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September writing progress
Oct. 1st, 2008 07:50 amSeptember writing progress:
Total words for the month: 8511 (compared to 5544 for August)
Average words per day: 283.7 (compared to 178.84 for August)
# of days in the War on Words: 65 (days of writing 100+ words a day in a row)
# of stories written on: 4
# of stories finished: 0
Time spent revising other stories ("finished" stories): approx. 2 hours
Stories revised to final draft: 2
As some of you may have noticed, in July I began my grand experiment of trying to write at least 100 words a day, every day, in the effort to boost my productivity and learn to stop wasting time that I could spend writing. After a couple of starts and stops, I finally got it right. I'm on day 65 now. I've even dragged out pen and paper when I had a raging migraine in order to not miss my writing for the day (and more importantly, not to have to start that damn counter over at Day 1 again). This works for me because I am at heart a very competitive person, although when I'm not winning, I'm the type that gives up, pouts, and doesn't want to play anymore (hence the reason why I hate gambling so much). So I've entered into a competition with myself, and I'm winning. Yay me! ;-0
Everyone reacts differently to challenges and motivations. I had heard of this method before and snubbed it. But once I tried it, I saw it definitely works for me. What I've learned to do is write, even though I haven't a clue what to write or where the story is going. Even though my inner editor is chewing at my brain and whispering dark and ego-degrading remarks, I write. Even though I end up writing and re-writing the beginning to the story four or five days in a row, so most of the previous days words have to be thrown out, I write. The other thing I'm doing is NOT allowing myself to go back and re-edit what I wrote the day before. Because in that road lies madness. I edit and re-edit and revise and then I get disgusted and my go-hide-in-a-hole-and-pout tendency comes to fore and I quit, disgusted, with no actual words for the day. Revision is for when Draft #1 is complete! (repeat, spit, and repeat again).
I am worried that I still have no complete story done for the month, even though I have written 8.5k. I did work on 4 different stories, though, and the one I spent the most time on is closing in on a ending, so I have a clearer vision of what to do.
I am greatly cheered, however, but the uppage in wordage from July to August. It proves what I hoped would happen: that as the habit sets in for me, and the lambasting of inner editor grows stronger, my word count and ability to write more on the fly would increase. I wrote 50 words more per day in September, part of which came from the flash challenge over at LH, which was another really good positive experience that surprised me. I didn't realize it would be so freeing to HAVE to write that fast in 90 minutes.
What I've learned through this: The writing muscle, like all muscles, needs exercise, and it needs to be used every single day else it turns to flab and gets onery and unmotivated. The inner editor, left unchecked, is a very Bad Thing. It has its moments when it's quite useful, so not to turn it off altogether, but writing on instinct has its place too.
Enough of me. Over and out.
Total words for the month: 8511 (compared to 5544 for August)
Average words per day: 283.7 (compared to 178.84 for August)
# of days in the War on Words: 65 (days of writing 100+ words a day in a row)
# of stories written on: 4
# of stories finished: 0
Time spent revising other stories ("finished" stories): approx. 2 hours
Stories revised to final draft: 2
As some of you may have noticed, in July I began my grand experiment of trying to write at least 100 words a day, every day, in the effort to boost my productivity and learn to stop wasting time that I could spend writing. After a couple of starts and stops, I finally got it right. I'm on day 65 now. I've even dragged out pen and paper when I had a raging migraine in order to not miss my writing for the day (and more importantly, not to have to start that damn counter over at Day 1 again). This works for me because I am at heart a very competitive person, although when I'm not winning, I'm the type that gives up, pouts, and doesn't want to play anymore (hence the reason why I hate gambling so much). So I've entered into a competition with myself, and I'm winning. Yay me! ;-0
Everyone reacts differently to challenges and motivations. I had heard of this method before and snubbed it. But once I tried it, I saw it definitely works for me. What I've learned to do is write, even though I haven't a clue what to write or where the story is going. Even though my inner editor is chewing at my brain and whispering dark and ego-degrading remarks, I write. Even though I end up writing and re-writing the beginning to the story four or five days in a row, so most of the previous days words have to be thrown out, I write. The other thing I'm doing is NOT allowing myself to go back and re-edit what I wrote the day before. Because in that road lies madness. I edit and re-edit and revise and then I get disgusted and my go-hide-in-a-hole-and-pout tendency comes to fore and I quit, disgusted, with no actual words for the day. Revision is for when Draft #1 is complete! (repeat, spit, and repeat again).
I am worried that I still have no complete story done for the month, even though I have written 8.5k. I did work on 4 different stories, though, and the one I spent the most time on is closing in on a ending, so I have a clearer vision of what to do.
I am greatly cheered, however, but the uppage in wordage from July to August. It proves what I hoped would happen: that as the habit sets in for me, and the lambasting of inner editor grows stronger, my word count and ability to write more on the fly would increase. I wrote 50 words more per day in September, part of which came from the flash challenge over at LH, which was another really good positive experience that surprised me. I didn't realize it would be so freeing to HAVE to write that fast in 90 minutes.
What I've learned through this: The writing muscle, like all muscles, needs exercise, and it needs to be used every single day else it turns to flab and gets onery and unmotivated. The inner editor, left unchecked, is a very Bad Thing. It has its moments when it's quite useful, so not to turn it off altogether, but writing on instinct has its place too.
Enough of me. Over and out.
