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.
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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 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 10, 2024
My plan going into all the stories this year is that they should be in the 5,000 word region. The first draft of Sisterhood ended up being longer than that and The Last Outpost looks like it might be even longer. And I’m asking myself if that’s a problem.
The whole point of this process is to finish stories and does it really matter whether it’s 52 x 5,000 word stories or 26 x 10,000 word stories? I don’t think so. Even if some of them end up verging on the novella length.
If I was thinking about sales and marketing (which I’m not) then I might even say it’s advantageous to write longer stories. But I’m not thinking about marketing or sales, so I won’t.
The important thing is that I am averaging 1,000 words per day, and that I am finishing everything I start. Which so far I am.
I ended up writing at the kitchen table this morning and the change of location felt strange at first, but once I was writing I got used to it. I’m happy with what I wrote and looking forward to finding out where it goes next.
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Words written today: 1,132
Words written total: 12,190
Plus / Minus target: +1,190
Currently writing: The Last Outpost
Currently publishing: Sisterhood
Latest release: n/a
Oct 4, 2024
Last night and this morning I got into the state of mind where everything I have written this week seems stupid and I was trying to think of ways I could quit the story and still continue the challenge.
If I’m honest, I’m surprised it has come so quickly, but this is the point where in the past couple of years I have stopped. Maybe it came sooner because I’m writing something short and the point isn’t related to the amount of time I’ve spent working on the story, but to the percentage of the story I have written?
I was pretty close to stopping, but then I realised that this was the whole point of this challenge: to reach that point over and over again in quick succession and keep going anyway, like I used to. In doing so, I hope to take away the power of that feeling.
It helps that it is a short story because there are only a few days where I have to deal with feeling like I’m wasting my time on a rubbish story. In a couple of days I will be working on something new.
In that sense, I count today as a big success and when I finish the story tomorrow or Sunday I will be very pleased.
I’m 641 words ahead of schedule now. So averaging 134 words extra per day. Tomorrow is Saturday, so time won’t be as tight and I might get some additional words, but we shall see. As long as I get my 1,000 words I’m happy.
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Words written today: 1,103
Words written total: 5,641
Plus / Minus target: +641
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Currently writing: Sisterhood
Currently publishing: n/a
Latest release: n/a
