BINGO!

It’s been a minute since we’ve talked about one of my journals. So, I wanted to jump back into one for this week. This journal is not like the others. It is not one that gets used every day, and sometimes it doesn’t get used every week. But it’s one that I really love and I wanted to share with you.

This journal is my Writing Bingo journal. And I know I’ve lost some of you because you’re thinking that this has nothing to do with you or what you like or what you do. But stick with me here. There might be more in this for you than what you think right now.

Before I actually get into how I use this journal, I’m going to tell you about how the idea came about. It all started with Goal Bingo. A girl on TikTok shared something she started doing; goal bingo. She printed out a blank bingo sheet, and then filled in goals she wanted to accomplish. And then, when she would get a bingo, she had prizes that she could get herself.

A friend of mine and I decided to give it a go. We made our bingo boards with our goals, wrote out some things we wanted as prizes, and then set off on a 6 month goal bingo journey.

Did I complete my whole board? No. But I did complete some of my goals. And it put me in the right direction for some things for sure. I made my first cake from scratch because of the goal bingo, so that’s a win for sure.

I joked while doing goal bingo that I had to promise myself prizes for doing adult things that I should probably do anyway. But if it worked, it worked. It got me doing those things. So, if there are things that you need or want to do, but you haven’t found that motivation to do them, make a game out of it. It works.

But after goal bingo ended, I kinda knew the concept would stick around somewhere in my life. I just wasn’t sure where that would be. Until I realized that I needed to set some writing goals.

Let me tell you a little something about me. I do have a degree in English-Creative Writing. And yet, I have only self-published one book, and it was written my seen year of high school, roughly edited, and needed way more work than I knew how to put in. So, it’s been a long time and I have been trying to write something to publishing status since forever.

I have participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) a few times. And what you do for that is, the whole month of November, you write and try to get to 50,000 words. It breaks down to about 1,667 words a day. And I usually made it. But by the halfway point, I hated whatever it was, and I was just writing to write.

Because of that, I chose not to continue doing NaNoWritMo. But I will always want to write. And I do need to set writing goals for myself so I can keep growing in that skill. Thus, the writing bingo journal was formed.

I have one page for the story to start with, and each page gets 2 boards, one for words and one for pages. Words go up by 1,000 and pages go up by 5.

And then, as I reach those goals for that particular story, I get to put a sticker on that space. And you know that just makes me the happiest because STICKERS! I have these little mini banner-ish stickers that I didn’t know what to do with that make the perfect bingo board markers. And if I run out of those, I’ll find different small stickers to use; I’m sure that won’t be a problem.

My current project has been going on for a while, but I’ve had to restart and revise a lot already, so I haven’t been able to make any squared off in a while. And that’s okay. I’m working my way back up to where that one was originally, and then I can start marking the spaces off as I keep going.

And because I have a whole journal to use for this, I can add boards for any project I start. And sometimes, it doesn’t last super long, but it’s a reminder of a project I was excited about and had to step away from. Maybe I’ll go back to it, maybe I won’t. And either is fine.

Is there something you could use a bingo board for to help get you motivated? Maybe there are some chores around the house that you keep putting off. Maybe there are new recipes you have been wanting to try. Maybe there’s a hobby you want to work on and improve.

I honestly think it would be so fun to make a board for cooking and baking. And I might just have to take my own advice for that one. It would definitely help me try new things and keep track of the things I want to do.

Try out making a bingo board. I kid you not, the level of pride you feel when you mark off each item is amazing.

But remember, don’t get down on yourself if you don’t mark everything off right away. It’s okay to take your time. It doesn’t have to be done in one day, one week, one month, or even one year. Work on that bingo board as long as you want or need. And if you finish one, make another one.