A Month of Thousand-Days
Somehow at the end of April I realized I was writing over 1000 words a day fairly consistently. I'd have a few days where I'd dip below, but overall, I was way over my original goal for the year of 250 words/ day. So when May started, and those first few days were over 1000, I was pleased. I decided to try for staying over a thousand for two weeks straight (so, counting the end of April). When I made that, I thought, hey, let's see if I can go one more! With that done, I wanted to get to the same date where I started the 1000+ words streak in April, but in May.
Done.
Could I push to the end of the month?
On the 30th, I nearly gave up. Hubby was at work 23 hours that day, Kiddo refused to go to sleep until after 11 (and I usually don't have to get her to sleep, that's her daddy), and when I crawled into my room, at 11:20 with cookies and milk, I had exactly 0 words for the day.
At 12:24 I hit 1002 words and called it a night.
Now, maybe that day I should have called it a night earlier. Especially since said Kiddo woke up every 15 minutes starting at 4:45 until I brought her into my room at 5:30, where she kicked me in the face until her dad showed up at 6, when I promptly had to remove her from the room, or she'd screech in his ear until he had to go back to work in 4 hours. Needless to say, I was not an overly happy mommy, nor did I make it to church that morning...
But I didn't call it a night. I opened a document, stared at the blinking cursor, changed the font three times (I use different fonts for different stories for myself-- all back to Times New Roman when I submit, but it helps me keep track of which world I'm in), then started writing in a voice I hadn't written in since February. And I got about a thousand words from her about her story and life that I wouldn't have had if I'd just said "Screw it, I'm vegging with Supernatural then sleeping."
I'm not saying I have some sort of inhuman super-writer powers. I really don't. Especially because that section I wrote isn't necessarily going to get me farther in her actual story. But they were words. I wrote them.
I'm finding more and more that it really is true-- if you keep writing, you keep writing. Just... keep going. Some times it's probably best to call it a night after 100 words when you just can't brain anymore. That's okay. But try again the next day. Brain out 100 more. Or 50 more. Or 500 more. Even staring at the document, thinking about all the things you want to write, but can't-- that's work. You're trying. Yes, the Most Important Thing is getting words down, because you can't fix a blank page. But the second most important thing, IMHO, is showing up even when you can't write a damn thing. Even when your mind is jumping everywhere else, and you're stressed and exhausted and don't want to think anymore about anything, let alone have to imagine an entirely new person in an entirely new world doing things you've never done before-- the important thing is you're there, and you're thinking about it.
Writers write, that's the thing, yeah? Well, writers also don't write sometimes. They look at their story, and they re-read. They doodle a map. They fantasize about movie casting and decorating their MC's house. It all feeds into that part of the brain where the stories are still hiding, still waiting to be told.
If I hadn't pushed myself last month, I might have gotten a little more sleep, sure. But I also might not have. And I certainly wouldn't have written just over 42k words. That's almost a NaNo right there. I haven't gotten that many words down in a month since August 2010. And I did it during naptimes and before my husband would come up to bed at night (so I had like, an hour-ish). Now is it all story? No. But it's all feeding my story. It's all in my head, mushed together and waiting for the right time to come out and present itself.
I'm looking forward to meeting it. Until then, I'm about 300 words away from 1k today, and I'd like to keep pushing for it.
What about you? Have you challenged yourself lately, even just a little one? Let me know in the comments so I can cheer you on!
~Kathleen
Done.
Could I push to the end of the month?
On the 30th, I nearly gave up. Hubby was at work 23 hours that day, Kiddo refused to go to sleep until after 11 (and I usually don't have to get her to sleep, that's her daddy), and when I crawled into my room, at 11:20 with cookies and milk, I had exactly 0 words for the day.
At 12:24 I hit 1002 words and called it a night.
Now, maybe that day I should have called it a night earlier. Especially since said Kiddo woke up every 15 minutes starting at 4:45 until I brought her into my room at 5:30, where she kicked me in the face until her dad showed up at 6, when I promptly had to remove her from the room, or she'd screech in his ear until he had to go back to work in 4 hours. Needless to say, I was not an overly happy mommy, nor did I make it to church that morning...
But I didn't call it a night. I opened a document, stared at the blinking cursor, changed the font three times (I use different fonts for different stories for myself-- all back to Times New Roman when I submit, but it helps me keep track of which world I'm in), then started writing in a voice I hadn't written in since February. And I got about a thousand words from her about her story and life that I wouldn't have had if I'd just said "Screw it, I'm vegging with Supernatural then sleeping."
I'm not saying I have some sort of inhuman super-writer powers. I really don't. Especially because that section I wrote isn't necessarily going to get me farther in her actual story. But they were words. I wrote them.
I'm finding more and more that it really is true-- if you keep writing, you keep writing. Just... keep going. Some times it's probably best to call it a night after 100 words when you just can't brain anymore. That's okay. But try again the next day. Brain out 100 more. Or 50 more. Or 500 more. Even staring at the document, thinking about all the things you want to write, but can't-- that's work. You're trying. Yes, the Most Important Thing is getting words down, because you can't fix a blank page. But the second most important thing, IMHO, is showing up even when you can't write a damn thing. Even when your mind is jumping everywhere else, and you're stressed and exhausted and don't want to think anymore about anything, let alone have to imagine an entirely new person in an entirely new world doing things you've never done before-- the important thing is you're there, and you're thinking about it.
Writers write, that's the thing, yeah? Well, writers also don't write sometimes. They look at their story, and they re-read. They doodle a map. They fantasize about movie casting and decorating their MC's house. It all feeds into that part of the brain where the stories are still hiding, still waiting to be told.
If I hadn't pushed myself last month, I might have gotten a little more sleep, sure. But I also might not have. And I certainly wouldn't have written just over 42k words. That's almost a NaNo right there. I haven't gotten that many words down in a month since August 2010. And I did it during naptimes and before my husband would come up to bed at night (so I had like, an hour-ish). Now is it all story? No. But it's all feeding my story. It's all in my head, mushed together and waiting for the right time to come out and present itself.
I'm looking forward to meeting it. Until then, I'm about 300 words away from 1k today, and I'd like to keep pushing for it.
What about you? Have you challenged yourself lately, even just a little one? Let me know in the comments so I can cheer you on!
~Kathleen