{"id":6408,"date":"2021-01-01T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-01T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/townhouse\/articles\/commit-commit\/"},"modified":"2021-01-01T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-01-01T13:00:00","slug":"commit-commit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/commit-commit\/","title":{"rendered":"Commit, commit!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My normal emails are, as you know, long and baggy. They tell jokes. They digress. Sometimes (goat folding \u2013 pah!) they have no practical purpose whatsoever. This email, born as it is, in the clarity and cold of a New Year\u2019s Day, is short and to the point.<\/p>\n<p>Friends, it is time to commit.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What do you want to achieve, as a writer, in the next six months?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s not a rhetorical question. I actually want you to answer me. I want you to tell me \u2013 tell the world \u2013 what your intentions are.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t want answers that may be unachievable. So, yes, lots of you will want to say something like:<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left:20px;\"><em>\u201cBy 1 July 2021, I want to get a six-figure deal from a Big Five house.\u201d, or<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left:20px;\"><em>\u201cBy 1 July 2021, I want three books self-published on Amazon and a monthly income of at least $2,500.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>And sure, lots of you will have aspirations like those. But I want commitments that definitely lie within your capability. If you don\u2019t achieve the goal, I want that to be because you haven\u2019t done what you said you would do.<\/p>\n<p>Put another way, we\u2019re not, today, in the business of lifting a prayer to the universe. We\u2019re in the business of building a To Do list that we will systematically execute.<\/p>\n<p>So the kind of things I want to hear from you might be things like:<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left:20px;\"><em>\u201cI will completely my current manuscript. I will self-edit it hard. I will get a third-party manuscript assessment (from Jericho Writers, obviously \ud83d\ude0a). Then I will submit the work to at least 12 properly selected agents. I will have the book out on submission to those agents no later than 30 June 2021.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>A newer author might make a commitment more like this:<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left:20px;\"><em>\u201cI will read at least three books on writing. I will watch and absorb all of the Jericho Writers\u2019 video course on How To Write. I will spend at least 7 hours a week on writing, every single week. I will write at least 50,000 words of my current project. I will get beta-readers to look at 2x chunks of the book. I will commit to offering feedback to at least 12 other writers, so I contribute my share to the community. I will do all this by 30 June 2021.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Someone who\u2019s heading for the sunlit Land of Self-Pub might say something like this:<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left:20px;\"><em>\u201cI will complete my manuscript. I will get editorial feedback on it, complete my edits, and get the whole thing copy-edited. I will select a cover designer, deliver a brief, and get a quality cover that I\u2019m happy with. I\u2019ll research my metadata and make the choices I need. I will write and produce a lead magnet that will act as the basis for my mailing list. I will do all this by 29 June 2021.\u201d [Why the 29th? Because self-pubbers always work harder and faster than trad authors.]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>OK. You get the picture. I\u2019m after specific commitments by you, that lie within your power to execute in the next six months.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, you can simply write those on a sheet of paper and glue it above your computer, but public commitments work better. I want you to enter the public square and make your commitments visible to all.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll do the same. So please make your commitments right here on Townhouse. (If you\u2019re not a member, then <a href=\"https:\/\/community.jerichowriters.com\/page\/create-account\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"bx-link\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">become one<\/a>. It\u2019s fast and free to do so.)<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s it from me. I promised short. Here\u2019s short:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><strong>Make your commitment.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><strong>Make it here on Townhouse.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><strong>Do it now.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On Friday 2 July, we\u2019re all going to check back on your promises. See how we\u2019ve done.<\/p>\n<p>Onwards!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My normal emails are, as you know, long and baggy. They tell jokes. They digress. Sometimes (goat folding \u2013 pah!) they have no practical purpose whatsoever. This email, born as it is, in the clarity and cold of a New Year\u2019s Day, is short and to the point. Friends, it is time to commit. What<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":6410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29292],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-harrys-friday-email"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Jericho Writers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/commit-commit\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Commit, commit! &#8211; Jericho Writers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My normal emails are, as you know, long and baggy. 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