Dec 11, 2024
Although I am still getting up and writing my 1,000 words every day (and fulfilling the goal of my challenge) I am being less strict about the planning and editing aspect of things and accepting that there are some days when I can’t do those.
That’s working out pretty well for me. Today I sat down and worked on planning The List (that title is going to change really soon) for a lot longer than 20 minutes. I got a lot done and now think I’ll probably be ready to start work on it when I finish the first draft of The Storm (which will probably also have a title change).
It’s not working out so well on the editing side because I don’t love doing that so it’s easier to put off. I might need to figure out a daily goal for that again, just so I can keep publishing stories.
Giving myself more flexibility around this stuff is really helping in a lot of ways. Most importantly though is I’m feeling less stressed out about it all. That’s important because there are a lot of other things going on in life at the moment and although I am still trying to follow my five lessons and the sixth I have to accept that writing is an entirely voluntary thing right now so it can’t be the number one priority every day.
Another thing that’s probably contributing to my sense of calm is that I have decided to do a digital detox. Basically that means that I am avoiding all non-essential online activity. So no reading the news, no scrolling Reddit or any other social media, no YouTube, nothing. I’m only a couple of days into that, but it is already making a big difference to the amount of time I have for things like reading and writing.
I think a relaxed approach is generally better. A bit like driving 5mph under the speed limit. Over the course of a whole journey, it doesn’t make that much difference to the time you arrive, but it’s way less stressful and more enjoyable.
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Latest release: The Last Outpost
Currently Writing:
- The Storm: a cozy apocalypse novella. Today’s progress: 1,077 / 12,419
- The List: a dark fantasy novella. PLANNING
- Son of Mars: a science-fiction short story about the construction of a colony on Mars. EDITING
Nov 15, 2024
Is the new title of the challenge as I officially accept that short stories might not be the best fit for me.
The important parts of the challenge are not going to change: the goal is to write 1,000 words per day, every day, and to finish everything I start. But now that I expect to be writing longer stories, there will be consequences.
Firstly, the aim of publishing a short story every week was dead as soon as I started this. That relied on each story being 5-7,000 words long as a first draft. Now that I am looking to longer stories I have a more realistic aim of a story every month.
Then there are the knock on effects of that: with a longer story it makes sense to publish wide, so these longer stories will no longer be in Kindle Unlimited or exclusive to Amazon. I will put them on all platforms and include a paper edition.
Next, working in a longer format means I will want a more detailed outline. So rather than doing one per day, as I have done for the last month, I am going to switch to doing one a week. I will still work on it every day but some stories might take longer to plan than that.
Editing will remain largely unaffected. I will still do my twenty minutes per day and it will take as long as it takes to get a story finished.
Finally, my reading. This one is trickier. I am thinking of doing a time spent reading fiction and that will be longer stories. But still keeping to the one essay and one poem per day goal. That might be the best option.
I still have two short(ish) stories to edit and publish so the impact won’t be immediatly obvious. This is more about setting the new rules for myself and figuring out how it’s going to work.
This feels like the right decision to have made. There seems little benefit to forcing myself to work in a format that I’m unsuited to and that sells poorly. The novella has always been a more comfortable fit for me. As long as I continue to write my 1,000 words per day and finish everything I start, the original goal of the challenge should still be fulfilled.
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Latest release: Sisterhood
Pre-Production
Stories planned (total): 30
Production
Words written today: 1,084
Words written total: 50,716
Plus / Minus target: +3,716
Currently writing: The Lottery
Post-Production
Minutes today: 20
Minutes total: 334
Plus / Minus target: +34
Currently publishing: The Last Outpost
Nov 2, 2024
A good morning of work. I managed to get myself three days ahead on the writing side, and am half a day ahead on editing already. I think that’s a pretty good way to start the weekend.
It’s going to be interesting to find out if I can actually edit every day next week. Tuesdays are the busiest day of the week for me and I have got it into my head that I can’t even find twenty-minutes to do a bit of work. Logically, that’s probably not true, but it might mean that I have to edit on my phone, or grab some time first thing in the morning after I’ve done my writing.
Twenty-minutes doesn’t sound like a lot, but over the course of a year, it’s going to add up to over 120 hours, which is a much better figure. And if I find that I can easily edit this amount, there’s nothing to stop me doing more.
I have to accept that editing is the thing most likely to be disrupted by Christmas and other things. So far I haven’t had to use any of the lead I’ve built up but it’s only a matter of time before that changes. I went into this knowing it would happen, but I think it will still feel a bit like a failure when it does.
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Pre-Production
Stories planned (total): 18
Production
Words written today: 1,019
Words written total: 37,010
Plus / Minus target: +3,010
Currently writing: The Lottery
Post-Production
Minutes today: 24
Minutes total: 50
Plus / Minus target: +10
Currently publishing: Sisterhood
Oct 28, 2024
Most people probably wouldn’t think it to look at me, but I suffer from an all or nothing personality. No idea where I got it from, but it’s mine to deal with.
It comes out at times like when I try to improve my relationship with the internet. A sensible approach would be to reduce the amount of time I spend online, but I find myself jumping straight to not using the internet at all.
And it snowballs. I go from not using the internet at all to trying to reduce all my technology useage, until I’m ready to sell my phone and computer and go and live off the land.
This writing challenge is a good example of me trying to do the opposite of that. But it wasn’t until yesterday that I realised it.
The first writing challenge I set out to do was a million words in a year. Which I failed. To be fair, I got something like 800,000 so I failed well, but even if I’d managed it, I couldn’t have sustained it. This time things are different. 1,000 words a day is a goal I can hit pretty much every day. It’s not an impressive number, but it’s something I can do consistently. And that’s what I’m looking for.
The same is true for the planning (one story plan a day) and the editing I’m going to be starting on Friday. And now that I’ve realised it, I’m looking at other areas of my life where I can apply this simple goal of being a bit better.
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Pre-Production
Stories planned (total): 13
Production
Words written today: 1,048
Words written total: 31,787
Plus / Minus target: +2,787
Currently writing: Son of Mars
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.
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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
