Writing every day

[Mikes]

Whenever I read the rules published authors have for writing, or books on creative writing themselves, they all have the same, core, single rule: write. Sure, most have many others in common (read widely being the most common) but 'write' is the one which rings through each and every one.

I had that hammered through to me when I recently read Stephen King's On Writing (incidentally the best creative writing book I've read and I recommend it for any and everyone) and took his challenge to set myself a daily goal for writing, which I hadn’t realised I'd been mentally avoiding. Before that I'd always said:

'ok, between 6 and 7am is my writing time, I'll do as much as I can then, then on my lunch break also, and then between 8 and 9 pm. As much as I can, oh yeah, this is it, fame and fortune await!'

And to be fair, I'd do quite a bit. I have more than a few short stories shopping their way around various publications and competitions (someone's gotta cave at some point, it's the law of averages if nothing else) and don’t two halves of two novels. But, if I was brutally honest, I wasn't nearly as productive as I could have been.

So, I took King's advice. he said his limit is 2,000 a day, most authors he knows do 1,000 and a full time working person could manage around 500. So, being a father of a young boy with a full time job and a nose for a challenge I set my goal at 1,000 words a day, with 1,000 over the weekend. That's all. 1,000 measly words. And I don't get to go to bed until they're down.

And you know what.... it really isn't that hard. And in the three weeks I've been doing it I've seen my novel jump 18,000 words. Or, in other terms, around 20% of a first draft.

Now, I'll be the first to admit the words that actually make it down onto the screen aren't Dicken's material, but the point is; they're there. It's much easier to edit bad words than wait for the perfect ones to turn up first time.

So, anyone else with me on this? Writing begets writing, am I right?

[Maeve]

Mikes,
You are hitting on all cylinders. The only way to be a writer is to write. And I agree, King's book is a jewel.

[Gilliad]

Yes you are correct on writing everyday. I find when I don't set a goal for myself, my writing can easily get pushed back by the constant daily issues that arise. Goals are the best method to complete your writing. I also have read King's Book and I loved the information that he presented. It was a real eye opener.

[chrisj]

Great to hear you're sticking to your goal of a 1,000 words a day. I firmly believe in one of Malcolm Gladwell's suppositions whereby he states that it takes a human being on average, 10,000 hours of solid participation in any sort of activity to attain some sort of mastery or higher understanding of the subject at hand.

In terms of writing, I do sometimes write in a journal when I travel on occasion, but my daily writing has to do with my blog. However I feel that my writing and my personal take on certain things isn't up to scratch to fully explore my content potential(basically just super shy). So with that said I do try to write a few times a week but it restrictive to a few hundred words at most or just posting videos and photos with a one or two line commentary.

Hoping I can find inspiration(from board members like yourself) and improve on some technical aspects of my writing.

[Mikes]

I firmly believe in one of Malcolm Gladwell's suppositions whereby he states that it takes a human being on average, 10,000 hours of solid participation in any sort of activity to attain some sort of mastery or higher understanding of the subject at hand.


I don't know if I believe in this (but then again I've only got second hand information on it and don't know what kind of research went into finding it out), but I did some quick maths and worked out that 10,000 hours, based on a 38 full time job week, is 5 years of work.

Daunting, I know.

But it doens't mean that we can't get some decent work onto a page before we hit theat magic 10,000 mark, just that we develop as we go, getting better and better with each word put down.

Back to the writing everyday topic, I've worked out that if I continue at this pace (knocked back a little last week when my howle family came down with a bad bout of gastro, so I only managed 3,000 words, but still around 2,000 more than I would have done other wise) I'll have my first draft completed in two months.... then the real work starts.

[meso]

i am also getting this problem through your guys discussion i have solve my problem.. Great forum really like information...