Word Count Update #3: Daily Writing Sucks!

Back again, exposing my shortcomings for your amusement.

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?  (My daughter, too shy to draw a monkey for last week, decided to help this week.)

• Day fifteen.  Still considering picking up one of the rough drafts to give me something daily to sit down and work on.  Don’t want to use my most productive time for the day job, but mornings are so much better for writing, too.  Evenings are just not happening. No word count, so fail.  Published #1 of the updates, despite nausea at the idea of people reading it.
• Day sixteen.  Why can’t I just sit my ass down and write?  Surely there is a half hour somewhere that isn’t filled with job/household/family obligations?  I’ve had this!  I’ve done this!  I want this!  Why can’t I do it again!!!!!  FAIL!!!!!
• Day seventeen.  Ok, calm down.  One, you are adding something difficult to an already full life, it’s going to take some time to adjust.  Two, publishing is still a long shot, so there isn’t anything to help you feel the writing will pay off–eventually–except self-belief.  It may be delusional to believe in yourself, but most writers are, so you are right on track.  Anyway, word count fail.
• Day eighteen.  Spent some time putting longhand blog ideas into my drafts files.  It’s technically re-writes, but at this point I’ll take it.  As the old writer adage says, you can’t expect water without turning on the tap.  Word count at 526, so that’s a win.
• Day nineteen.  Job, family time, and general life stuff was like a tidal wave.  No word count.  Fail.
• Day twenty.  Typed up some random thoughts from my blog idea notebook totaling 608 word count for the day, so that’s a win.
• Day twenty-one.  More random thoughts turned into blogs, one is a list of things I’ve learned about social media, the other about gladiatorial slugs.  Word count 700, so winner, winner, chicken dinner!  I can’t really imagine publishing them, but that’s not really the purpose of this goal.  Feels good to be putting words into strings that somewhat make sense.  Yay, Me!

Ok, there is some strange and random thoughts recorded here, but you are just getting the thoughts that are directly related to the daily writing goal.  (My blog, my rules.)  Any way, if you are keeping score, that’s three wins to four fails, so some progress is being made.  Starting a daily writing goal SUCKS!  (And here would have been another good place for the bendy straw pic.  Oops!  I’ll get to it.)

I actually felt good at the end of the week that I seem to be hitting the goal when I can actually sit to write, but the hard part is carving that time out of my day.  And late evening writing (the last chance saloon of the writing highway) has started working for me instead of against me.

If you are wondering how this all started, or are interested in starting a daily writing goal, check out this post, and the #1, #2 and #4 updates.  (Didn’t you expect some self-promotion by now?  Don’t you like my blog?  My very amateurish photos?)

My favorite bit.  “Nope.”   Thank you, Sweetpea.

It’s Not About The Word Count…

Daily writing.  It’s a surprisingly controversial topic for writers, but only because the word “writer” applies to everyone who wants to use it, and that as it should be.  Writers are as varied as something with lots of… variety.  Like plants.  And pop up randomly, like…

Ok, it’s spring here!  How can you not be inspired by spring!  Sheesh!

Daily writing is just a way to attune your mind to use words effectively.  Establishing this habit was the way I learned to feel like a writer, and to make words my every thought. My point of view became different from before.  I began to think about the words my thoughts used.  Random conversations I heard become models of dialogue. While noticing a transient moment of natural beauty, I reached for words to preserve it, and then I could transmit the fleeting moment to another.  Life’s travesties and joys became plot points for me to harvest.  I was the observer of the universe, noting the contrasts of chaos and order, and how they exist side by side.  The entire spread of time and existence were my writing prompts.

The painter never learns to paint without learning the way of the brush.  And the paint.  And the canvas.  Or the mouse and pixel. One thing I am certain of, and it is Art Finds A Way.  Very much like nature.

We all have obstacles in our path, and some of us have obstacles the size of the world. Real, everyday life sucks out our creative drive, burning it up for a bit more energy to just survive.  But a lot of us–I suspect–have obstacles exactly the size of our egos.  If we want to write, we find those obstacles and name them.  Fear of failure. Fear of success. Fear of being judged. Fear of sucking, despite our best effort.

I am asking you to put those fears aside and just write.  Write every day.  Find a way.  Ignore publishing for now.  Ignore peer review, and beta readers, and editing.  Don’t wait for NaNoWriMo. Don’t wait for the new laptop, or writing class, or whatever it is that is stopping you.  Form words into sentences and put them down on paper, or the screen, or the voice recording.  YOUR WORDS.

Give yourself an easy word count goal.  How long does it take to get down fifty words, or five hundred?  If time is limited, use that as your marker.  How many words can you put down in a fifteen minute break?  Can you do better tomorrow?

It’s just like anything else you have to learn.  You MUST practice, and if you don’t cheat yourself, you will get better.  Faster.  More coherent.  And when you figure out there is a missing technique you need, you research it and work to apply it.

Lots of people will tell you the word count doesn’t matter.  And they are right, the numbers don’t really matter.  It’s the effort behind the numbers that is the important bit.  Numbers are just a simple marker of effort expended.  Be proud of it.  Give yourself the gift of watching the goals being met and exceeded.  Pat yourself on the back, or have some chocolate.  Reward yourself.  Shrug off the awful days, the days you simply can’t meet your goals, and try again tomorrow.  Momentum is the key; keep moving forward.

And try to avoid sounding like a greeting card, or motivational poster, like I just did.  Not everything you write will bloom gloriously.  Just keep shoveling those words.  Spread them like manure.  Something will grow.

If you haven’t figured it out this is mostly a reminder for myself, since I am starting a daily word count goal, TODAY.  Updates on my progress start here.  I apologize for the wide distribution of a bit of random rambling, but I also hope it will find its way to those who are struggling. You are not alone.

Am I going to count this in my word count goal for the day?  You bet your sweet ass, I am.  Then I’m going for a walk.