Page Buoy

[clare_dragonfly]

I have joined Page Buoy and created a group for anyone who wants to join me! Because the site is kind of a pain to navigate (apparently to see site stuff instead of your stuff, you click "show public content," except sometimes that means see the same thing you'd see if you weren't logged in), here is a link to the specific group: Bunnies!. There are no goals yet because the site won't let me add one--I've sent an email to the creator. But I was thinking maybe 7,000 words a week as a basic goal? Unless goals don't need to be monthly, which it doesn't look like they do.

I haven't entirely figured out how to use the site yet. But I will. Probably.

ETA: The goals thing is fixed so the group now has a goal of 7,000 words a week. (You choose whether or not to join goals within a group.) Open for suggestions of other goals. I'm not sure how the system learns that you've achieved a goal--you might have to upload projects for it and that might be too much of a pain in the ass for me.

Comments

[sterling]

I joined the site, and was looking around a bit. I don't know how that would work for me. Goals are sometimes intangible. For me, writing isn't always about word count, but involves a myriad of other things.

Let's just say for a moment, that with a goal of 7,000 words a week, that's roughly 1,000 a day. Or 1400 a day if you subscribe to the idea that you work five days and have two off like everyone else in the world. Is that reasonable? Some days, sure. But every working day?

My goals tend to be like a part time job. I spend 4 (or more if motivated further) hours a day, doing something writing related. I tend to do this 5 days a week, and have two floater days that count as a weekend. Sometimes I craft actual words, other times I outline, read resources, discuss with peers, go to writer group meetings, note about a character, brainstorm my plots, consider my markets, look for viable publishing, etc. A word count goal wouldn't work well for me at all... but it might work for you!

I'm probably rambling here, due to lack of sleep (lol) but I thought I'd put my impressions forward. :D

PS: Read your landing page. Comprehension has been attained. XD

[clare_dragonfly]

If I could get myself better organized, I would probably make myself work for a certain number of hours ^^;; But wordcount goals work for me because I can fit them in wherever. I do most of that other stuff that you listed, but while it sort of counts as productivity for me, it doesn't count as work... maybe because it doesn't feel like it? Well, the publishing stuff does, but I haven't done much of that XD I do have that as a goal on my daily goal tracker but it's not nearly as concrete as wordcount to me, and therefore I can't always say whether I've done it--or done enough.

The site appears to allow both "wordcount" and "endgame" goals. I don't really know what the second one means, but if I were to add something, is there a goal that would work for you? Or do you not quantify your goals at all?

Huzzah for comprehension! :D

[sterling]

From what I understand, you can quantify goals in a few different ways. The two most common, as applies to our discussion would be:

- Work on writing project for 4 hours a day, for a total of 20 hours per week.

- Write 1000 words a day.

The interesting part is that you could use both in tandem if you really wanted to. I went looking for a generic article on goal-setting to make sure I wasn't making this up: http://www.ehow.com/info_8079256_good-goal-setting.html

So, I suppose a goal that works better for my way of doing things would be something like: Work on writing project at least 20 hours a week. :) This is definitely a challenge with my schedule and level of motivation, so it feels like a good fit.

I'll see if I can figure out how to join the group shortly. Might as well help see if this is a useful tool, or just one more thing to remember to maintenance (lol).

[clare_dragonfly]

I added a goal of 20 hours a week of work, just to see. On the goal listing it looks like "endgame" is as opposed to "weekly" instead of "wordcount" like it says when you're creating a goal.

You are in the group! :D It looks like you have to choose a specific project to join the goal? This is... a weird site. I'm not sure it will be a useful tool. There are a lot of odd and confusing things about the site... and the creator apparently found my DW and responded to my confusion about how to see members/public things in an email (response to my bug email)... so I'm a little weirded out.

[sterling]

Looks good. Apparently the site emails members when you add projects or modify the group. I got a notice, which was nice. I did some clicking around, and didn't find it incredibly intuitive, but then again, I'm operating on about four hours of sleep at the moment, so it could be me.

And yes, that is a little... eh, weird. That sort of thing is of the reasons I have very few public posts in my personal journal.

[aldersprig]

7000 is my current weekly goal, so I like that :-D

[clare_dragonfly]

Excellent! :D I don't have a weekly goal but I go for 1000 a day, so... well, I guess I have a weekly goal now, because they fixed it and I added it to the group!

[aldersprig]

I shall go play when my brain isn't pounding.

I have a weekly because some days just don't happen.

It's dubdivided, too.

[clare_dragonfly]

Aww. ::sends hugs and tea:: I hope you feel better soon!

It's true that some days just don't happen. That's when I beat myself up >.> (Well, not always. Sometimes I have legitimate reasons.) I wonder if a weekly goal would work well for me. I mean, I have this daily goal tracker, but I could always add it up at the end of the week and keep track in a different document...

Subdivided? How so? Different projects?

[aldersprig]

I have...
7000/week
half of which must be non-Addergoole
(on weeks E. and I are really going, we easily make that; I count half of the Addergoole words co-written towards count)

1200/week Tir na Cali novel
1200/week what I call Marketable Magic (parts of the ebooks, stories I can sell, etc.)

[clare_dragonfly]

Interesting! How do you know beforehand what might be marketable? I rarely know what's going to even feel complete to me...

Hmm, I should probably have a minimum for non-Chatoyant (which is always at least 1600 a week, for two 800-word chapters, unless I'm doing something like going on vacation) and non-fanfic.

[aldersprig]

Well, "with the intention of being able to sell it." The 250-word drabbles don't count, for instance.

[kay_brooke]

I've requested to join. I'll try my best to write 1000 words a day, which is what I should be doing anyway but haven't been able to succeed at so far. :\

[clare_dragonfly]

You can do it! ::cheers, waves pompoms::