by Karen Ball Okay, everyone out there who has:

•  tried, over and over, to be accountable to someone or something, and failed…
• started any number of wonderful endeavors, only to have the energy/motivation/time commitment fizzle out…
• set a word count, then revised…and revised…and revised…and…yeah, you get the idea…
• given yourself a deadline to finish your article/proposal/query/book/whatever, only to fall behind within the first week…

Anyone who has ever struggled with feeling like a big, fat failure because you can’t do what you want/need to do in the time you want/need to do it, raise your hand. C’mon now, lift ‘em high. I’m betting the majority of us could, without hesitation, shoot our hands straight up to the ceiling. Odd, isn’t it, how hard it is to do the things we want to do. Things we even love to do, like writing. We writers are word people. We love words, love creating them, savoring them, sharing them. We want to write, to finish what we’ve started, to even—gasp!—turn our work in early. We start out fully intending to do exactly that, only to find ourselves, down the road, so far behind we know we’ll never catch up. Sure, there are reasons. Sure, some of those reasons are even good. But bottom line, we have to face the fact that we just can’t, as comedian Larry the Cable Guy says, “Git ‘er done.”

So, what’s a writer to do? Well, one step is to add accountability partners to your team. I’m not talking about people who rag on you, who take you to task for not, well, accomplishing a task. This isn’t about people who will make you feel guilty or lazy or worthless. Quite the opposite! I’m talking about finding partners who will walk alongside you in ways that will draw the best efforts out of you, who will work with you to help you accomplish what you want to accomplish. I’m talking about team members who are for you, who will encourage and (when needed) challenge, and who will help you overcome your greatest obstacle: yourself. Take a stroll through Scripture, and you’ll see plenty of verses that can be applied to doing something along these lines:

• “As iron sharpens iron,
so a friend sharpens a friend.” (Proverbs 27:17)
• “Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another.” (Hebrews 10:24-25)
• “Encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing. …we urge you to …encourage those who are timid. Take tender care of those who are weak. Be patient with everyone.” (1 Thessalonians 5:11,14)
• “Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. 10 If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.” (Ecclesiastes 4: 9-10)

So next week, we’ll look at the hows and wherefores of developing these valuable members of your writing team. But first, I want to know a couple of things. First, how do you react to the idea of having team members to hold you accountable?  Second, have any of you have tried this kind of thing already? If so, what worked? What didn’t? What do you wish you’d done different?