Oct 21, 2024
The theory as I understand it, is that it takes 21 days to build a new habit. Seeing as this is my 29th daily blog post in a row, and the 22nd day of writing 1,000 words, I would say that means I’ve built the habit of doing those things. It feels closer to automatic now. I don’t need to keep reminding myself that they are things that have to be done.
I am also in the process of building the habit of coming up with a story idea every day and writing a brief outline. Today is only day six of that, so I guess I can’t expect it to be a proper habit until sometime in November. When I will also be building the habit of editing/publishing every day.
The writing this morning went well. There’s not really a lot more than that to say about it at now: I get up, make coffee, and write. That’s what it being a habit means really, there’s no drama to doing it, I just sit down and get on with it.
The same is less true of pre-production, but only because there is no fixed time in the day when I sit down and do it. I’m guessing the same will be true for post-production because I won’t even be doing that every day. Those things are probably going to take longer to turn into habits but I’ll get there eventually.
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Pre-Production
Stories planned (total): 6
Production
Words written today: 1,158
Words written total: 24,228
Plus / Minus target: +2,228
Currently writing: Son of Mars
Oct 20, 2024
I now have five stories planned, one of which I am currently writing, all of which I like. It might be hard to pick between them when the time comes. That’s not a complaint though, it’s what I wanted when I started this habit.
The idea process is straight forward. I have a little template in Obsidian that looks like this:
IDEA:
A CHARACTER:
THE CHARACTER WANTS SOMETHING:
BUT SOMETHING PREVENTS THEM FROM GETTING WHAT THEY WANT EASILY:
SO THEY STRUGGLE AGAINST THE FORCE:
AND EITHER SUCCEED OR FAIL:
SETUP:
MOVE INTO ACTION:
THE PROMISE IN THE PREMISE:
SHIT GETS REAL:
FINALE:
I start with a vague description and then I work through each step. The last part (SETUP to FINALE) is the actual plan. Usually I go through it in order, but this morning the ending was the clearest image in my mind, so I started there.
It usually takes ten minutes to fill it in, but that’s ten minutes well spent if I avoid floundering around when writing the first draft. And I don’t know, although I suspect, the editing will be quicker as well. So all in all, it seems like time well spent.
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Pre-Production
Stories planned (total): 5
Production
Words written today: 1,159
Words written total: 23,070
Plus / Minus target: +2,070
Currently writing: Son of Mars
Oct 19, 2024
Busy day. We went for a walk in the woods in the morning and then watched Muppets Haunted Mansion. Luckily I got my writing done in the morning because there wasn’t much time the rest of the day.
My new tracker is below. I will add a post-production section on November 1st when I start that.
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Pre-Production
Stories planned (total): 4
Production
Words written today: 1,035
Words written total: 21,911
Plus / Minus target: +1,911
Currently writing: Son of Mars
Oct 18, 2024
I began the day by starting Son of Mars from scratch again, only to decide a few words into that I had it right first time and went back to the original. A bit frustrating, but these things happen sometimes.
The beginning of the story is moving quite slowly, and I think some of it is going to turn out to be world building that doesn’t appear in the final version, but that’s fine. It is set a few hundred years before The Last Outpost so it needs a bit of fine tuning.
I have been thinking about how I am going to track my progress here on planning and editing without dumping loads of numbers at the bottom that don’t mean very much. In the next few days you will see a new statistics footer.
This is the 26th day in a row that I have published this blog and that’s probably the most I’ve ever done. They are generally quite short though, so that only adds up to around 6,000 words. There are some longer topics that I want to write about here, but at the moment I’m just figuring everything out and getting a lot of new habits locked in.
—
Words written today: 1,043
Words written total: 20,876
Plus / Minus target: +1,876
Currently writing: Son of Mars
Currently publishing: n/a
Latest release: n/a
Oct 17, 2024
I finished the first draft of The Last Outpost this morning and went straight onto the next story. I enjoyed writing a space story enough that this one is set in the same universe, although much earlier in history when the construction of a Mars colony is taking place.
Son of Mars is the story I planned yesterday. It’s only a very vague outline, but it gives me enough to get started and know roughly where I’m heading.
I also outlined another story, also set in the space colony universe that could be the next story I write, or not, by then I should have a few options to choose from.
—
Words written today: 1,028
Words written total: 19,833
Plus / Minus target: +1,833
Currently writing: Son of Mars
Currently publishing: n/a
Latest release: n/a
Oct 16, 2024
I would like to be one of those people who can write without a plan. When I read about authors who work that way, I envy them. But I don’t think it’s for me.
The other thing, is that I enjoy planning out a story. I like the back and forth of changing my mind about things, coming up with details that might never appear in the story, building a world. That’s fun for me, and I think it makes my stories better.
So starting today, I am planning stories. It’s not a 1:1 plan it, then write it. I am going to make a habit of coming up with a short story idea every day and coming up with some structure around it. It doesn’t have to be much. Then, when I come to start a new story, I will have a few to pick from.
I am just about at the end of The Last Outpost. The writing went well for the most part, and I really enjoyed writing a story set in the future. I think I am going to do more of that.
—
Words written today: 1,151
Words written total: 18,805
Plus / Minus target: +1,805
Currently writing: The Last Outpost
Currently publishing: n/a
Latest release: n/a
Oct 15, 2024
Started a little bit late this morning, but got all the words I needed for the day. The story is nearing the end and it hasn’t gone quite the way I expected. There might be one or two days left of it, which will bring it to around the 10,000 words mark.
I think I have figured out an approach for the editing, and that is to treat it as an entirely separate challenge that will begin in November. My goal will be to average 25 minutes per day, although there are two days a week when I won’t often be able to edit, so on the days when I can, the aim will be 35 minutes.
Not sure if that will be enough to edit and publish 5,000 words a week, but it will be a start, and much closer to that goal than not editing anything at all.
—
Words written today: 1,161
Words written total: 17,654
Plus / Minus target: +1,654
Currently writing: The Last Outpost
Currently publishing: Sisterhood
Latest release: n/a
Oct 14, 2024
I’m not sure why but this morning felt like a slog. I got my 1,000+ words, but only just made it before I had to stop and get on with other things. Tomorrow will probably be better.
On the editing side of things: I am thinking about kicking it all off in November. I’m not sure exactly how that’s going to work, but I think I need to find a similar approach to what I’m doing with first draft stuff.
It’s not that I don’t want to edit, but something else always seems to get in the way.
The simplest thing would be to make a daily commitment to an amount of time, and maybe increase that gradually, as I am doing with reading.
At the end of the day, I got my words done, so I am counting that as a win.
—
Words written today: 1,037
Words written total: 16,493
Plus / Minus target: +1,493
Currently writing: The Last Outpost
Currently publishing: Sisterhood
Latest release: n/a
Oct 13, 2024
Not as much as I would have liked, but enough to keep my daily average up and push me a bit further ahead.
What I need to do is apply the same level of commitment to the editing and publishing side of things, because I am not making much progress there.
The difficulty is that I can treat writing first drafts every day as an ongoing habit. There is not much complexity involved with ‘get up, feed the cats, make coffee, write 1,000+ words.’ But as soon as I move to the multi-step process of publishing a story, which I can’t do everyday, it becomes a project that I have to manage.
As far as I can see, there is no way around this, other than to just get on with things, so that is what I am going to focus on this coming week.
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Words written today: 1,078
Words written total: 15,456
Plus / Minus target: +1,456
Currently writing: The Last Outpost
Currently publishing: Sisterhood
Latest release: n/a
Oct 12, 2024
Today wasn’t so easy, and I guess that means I’m hitting the 40% mark of The Last Outpost. It’s not as bad as with Sisterhood, which I guess means that this exposure therapy is working.
It might also have something to do with the fact I’m writing in a different location for a while. Typing in my office at 6am was waking people up. I don’t mind working at the kitchen table, but it feels different and that could have an impact on the writing.
I finally started editing Sisterhood this morning. Not sure how long that’s going to take. So far I like what I’ve read and have only made some minor changes.
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Words written today: 1,133
Words written total: 14,378
Plus / Minus target: +1,378
Currently writing: The Last Outpost
Currently publishing: Sisterhood
Latest release: n/a
