In today’s Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* Setting a “Floor” Goal
* Be sure to see
* After the novel sputtered
* Remember that you
* The Numbers
Quotes of the Day
“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.” Robert Frost
“Despite the number of writing skills we’ve mastered, if we’re not excited about the story we’re telling, it’s going to show.” Lori Freeland
Topic: Setting a “Floor” Goal
After reading Dean Wesley Smith’s post on the personal goals he set for himself for 2021 — including what he called a “floor” — I almost decided to also set a floor goal for my own fiction writing. Seems like a good idea, if only to establish a streak. As I can readily attest, streaks have massive power.
Dean and I both use word-count goals but we use them differently. Dean counts all “consumable” words, meaning fiction and nonfiction words that make him money, in his overall annual count.
Although I also keep track of nonfiction (this blog, sometimes my other blog, and any nonfiction books I write), when it comes to specific goals, I count only my fiction. I don’t set specific goals for my nonfiction (I don’t think Dean does either), and I don’t count my nonfiction toward my annual goal.
So my daily word-count goal for fiction remains 4,000 words per writing day. As I wrote at the beginning, I also considered setting a “floor” for my fiction, but I decided against it. Why? Because I know there will be nonwriting days in my life, and if I missed writing at least my floor even on so-called nonwriting days, it would bring me down emotionally. Hey, a streak is only a streak as long as it’s, you know, a streak. Right? Right?
If I were going to set a solid floor — meaning a word count I wanted to hit even on nonwriting days in order to create and continue a streak — it would be 1000 words per day. That’s one hour or less of writing.
But I know me. My reasoning, if I wrote 1000 words, would be “Then this must be a writing day, so I need to either hit 4,000 words or miss my goal.” (grin) For me personally, it’s less annoying to strive for 4000 words and miss (as I have the last two days) than to strive to write 1000 words per day every day and miss even one of those.
That being said, your experience might vary. Setting a floor seems like a very good idea to me, especially if you’re currently having trouble getting yourself to your keyboard. Setting a floor and aiming for a streak will almost certainly help.
And your floor doesn’t have to conform to anyone else’s. It can be 250 words, or 500. Trust me, it will be more than gratifying to you to look back on a week or month (or year) and know you wrote fiction every day.
In case you missed Dean’s post yesterday, I included it in today’s “Of Interest” as well.
Be sure to see Bill Sinclair’s informative comments at https://hestanbrough.com/the-journal-a-light-discourse-on-punctuation/#comments. Who knew I had a reader in Barcelona?
After the novel sputtered along at the beginning, it and I am back on track and building steam.
I even enjoyed a moment during yesterday’s writing session when I had an epiphany of sorts, or maybe a remembrance of something I had forgotten. Or it might have been a realization lurking in the back corner of my mind until my ongoing word count clicked-over to some magic cumulative number.
I won’t discuss it here until I’ve had time to practice it (creative mind) and ruminate on it (conscious mind) but it was a big thing, an important technique. The takeaway is that practice in this craft of ours is essential: Writing is practice and practice is learning.
Remember that you can always email me with questions, answers, or discussions at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. I get to those about as soon as I get to comments left on the site.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “John le Carré obituary” at https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/dec/14/john-le-carre-obituary. Thanks to Bill S. for the tip.
See “An Idea For Balance for the New Year” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/an-idea-for-balance-for-the-new-year/.
See “27 Specialized Manuscript Publishers” at https://www.authorspublish.com/27-specialized-manuscript-publishers-that-accept-direct-submissions/.
See “318R Writing Class by David Farland” at https://mystorydoctor.com/318r-writing-workshop/. An opportunity.
See “Staging the Scene” at https://writerunboxed.com/2020/12/14/staging-the-scene/. Thanks to The Passive Guy. I do the same thing, albeit in a different way.
See “5 Things Every Writer Needs” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/5-things-every-writer-needs/.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 770 words
Writing of The Journey Home: Part 3 (novel)
Day 1…… 1568 words. Total words to date…… 1568
Day 2…… 2963 words. Total words to date…… 4531
Day 3…… 4652 words. Total words to date…… 9183
Total fiction words for December……… 58606
Total fiction words for the year………… 511137
Total nonfiction words for December… 11350
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 196560
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 707697
Calendar Year 2020 Novels to Date…………………… 8
Calendar Year 2020 Novellas to Date……………… X
Calendar Year 2020 Short Stories to Date… 13
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 53
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 214
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31