The Debrief: Prepare to be pantsed
In April 2023, I ran a public accountability event. If you want to know more about what this was, you can read about it here.
From April 1st through April 30th I logged 31 20-minute writing sessions. If you don’t know by now, the 20-minute writing session is what I teach and preach. It’s called Toucan20 in my little birdy world over here in my cozy corner of the internet.
I shamelessly set out to do this public event as a way to gain more followers, newsletter subscribers, eyes on my offerings, etc. I practically begged people to join me.
I may have gotten a few people into my free mini-course or 30-day challenge (the latter of which I’ll be upgrading this weekend, fingers crossed). But all in all, my main goal was to finish two short stories for my fiction newsletter, Horror and More-er.
Below are the results.
The Numbers
Pretty staggering, if you ask me. Full disclosure, I do type very fast at about 90 words per minute (last I checked). But it’s still eye opening. Tracking this kind of data for a month can lead to one’s ability to estimate how long it’ll take to write a first draft.
Overall Mood and Motivation
I kept a Captain’s Log during this event and tracked how my mood and motivation were.
Smilies I gave a score of 3, Neutrals 2, Blanks 1.
# of Smilies: 16
# of Neutrals: 9
# of Blanks*: 5
*I didn’t want to use Frownies because they’re too sad
Average mood/motivation score: 2.33
So, despite having a less than stellar mood/motivation score I still showed up every day (one day I stayed for a second round).
The End Result
On April 30th, I was so glad this public accountability event was over. I’m not going to lie. I went into it with high levels of stress and anxiety, and by the end I was so happy I didn’t have to publicly report out anymore.
However, knowing there was a chance someone out there might look at my log or my tracker, it motivated me to keep showing up. The accountability was super important.
On May 1st, I logged another session out of sheer habit. I didn’t have to. I wanted to.
The habit was set.
Will I do this again?
You bet your cute little butt I will! Next time, though, I think I’ll invite people into my new and improved 30-day challenge instead. It makes more sense.
You live, you learn, amiright?
So, what can 20 minutes do for you?
Learn more in my free mini-course with private podcast.
