I decided to make time for my writing today after a little neglect which I mentioned in the previous blog entry. Instead of watching most of the Pittsburg vs. Tampa Bay hockey game, or the start of the San Jose vs. LA hockey game, I instead focused on my time to develop my skill. Yep, selfish. But I do believe that my shutting off my phone, eliminating the search for funny youtube videos, and diverting my eyes (for the most part) from the NHL playoffs (screw you, NBA, I'm not forgiving you over the Sonics leaving, so you don't exist), I am hitting my 5,000 word goal.
I hit my 5,000 words in less than three hours. Yep, I am proud of that accomplishment especially after how hard it was going through the day, knowing that I needed to achieve it. I remember Rob Schneider's character saying something about effort in the show Men Behaving Badly where he said, "Hey, Europe wasn't our problem after World War II, but we went in there, rolled up our sleeves and cleaned it up." Okay, so my efforts to write 5,000 words today wasn't that monumental. But it did cause less deflation or stagnation of the local economies.
Now, I find that I can't stop typing even when I want to. That's the beauty of 5,000 words. It makes you start to think, a mental hand-crank that goes faster and faster until you finally collapse. Some people swear by less words and so be it. But my mentality is that with all drafts until the final one, you need to vomit out as many words as possible. The final draft is the one where you can start really cutting the fat down. Until then, you should be exploring everything that you have in front of you.
I'm curious how many people actually write with a word-count goal in mind. Maybe a percentage that is less than fifty. I'm guessing that some people just write what they feel, stop, and then say, "yep, that's all I have in the tank today." I can't do that. If I don't write 5,000 words in one story, I start on another one. I do count blog entries as part of the goal, mainly because in the last few weeks since I started this blog, I have felt it is a duty. I don't write merely to write, I attempt to have a purpose. Otherwise what is the point of the blog or my involvement with the blog?
One of the things that I have attempted to cut off is the need for cable television, the internet or any other distraction. While I do go to bars to watch television or explore the internet, I do that as a way to get out of the house. But I bring along my Ipad2 and crank as many words as I can out. This sucker has a 10-hour battery life, and if the majority of that life is used not to write words, there is no one to blame for it but myself.
The blog has helped me think about the process of writing. It develops a better method for me to improve how I write. I have to attempt to retain readership, build a following and really keep this from being a blog that only I write for and no one reads. Scary isn't it? What if we are merely writing for ourselves (not providing anything that anyone wants to read)? Listen to the lyrics of Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd and ask yourself if that might not be the fear.
As long as I don't write car commercials, I believe I will be fine. I mean, really, honestly, truly, does anyone really buy a car based on a commercial? The KIA Soul commercials with the hamsters are awesome, but I can't tell you that I drove one in Seattle as a rental because I liked the hamsters. I did it because it was a safe car with good fuel economy. But they still put out commercials, which must mean that someone buys because of the story they tell.
I've hit well over 5,000 words now. I'm clocking somewhere in the neighborhood of 6,500 because I am working on several short stories. One is really starting to move for me. Tomorrow, I am posting a new $0.99 short story on Amazon and Smashwords. I've been delaying because of the cover development and making sure that my friends believed it was worthy of releasing.
By mentioning it in this blog, I am setting a goal tomorrow to list the short story and get it ready to show off. It pushes me further to ensure that I follow through. Too many times, we create short-cuts for ourselves. I do this in a lot of things (video games with cheat codes, especially), but it is really something bad that I need to stop. Making shortcuts hurts my development as a writer.
There is another short story, a crime-action-drama one, but I am unsure what to do with it right now, so it sits until I feel it is ready. I'm not taking a short-cut by tossing it up on the web without thinking it through first (I don't have a cover I like) and it can wait. My goal is not to be the most prolific author with a lot of errors in my text. My goal is to be a prolific, widely-read author who issues clean copy that people enjoy reading.
But neither of these short stories are the ones i worked on today. I developed two new ideas, worked a little on a third, and then did two blog entries. By the time I am finished, I will be clocking about 7,200-7,500 words and happy when I go to bed tonight. That's the thing about writing.
There is always time for it, so make time. And, that makes 1,000 more words.
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