of the piece you’re working on (and please share it via the Chat!).
Aim to write until you have to pee.
You can use this exercise to jump-start your writing task for Day 4. If you feel like you can keep going, or you need to keep going in order to meet today’s writing goal, you can either (a) select another goal from the list above for your next writing stint of the day and/or (b) try out Options 2 or 3 below.
Option 2: Directed prompt
What aspect of your Writing Camp project is it hardest to get a birds’-eye-view of in your mind? To gain a clearer overview of what you’ve written, what you’re currently working on, or what you’ll be working on tomorrow, give yourself 10 minutes to do one of the following:
Write a freewritten description of everything you’ve produced between Days 1-3
Write a freewritten description of today’s writing task
Write a freewritten description of tomorrow’s writing task
Write a freewritten description of your Writing Camp project as you envision it now
Option 3: You do you
If you’re at Writing Camp for the camaraderie and accountability rather than the prompts, that’s great! Do your own thing, and let us know about it in the chat!
Ok, folks: time to get writing!
See you tomorrow for THE FINAL DAY of Writing Camp: ‘Finishers Edition’!!
To celebrate reaching 500 subscribers I’m offering a 40% discount on annual Page by Page subscriptions until 15 May!!
If you’re a free subscriber who’d like access to everything in the PBP archive (plus all paid subscriber posts), or if you’re someone who’s been waiting for an even more affordable way to support my work, this is your chance!
If you’re already a paid subscriber, I have a special thank-you offer for you: DM me to set up a 30-minute online meeting before 15 May to talk about a project you’re working on!
If you’re really feeling generous, and you’d like access to everything on PBP and regular feedback on your own writing whenever you need it, you can become a Founding Member ($150).
VB,
M