This is where being accountable gets you!

What a productive Sunday afternoon for me: I’ve written 2,300 words of “Chapter One”, ie the real thing and not just notes or bits of chapters or anything else that puts off actually admitting I’m writing a real book. And if I am absolutely honest, what motivated me to light a fire and settle on the sofa with my laptop (well, if you have the opportunity to work like that you shouldn’t pass it up, should you?) is the blogging community. I’d committed, on 1st January, to blogging every day about my book, and I’d talked about interviews, notes, pondering and planning, but not very much about the writing itself. But I felt accountable so I did something about it.

This reminded me of The Great Gordino’s post from yesterday, comparing blogging with healthy eating and exercise. Because today has been a whole day of being accountable to my community and benefitting as a result. The reason? Today was the start of bootcamp again after the Christmas break. The bootcamp I go to is run by Vicki Cumberworth, a good friend and very demanding personal trainer, who has pretty much steered me from unfit and unwell to fit and bouncy, assisted by her more than able husband Sean Marks who plays football for Braintree FC. Vicki is “bad cop”, telling us we can do things that look impossible (then to our delight we find out she was right) and Sean is “good cop”, providing motivation and encouragement when we need it most.

Anyway, what gets me out of bed on a Sunday morning when all I want to do is snooze a bit longer, especially on a cold day like today? Of course it helps to have paid, because then you’ve invested in the session, but if I really wanted a lie-in I could claim that I had paid for that too. And it helps to be committed to the trainer, because they are expecting you and they might shout when they next see you. But what really gets me there is my community. I’ll see my friend Tracy, and we’ll work through the circuits together, having a natter when the exercise permits, and if I don’t turn up she’ll ask me where I was. There is great camaraderie and the only competition is extremely good natured and non-pressured. We have a laugh and we congratulate ourselves for getting up and getting a good, tough workout done. Whether or not I’d given up on the benefits of exercise and wasting money, the last thing I want to sacrifice is being part of the group, turning up to participate and that feeling of belonging.

And so, today, it was the same with my writing. I really, really wanted to report to my readers that I’d made a start on Chapter One, to turn up and participate as I had promised to. So I have. Just as, tomorrow at the gym, no-one can say “where were you yesterday morning?”, nobody can ask about my writing and when is it going to start for real. Not just fiddling about. Because I’ve started. Hooray!