Deb Eleanor’s Git-Er-Done Challenge

The Weird Sisters, by Eleanor Brown

My favorite time to write? That’s simple.

I like to write when things are going well. When the words are flowing, when my characters are either doing what I want them to, or coming up with their own ideas that don’t make things too difficult. When I understand what I’m trying to say and describing it exactly the way I feel about it in my head.

I’d imagine it’s pretty much the same for everything creative – there are days for painters when the colors mix just right, and for cooks where the sauce reduces perfectly, and for musicians where the guitar strings never break and the harmonies sound glorious.

The trick is managing it when things aren’t easy. Last week when I asked some other writers for their writing advice, I was interested by how many of them said some form of, “Put your butt in the chair and write.”

I don’t think this is limited to writing. Some days we want to go to work. Some days we want to go to the gym. Some days we want to read the Russian classic that is sitting forlornly on the bedside table.

And sometimes we don’t. And sometimes we do it anyway.

So I give you a challenge. Name the thing you’ve been putting off, waiting until you felt like doing it, and get it done. I don’t care if it’s starting a novel or taking out the recycling. I’ll do it too – look for my comment and I’ll tell you what it is.

When you’ve done it, come back and tell us.

Here’s your incentive: I’ll pick a random achiever at the end of the day and give them a $25 gift certificate to the bookstore of your choice (and yes, my fellow Debs are eligible for this one). Because a little reward never hurts when you’re trying to get things done.

The Results!

Okay, so I am traveling, so I actually wrote this post ahead of time, and when I did, I took the time to do something I had been putting off for literally MONTHS.

I have had beautiful curtains for my office and the bedroom hanging in my closet for months (having spent a good amount of money having them tailored and cleaned, I might add). The hooks were in my office. The rods were up and ready to go. All I had to do was HANG the darn things. Seriously! 15 minutes of work I put off for 6 months.

Bedroom CurtainsOffice Curtains

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The crazy thing is, the curtains look beautiful, and I wish I’d done it way earlier!

So how’d you all do?

The answer is….great! You cleaned out drawers and closets, wrote, exercised, made appointments, and organized the heck out of yourselves.

Congrats to everyone who participated. I think I’ll have to do this again sometime. And random.org says the winner is….

Kristi, who’s getting her house in order, and taking care of her family’s health. Hooray! Kristi, I’ll be in touch via email to get you your gift certificate!

40 Replies to “Deb Eleanor’s Git-Er-Done Challenge”

      1. Kickboxing with only ONE coffee! I ran to Dunkin Donuts after I had the blood draw, slurped down a large – wishing it were Starbucks – got to kickboxing 25 minutes later and THEN went to Starbucks in town for a Venti (aaaahhhhh) after kickboxing! A couple of potty breaks in there too as you can well imagine!

        1. Woohoo! Congratulations!

          I’d always rather have Dunkin than Starbucks (can’t take the bitterness of the dark roast)…unfortunately, in Colorado there ARE no Dunkin Donuts. Can you IMAGINE?

          1. I live in New England, home of Dunkin Donuts, there’s one every six feet in some towns! Definite difference in the coffees – Starbucks tastes like the bottom of an ashtray, and yet I’ve grown to love it. I add milk only. No sugar – At DD in New England a “coffee regular” means cream and sugar. I don’t add sugar to my coffee. I prefer to mainline it in chocolate. You want I should send you a few pounds of DD? Can you at least get it in your stores?

          2. I can get it in the store, and I’m not a big coffee drinker (you don’t want to know how much cream and sugar I put in to mask the taste), so it’s not too bad. But occasionally when I do want a little coffee, I hate that I can’t get it!

            One of my fantasy jobs is opening a DD franchise in Colorado. I’d be a thousandaire.

  3. Great. Thanks for the challenge and I say that with all sarcasm I can muster. Now I have to move my butt and do my thing. Two things I have been putting off: reorganizing my presentation for a class I need to lead on Saturday morning, and blogging. Alright, alright. Here I go to blog. (Knew I should have bypassed the Debutante this morning. lol. Really, thanks for the kick.

  5. Spring Cleaning–and it’s only 48 degrees this morning!
    But I *must* start somewhere today! Thanks for the icentive.

  7. Thank you for the butt kicking. I need it.

    OK, I won’t do this today, but I promise that by the end of Sunday, I will have gotten through my agent’s edits on my third contracted book.

    There. I feel better now.

    Tawna

    1. Will you post in the News Flash that you’ve done it?

      I’ll give you credit if you even looked at them today!

  9. I need to make an appointment with the dentist for my yearly check up. I put it off every year! I don’t even know why…I don’t have a fear of the dentist. I just think there are so many things I’d rather be doing 🙂

    1. You and me both, sister. But I’d rather be in a check up every year than in for root canals every month.

      Did you make the appointment?

  11. Yep, I need a little butt kicking. Promised myself I would starting writing, consistently, a few months ago. NOT been consistent at all! Going to start now- every day, even if it is gobble gook, gotta do it!

  12. My house hasn’t been painted in a decade, the roof needs fixing, fences need painting and repair — I’ve had this on my “To Do” list for TWO YEARS. So today I finally got some folks out here to give me quotes on getting it all done!

  13. I put away an entire laundry room full of laundry!!!! Took (don’t laugh) THREE HOURS!!! Oy… time I needed to spend elsewhere, except clearly with that much laundry to do, it was necessary.

    Thanks for the challenge!

    1. Huzzah! Laundry is one of my least favorite things – it seems to spread like kudzu, and it’s not exactly hard to do, but boy does it feel GREAT looking at empty laundry baskets.

      Hope you feel proud to have defeated it!

      1. I love you more than ever for saying “Huzzah.” I first read the word in Moby Dick in 9th grade, and no one could tell me it wasn’t pronounced HUZZ-uh.

        1. I love that word. Shakespeare geeks, unite!

          My friend Nicole and I have a whole list of words we always see written but never hear – one of hers when she was young was “bodice”, which she thought was “bo-DEECE”. And don’t get me started on archipelago. I couldn’t pronounce that word if my life depending on it.

  14. What fun and motivating, Eleanor. I was gone all day with “To Do’s” outside the house including a dental appointment. No problem there since I love my dentist and gifted her your book in February. She adored it, asked for more recommendations and I promised to email her with TDW selected links…by the end of the week!

    1. Wow, you really are the best fairy godmother ever! Thank you!

      And she’s lucky to have you as a patient – personalized book recommendations while you wait!

  15. Okay, it took me all day to get around to it, but I finally tossed out half the stuff in my lingerie drawers. I’ve been putting that off for years, so thanks for the motivation!

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