1,000 words a night
One thousand words a night is tough. I am too out of shape. There are too many distractions. I'm on the starting edge of another attempt to kick caffiene, which makes my mind unfocused. I should be doing that instead of writing this.
I've done it five of the eight or so nights since I made the proclamation. Two of those nights were the beginning of that dystopian story I was mentioning, but I'm only as far as the middle of chapter one. I sort of cheated with the other three nights, writing out my planned plot for The Epic Adventures of Guts Man and El Scorcho in prose form. I've gotten as far as the middle of Part II, and I can't believe I have so many words to put down for it.
This is good for me. I've gotten in the habit of thinking about things and rattling them around in my brain, revising and revising, until I finally get bored with them, but not putting them down on paper. My paper and pencil log -- I probably should use a pen, but not until my handwriting improves a lot! -- is good for this, as is '1000 words a night.'
I heard that Stephen King did something like 3000 words a night. I was voted the next Stephen King by my senior class. 3000 words really isn't that many. 1000 words is about 45 minutes to me, if I'm not in the zone. Piers Anthony, when my parents and I read his work a lot, wrote about his output somewhere. I seem to recall him saying he worked about six hours a day, and the first two hours were a warmup, but once he hit the zone, he could crank out his best work at lightning speed. It would be nice to have that kind of a groove!
To be a writer, you have to be your own taskmaster. I'm not a very good taskmaster. I need to learn to lean on myself a little better!
I've done it five of the eight or so nights since I made the proclamation. Two of those nights were the beginning of that dystopian story I was mentioning, but I'm only as far as the middle of chapter one. I sort of cheated with the other three nights, writing out my planned plot for The Epic Adventures of Guts Man and El Scorcho in prose form. I've gotten as far as the middle of Part II, and I can't believe I have so many words to put down for it.
This is good for me. I've gotten in the habit of thinking about things and rattling them around in my brain, revising and revising, until I finally get bored with them, but not putting them down on paper. My paper and pencil log -- I probably should use a pen, but not until my handwriting improves a lot! -- is good for this, as is '1000 words a night.'
I heard that Stephen King did something like 3000 words a night. I was voted the next Stephen King by my senior class. 3000 words really isn't that many. 1000 words is about 45 minutes to me, if I'm not in the zone. Piers Anthony, when my parents and I read his work a lot, wrote about his output somewhere. I seem to recall him saying he worked about six hours a day, and the first two hours were a warmup, but once he hit the zone, he could crank out his best work at lightning speed. It would be nice to have that kind of a groove!
To be a writer, you have to be your own taskmaster. I'm not a very good taskmaster. I need to learn to lean on myself a little better!