In today’s Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* End of July and Goals
* Bradbury Challenge
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quotes of the Day
“Optimism is a perfectly legitimate response to failure.” Stephen King
“Sometimes you have to go on when you don’t feel like it, and sometimes you’re doing good work when it feels like all you’re managing is to shovel sh*t from a sitting position.” Stephen King
“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” Stephen King
These quotes were part of my response to a post titled “Running and Writing and Competition.” See “Of Interest.”
End of July and Goals
Today is the last day of the month. It’s difficult for me to believe I’ve written so little this month, or for the past few months. Or for the past two years, really. More on that later.
I’m using August 1 as a firm restart date. Today will be a dry run and a prep day. Beginning tomorrow morning, I’ll sit in the Hovel at the keyboard of my writing ‘puter (with a brief break every hour) for at least four hours. I’ll either write or I’ll just sit there. No email, no games.
If a topic I deem important occurs to me for the Journal, I might write that, but otherwise it will be all fiction.
My daily word count goal will remain, or rather resume at, 3000 words per day. That won’t be easy for me because I let myself get out of the habit. So it will be difficult at first, but over time it will become easier. If I can’t write 3000 words of fiction in a day, I might as well retire and go fishing.
That’s 90,000 words per month. And I’m not going to guide the words or fret over where they’re going. They will go wherever they’re required, to write or finish vignettes or short stories, novellas or novels.
I don’t care what format the words go into, only that I produce them. Why? Because if I’m going to be a fiction writer again, what’s important is THAT I write, not WHAT I write. If you don’t understand that yet, keep working on it. You will. And it’s essential.
Also, that monthly goal of 90,000 words per month is For Now. A day or two ago I said I want to get back to my standard of writing over 100,000 words per month. That requires an average daily output of 3,333 words of publishable fiction. I can’t touch that yet. But I will.
Even at my lowest acceptable (for me) word count goal, that’s at least 90,000 words per month for the rest of the year. That will be 450,000 additional new words of fiction by December 31.
To illustrate how far I’ve fallen, in the first seven months of this year, I wrote only 110,000 words, an overall average of 15,714 words per month, or about 524 words per day on average.
Yes, I didn’t write at all for a lot of those days, but that doesn’t matter. What matters are the averages.
For example, my total fiction for all of 2022 was only 284,661 (around 780 words per day on average). Ridiculous.
My total fiction for the first 7 months of 2021 was 616,349 (88,050 words per month or 2935 per day), BUT my total fiction production for the last five months of 2021 was only 20,400 words. That’s 4080 words per month or 136 words per day.
I hope you can take something from the above that will motivate you or serve as a warning or otherwise help in your setting goals and accomplishing them.
Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting
Most of those who have joined in this challenge have written tens of thousands more words than they might have otherwise. You can still join in the challenge at any time. And if you’re a fiction writer, why not?
There’s no cost, and the challenge is a great way to increase your inventory and jumpstart your writing. Chances are you’ll have more fun than you’ve had in a long time. The challenge is also a great way to get more practice pushing down the critical voice.
Plus, if you see yourself as a short story writer, what is the down side to engaging in this challenge? It isn’t like I’m asking you to write a novel. Just write a stupid story, then publish it, then write another one. And dare to show off, letting others know what you’re doing.
Anyway, during the past week, in addition to whatever other fiction they’re writing, the following writers reported their progress:
- Erin Donoho “Committed Friends” 2000 words Historical Fiction
- Balázs Jámbor “Life Reasercher” 2500 words Psychological
- George Kordonis “Little Things” 3485 words Supernatural Horror
- Alexander Nakul “Little She-Wolf, Thunderstorm and Layer Cake” 1473 words Erotic Fantasy
- Chynna Pace “Footprints in the Snow” 1987 words Fantasy
- Christopher Ridge “The Meatball Machine” 2000 words Crime
- K.C. Riggs “Believe Your Eyes” 4477 words Paranormal
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “Decide Where You’re Standing in Time as You Write Your Memoir” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/decide-where-youre-standing-in-time-as-you-write-your-memoir/. Be sure to see PG’s take.
See “Running and Writing and Competition” at https://killzoneblog.com/2023/07/running-and-writing-and-competition.html. Too silly for words.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 830
Writing of “Pretend Writer”
Day 1…… 2322 words. Total words to date…… 2322
Writing of “Untitled Stern Talbot Mystery”
Day 1…… 190 words. Total words to date…… 190
Writing of “Marvin McTavish Decides”
Day 1…… 326 words. Total words to date…… 326
Day 2…… 346 words. Total words to date…… 672
Writing of “A Midnight Sketch”
Day 1…… 1341 words. Total words to date…… 1341
Writing of Rose Padilla (WCG10SF5)
Day 1…… 4283 words. Total words to date…… 4283
Day 2…… 3963 words. Total words to date…… 8246
Day 3…… 1463 words. Total words to date…… 9709
Day 4…… 2445 words. Total words to date……12154
Total fiction words for July……… 4525
Total fiction words for 2023………… 143100
Total nonfiction words for July… 18350
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 149900
Total words for the year (fiction and nonfiction)…… 264447
Calendar Year 2023 Novels to Date…………………… 2
Calendar Year 2023 Novellas to Date……………… 0
Calendar Year 2023 Short Stories to Date………… 4
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………… 73
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……………………… 221
Short story collections…………………………………………. 31
Disclaimer: I am a prolific professional fiction writer. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark, adherence to Heinlein’s Rules, and that following the myths of fiction writing will slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.
My daughter began writing twenty years ago, with many Nanowrimo’s in her preteens.
She is an example to me of steadiness.
But she goes fishing, and writes. Using a cheap and portable 80’s Alphasmart word processor running on a AA battery. It’s not like the fish are in any hurry to bite.
You could do the equivalent of both, maybe writerbrain could use some grace.
But you’ve got this, we’re certain.
Please don’t be so severe with yourself!
Thanks, Heather. Ever since I left home at 17, I’ve striven to accomplish things. Hard to break old habits, even when my age and growing infirmities insist that I do. (grin)