Hey Folks,
I rolled out a little early today. I spent the first half-hour or so on a little bit of Internet stuff. Then I listened to Week 5 of my online workshop with DWS.
The main topic this week was the primary reason I took this workshop, especially when combined with the main topic in Week 4. So I went back and reviewed a couple of videos from Week 4 as well and enhanced my notes for Week 5.
The topics in Weeks 1 – 3 weren’t really of interest to me, but I listened to them anyway because Dean often drops useful little gems as he moves among topics.
Next Tuesday will be the final week, so I’ll report then on this workshop. It’s the Mystery workshop, by the way, so I took it partly to learn new things and partly to verify that I was on the right track with some things I was already doing.
Topic: New Goals
I have been feeling pressured — pressure is not a good thing — ever since I reset my goals for the last four months of the year.
So I’m going to reset them again. Goals exist to serve me, not the other way around.
It’s important to me to write Every Day. That’s more important to me than numbers.
I’m convinced that some of the stories that have died over the past several months did so because I was away from them for a day or two or twelve.
It’s difficult at best to get back into a storyline after an absence. It’s much easier to just drop it and start something new.
So my “big” new goal is to write Every Day.
To that end, and to make it more realistic, I’m going to reduce my word count goal. Drastically.
Because frankly, with my current goal of 3,000 words per day, if I have only a half-hour or an hour or even two free in a given day, it’s much easier to throw in the towel and just skip it. (That pressure I mentioned earlier.) And then I feel like crap because I had a nonwriting day.
And that is not good.
So I’m going to try a version of James Scott Bell’s weekly goal. I’m going to shoot for 7,000 words per week. That’s only 1000 words a day for 7 days. One hour per day. I might write more than that, but I don’t want to write less than that.
If I find (as I hope) that I’m regularly exceeding that goal, well good. Then I’ll adjust it again later. Or not. Maybe I’ll just roll with it.
Now, if I write only 7,000 words per week for the rest of this year, I won’t reach 16 novels and novellas by year’s end. But so what? I already have 26 novels and 4 novellas. And over 180 short stories.
So I’m good with that. Right now I just want to get back to where I feel like a professional writer, by which I mean a person who sits down and writes every day.
Will I take a day off? In emergencies, yes. And maybe even in a time of no emergencies if I’ve just finished a work. Maybe I’ll take a day off before I start another one.
But in the meantime, I’ll plug along, putting down at least 1000 words per day of fiction.
I’m already sighing with relief. And of course, I’ll still be reporting my numbers below every day.
Now, at least a couple of you felt intimidated in the past. A couple of folks felt I was putting up numbers too big to “compete” with, although it was never meant to be a competition.
So if this method works for you too, and I truly hope it does, feel free to steal it from me the same way I stole it from James Scott Bell. Who, by the way, is in “Of Interest” below.
***
This WIP is a truly twisted piece of work. And I don’t mean that in a good way, like convoluted. I mean twisted as in bizarre, ugly, misshapen. Something that might be described as “slouching” toward some holy site. That kind of twisted.
So I’m gonna give it its head and see what happens. (grin)
***
I’m very pleased to report I have a new bundle out. My short story collection Mobster Tales is one of eleven ebooks (I think they’re all collections) in the Another Time, Another Place bundle. Here’s the graphic. It should also be a link. $2.99 for eleven ebooks folks. (If it doesn’t link, go to http://bundlerabbit.com/b/another-time-another-place/.)
Back to my twisted WIP for awhile.
Pretty good day today. I’ll take it.
See you then.
Of Interest
Wow. See Dean’s “A Matter of Perspective” at http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/a-matter-of-perspective/.
In The Kill Zone blog, see “Two Writing Mind Tricks to Get You Rolling” at https://killzoneblog.com/2017/09/two-writing-mind-tricks-to-get-you-rolling.html. (I can’t even tell you how much I’m going to take this guy’s advice.)
Some good stuff in The Passive Voice today. See http://www.thepassivevoice.com/.
Fiction Words: 2678
Nonfiction Words: 830 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 3508
Writing of Doctor Ramsey (novel, working title)
Day 1…… 1781 words. Total words to date…… 1781
Day 2…… 2678 words. Total words to date…… 4459
Total fiction words for the month……… 11540
Total fiction words for the year………… 391160
Total nonfiction words for the month… 2860
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 139260
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 530420
The Daily Journal blog streak……………………………………… 647 days
Calendar Year 2017 Novel Goal (15 novels or novellas)………………… 8 novels or novellas
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 26
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 4
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……………………………… 182