Sometimes wrangling the people in our lives to help us with accountability isn’t an option. We either can’t find the type of people we need, or we need steel-plated boundaries with the ones we have. Exhausting.

Good news! Not all is lost. Let’s go outside of our hometown and look at some of the most helpful accountability tools available. And who can help most? Strangers on the Internet.

Sprints

There are a few different types, but the gist is the same. You sit down and you write for a specific amount of time with no distractions or editing. Just writing as many words as you can.

  • Group or Community Sprints – These happen in real life and on the internet. They were a big part of the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) machine, and the added dose of competition never hurt. Usually, these took place in regional hubs and meetups. You can still find group writing sessions and sprints in local creative spaces like community centers, bookstores, and libraries.
  • Solo Sprints – Folks who sprint on their own tend to use the pomodora method. 25 minutes of keyboard mayhem, followed by a 5 minute break. After 3 or 4 cycles, they take a 30 minute breather.

Project-Based Groups With a Targeted End Goal

The most famous of these before their scandalous fiery end was NaNoWriMo. The idea was to write a novel (or 50k words) in a single month (November). There were stats, badges, word trackers, and a lot of encouragement around. Bri was in HEAVEN watching that little graph chart up.

  • If you’re into the gamification aspect of NaNo, Trackbear, is a way to track your writing progress and customize your writing goals. And you can also use a good, old-fashioned spreadsheet.
  • Groups like NaNoEdMo (National Novel Editing Month) still exist, and can be a great way to find accountability for a specific project.
  • Bri and her romance writer’s group do RoWritMo (Romance Writing Month) every November, with custom-designed, romance-themed badges for progress and milestones. They’re always open for new challengers to join!

Contests

There’s nothing like cash prizes and a deadline to keep you in the chair.

  • Reedsy posts a prompt every Friday, and writers submit their story by the following Monday for the chance to win $250. If you’re looking for a way to sit down and write anything, this is a great strategy.
  • If you need a little more time, but still like the structure, several literary magazines have contests with cash prizes and publication attached. The competition guidelines are typically published months in advance and let writers know the theme or craft-based parameters.

Online Writing Communities

We think the best one is ours, The Rogue Writing Community Hour over on The Rogue MFA YouTube channel every other Thursday evening at 4pm PST/ 7pm EST. The full calendar of dates is on our Community page. 

We’re curious! What does your ideal community look like? We’d love to hear from you so we can make ours even better. The survey takes 2 minutes, and after telling us what to do, you’ll be heady with power. Muahh! Thanks in advance, truly.

My Ideal Community

Whether you find accountability and community among friends, or join a larger collective online, we’re stoked that you’re taking your work seriously.