Bo-Bo Knows Accountability Mondays

So a little more than a year ago, I ran a marathon. Let's ignore for a minute that I've gone totally soft since then and can't actually remember the last time I ran (today's as good a day to begin again as any, I say).

The important thing about this marathon is that I did it. Me. With a body that has almost always looks better suited to competitive eating than running did it for one simple reason: I found a training program set up like a to-do list that was like crack to my type-A step-by-step mentality. It helped that I loved my cause (Grubbies 4 eva, and all that) but having the heart to do something only gets you to the starting line. To cross the finish takes a clear understanding of the neuroses you have to co-opt for your cause.In my case, an addiction to crossing things off a to-do list in exactly the same way I'd cross off four training runs a week.

You know what you can't cross off a to-do list?

Finishing the (expletive deleted) novel, that's what!

I'm not talking about your daily email-so-and-so-and-pay-the-mortgage-and-call-that-client-and-go-get-groceries list but the larger to-do list in your brain. The finish-the-novel line item just sits there, taking up space, like a house guest that made you giddy the first year she stayed with you, but is still there years later, sitting around, like an un-cross-off-able lump.

I know the solution is breaking the novel down into drafts or chapters or pages or word counts. But then the to-do list monster rears its head, and the math seems painfully clear: if you write you'll cross off one thing, but if you send that email, pay the mortgage, call that client, and get your groceries, you'll not only cross off FOUR things, but you'll also eat.

You know.

At a table in a house that isn't heading into foreclosure. 

The thing is, the writer in me is sick of being shuttled to the bottom of my daily to-do list. So I'm doing the only thing that I know has worked in the past. No, not page counts. When you're working on revision, a full day's work might end in a negative page count. Page counts are evil for revision. You can't see it, but I'm holding my fingers up in a cross at the words "page counts" on the screen. 
Nope. I'm doing something a little more weighty. I'm taking on writing as a part-time job.

What's that you say? Hasn't writing been a part-time job for me for years? Well, you'd think. But have you ever known me to blow off a job--freelance or salaried or what have you--because I needed to go grocery shopping? Have you ever known me to blow a deadline when someone--besides me--was actually waiting for something? No. Because I'm a doormat when it comes to the promises I make. I need to work on that, I really do. But not before I co-opt that doormat attitude for the one project I'll tell anyone who listens is the nearest and dearest to my creative self.

So I'm signing a contract today:

I, Catherine Elcik, on Monday, October 17, 2011, agree to take on the position of part-time writer, defined herein as 15 hours a week for 50 weeks (a girl's gotta have a couple weeks vacation!) for a total of 750 hours in a year. Kay. Thanks. Bye. 

Some part of me looks at that number and thinks 15 hours seems like such a drop in the bucket compared to all the other things I do with my time (my full-time job, walking Bo-Bo, watching Dr. Who like a freshly converted addict...) But if having a tangible goal actually gets me to add drops into the bucket, I just might have something at year's end. If not a finished novel, perhaps a finish line in sight. The part of me that's wondering if I really want to publish this post at all knows that it's not only going to work, but it's what I need. Deep breath. Hit send. Write. Wish me luck!


Catherine Elcik is a writer in the Boston area. Watch for "Accountability Monday" updates here or on her Twitter feed (#accmon) every Monday.