Discipline, again and again, but Melly and Nienke have a suggestion

I have an idea.
Actually, I came by the idea due to a good friend whom most of you know. Nienke from The Writing Life told me the other day, "Let's do a writing war. Let's meet and write. This way we would simply have to," she said.
So we did. We met online, clocked the time, and after an hour we said - how did it go?
She made some serious advance in her outline; I had written 1,036 words!
We were ecstatic.

So I was thinking... Most writers often complain about lack of discipline. Why not try and inject some discipline into us?

Here's the idea:
Nienke or I will set up a group in, say, Google or Yahoo! or something.
We won't talk about writing in the group, but we'd write.

Here's how I think it might work:
- We'll "meet" twice a week at set times, let's say (this can all change). For example: Tuesday and Thursday at 9:00 p.m. ET.
- Before 9, all participants will post their goal for the hour-long-session. Examples:

• - My goal is to write 500 words.
• - My goal is to finish chapter 4, or that complicated fighting scene
• - My goal is to work on the outline for chapters 11-20.
• - My goal is to find a market for my latest short story and submit.

You see, very specific goal.

- Then, at 9:00, I'll sound the bell and everybody would start working.
- The session will be an hour-long and at 10:00 I'll sound the closing bell. Of course, you can continue working.
- After the session has closed, all participants will send me a quantifiable success rate. 0%-100% of goal accomplished. No reasons, no excuses. Just goal and success rate.
- I'll compile the results and either post it here on our blogs, or in the group.

So what do you think?
Is that an idea that's already been done somewhere?
Is it completely retarded?

If you think it is a good idea, then tell us if you would like to participate and what would be good times for you.

If we get a move on it, we might be able to have it ready for NaNo.

Now it's up to you.

Categories: writing