“the crowded city” by devi laskar

Over the course of this year’s election cycle you were probably inundated with emails urging you to contribute hard cold cash to one of the campaigns for President of the U.S. of A.

Many pundits credited President Obama and his team for a fantastic “ground game.”  That’s when the all the hard work and intensive planning that they did over the past 18 months came into fruition. That’s when you received 17 emails a day encouraging you to not only donate, but to make sure that you voted; to not only vote but to make sure that all your friends voted too. This strategy, while often irritating (how many times did they have to ask me to contribute even after I had?) was put into place months and months ago.

On November 1^st just five days before the election I received yet another Obama campaign email. This one didn’t ask me for a penny. Instead it asked me to check in with my friends about whether or not they had a plan to vote.  I joked with one of my BWW classmates that this email sounded a lot like what we do in our Workshop where we have set up a system to do daily email check-ins about what we have accomplished that day and what work we’re planning for the next day. We apply gentle pressure on our colleagues each and every day.

At first, when I received these nudges, I wasn’t sure this was for me. But after a few weeks of back and forth check-ins I can see that they have kept me from drifting away from the world of my book between submissions. Even if I only manage to jot down one thing that I did, or set one goal, that’s one image/goal/idea/plan closer to writing than nothing at all would be.  And I get to give it back, support others and pay it forward.

Here’s my translation of the Obama campaign’s 5 Good Reasons (to reach out right now) as it relates to writers and writing.

Five Good Reasons To Have a Writing Buddy System in Place

1. Studies have shown that people are far more likely to do something if they make a plan beforehand. (no translation needed)

2. It will help us plan effectively if you and your friends make a plan.  Translation: it helps when setting writing goals if you do it in community.

3. We’ll send them a reminder about the plan they made to help them stick with it.

Translation: As your writing buddy, I will hold you accountable for your writing goal by checking in with you.

4. Their vote could be the reason President Obama wins a second term, and that’s good for all of us.

Translation: Your book could change the world.

5. The ability to decide the future of our government and our country with our vote is the most important right and duty we have as Americans. You don’t leave something like that to chance. Translation: You have a writer’s voice, talent and something important to say. Do not squander your creativity.

So, are you ready? Make sure your friends and family — especially those living in battleground states — have a plan for when and where they’ll vote, too.

Translation: Make sure your writing friends have a cohesive plan for when and how they will do their daily writing as well as finish their book and make sure that you make that same plan for yourself. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Julie is a fiction writer, yoga teacher and licensed clinician in private somatic/ yoga therapy  practice.  She is the author of the widely read “365 Yoga: Daily Meditations,” a Tarcher/Penguin book that has been converted into a daily boxed set calendar published yearly by Sellars Publishers. Julie is writing a novel set in Kerala, India and you can join her next February 2013 on a Yoga Retreat to Southern India. Read more here: http://www.yogabliss.com  or here: Awaken Yoga Bliss (Facebook).