Let’s negotiate

A lot of people didn’t finish the last NPI, but I’d like as many people to finish this one as possible.

So I’m affording you the opportunity to negotiate the terms with me before I post the ruleset for the March event.

Last time, it was 250 words per day, with three ‘Days of Reprieve’, which essentially meant you could write 0-249 words for three days out of the month and still pass NPI. The fourth time was considered a ‘Knock-Out’.

And I held the participants to that—After all if there’s no accountability, what’s the point of running an event that’s supposed to teach consistency?

What’s up for negotiation?:

1: 250+ words per day.

This can be negotiated. Would 200 be easier to maintain? Would you rather raise the bar and bring it to 350? Be honest.

2: 3 ‘Days of Reprieve’.

I like Days of Reprieve. At first there were none. Then there was one. Now there’s three (as of December’s NPI). Three seems like a pretty good number, but this can also be negotiated.

3: ???

Anything else you can think of.

Here’s some food for thought: We all know self-imposed deadlines can be great motivators. Maybe the only thing that’s better is a deadline imposed by someone else?

If you have any suggestions or negotiations, please share.

By the way, this post is exactly 214 words.

13 replies on “Let’s negotiate

  1. As one of the non-finishers last time, I definitely want the accountability – so no negotiating from me! Happy with 250 words and one reprieve day

    :-)

  2. I did one successful round of NPI — and loved it. I did a less successful round, I think — although I’m blanking on whether or not it was less successful b/c I didn’t finish, or because it was more like pulling teeth.

    Anyway, I like it. Three reprieve days seems pleasant and generous — and to a certain extent, I think 350 is as easy/hard to produce as 250. The point is sitting down. 250 is nice b/c it’s about the length of a typewritten page.

    Anyway, I’d like to participate next time, b/c I did feel like it kept me accountable and responsible. And it was productive.

  3. I personally would like the opportunity for catch up credit toward reprieve days. I frequently have days where I write considerably more than 250 words a day, and I’d love to be able to use them to earn weekends (or whatever) off.

  4. I would be for raising the bar to 350 at least since there are no major holidays in March. I don’t feel like I hit a good enough writing stride in only 250 words and then I don’t keep writing after hitting my daily minimum for NPI.

  5. huh! interesting.
    There’s some that would prefer 350, some that want no days of reprieve, some that want three….
    I think a good middle ground would be this:
    Everybody starts out with 1 day of reprieve.
    Write 1000 words or more in a day and earn another day of reprieve. After all, it’s FOUR TIMES the minimum required, and there’s really been no motivation to go above and beyond 250 … other than ranking … and showing us that you got your groove on that day.

    So if you wrote 1000 words every other day and used all your earned days of reprieve, you’d still end up with 15,000 words.

    What do you guys think?

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  7. LOVE the idea of earning “days off” by writing over 1K. That’s a fabulous incentive which I might just incorporate into daily life.

    Cook dinner? Not tonight, love of my life – I wrote 1000 words so it’s my night off. Takeaway is on you.

    Take minutes for the meeting? No, no, el Presidente of my local community organisation which I won’t name – I wrote 1000 words today, let the assistant secretary do it.

    I can see a pattern forming…

  8. Pingback: Accountability in 2010 « Janette Dalgliesh

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