I took a day off to try and write as much as possible. Here are my findings....
I did something yesterday I have yet to try: I took a day off of work in order to see what my life could be like if I was a full-time writer. Originally, the day wasn’t intended to be an experiment; I was supposed to be enjoying my Goddaughter’s 3rd birthday party, but the damn Backstreet Boys Reunion Tour just keeps on giving and giving.
Anywho, I’m working on my second book right now and I wondered how many words I could rip through that puppy if I had the day off.
See, I do this thing called NaNoWriMo every year. You know. National Novel Writing Month? 50,000 words written in one month towards a novel, even if it’s a vomit draft, it gets your writing every day, come on, you know what this is…right? Anyway, if not you can find it here:
Anyway, I recently wrote the first draft of a science fiction novel called Trajectory, based on a TV series I’ve been working on for the past 6 years.
Quick pitch: “Lost,” but in space, but not “Lost in Space.”
It took me 5 years to write the first draft of this pup and it’s thanks to two NaNoWriMos that I was able to finish it. I’ll start attacking that draft once industry folk go back to their homes for the holidays.
This year, I started another series, the title of which is forthcoming, (probably will announce in April 2021), should be published some time next year along with Trajectory IF ALL GOES WELL ANYWAY–
I’ve also been reading this book called 5,000 Words per Hour by Mr. Chris Fox, an insanely prolific writer who writes MUCH MUCH more than 5k a day. Anyway, he talks about tracking and habits and I’m just about done with the book, but I wanted to share a few observations.
The first is that you can see by my NaNoWriMo graph, that I’m on track to hit 50k by Dec 1st, but not on track to finish a first draft. That is more specifically because the novel is close to 80-90k (I estimate, we’ll see), but I know that if I keep the daily words at whatever it is that day, I’ll hit that goal.
Now, you can see the insane spike on probably my best writing day ever. Yesterday.
This was thanks to doing something Chris advocates called writing sprints. I have my ipad next to me, I set a timer and I just write until the dang thing beeps. When I first started, I was doing 5 minute sprints and at the moment, I have it to 20 minutes, 11 seconds (the eleven seconds are really just to take a few deep breaths and get into flow) and my long term goal will eventually to be at an hour sprint.
I’ve heard from a few authors (note how there’s no citation here) that 3 good hours a day of good honest work is about all you can ask for in a day. I don’t necessarily believe that, but after yesterday, I can kind of get it. After a few hours of writing solidly, I was toast!
So what’s the first takeaway from a day of being an author?
1) Set your goals.
I wanted to hit 5,000 words, but between a car issue, two trips to the south springs, and many dog disruptions, I’m pleased to have hit the number I hit (though I am writing most of this on Tuesday night, so maybe I hit 5k in a way?)
2) Set your space.
I love the dining room table. I don’t know why, but the semi-uncomfortable chair, the ever-fading whiteness, and the ability to have my feet on the comfy carpet keep me focused. I’ve written upstairs in the office, but I tend to get distracted and look outside or up at my whiteboard full of glorious goals and hopes we’ll go over in the next blog post.
3) Shut off your distractions.
I’ve been loving a game called Mrio 35 recently. It’s essentially Battle Royale for Mario 1 on the switch, but today, I pledged not to play anything until the writing was done. The day is at a close as I write this and I’m glad I didn’t spend any time playing any video games. Not just because my desire to become a full time writer outweighs my monkey brain’s lust for dopamine distraction hits, but especially because I know I can do it.
4) (and let’s say the last takeaway for this particular experiment): Smile.
I smiled a lot today. It came from a genuine enjoyment of the day and the possibility of what could be someday should the proper dice roll or slot pull go my way. I have no doubt that a chunk of the writing career comes from a run good luck, but after all I’ve learned in the last year, a lot of it comes from producing a big ole body of work…Which I’m on my way to doing 🙂
So not a super helpful post today. I imagine the googlegods won’t be sending this to their front pages, but I just wanted to share a few of my observations.
Write well,
Me
