"Write Every Day" and all that jazz

A few years ago I read a book about becoming a writer that basically said if you cannot sit down and write something - anything - once a day, you frankly don't have what it takes to be a writer. I think I set down the book after that and mumbled something resembling pshaw. It's not that I thought writing regularly wasn't important, I just didn't buy that if there was a day where you managed to get zero words on the page, you'd never succeed.

We hear all the time of the importance of writing every day. After all, if you write even ten words every day, eventually you will have a finished draft. It might take a while, but it will happen. But if you write 2,000 words, then go out of town for the weekend and write none, well... that's still considerable progress.

Over the past few months I've been doing a lot of revisions, so the new WIP I began in December was very neglected. I was still active in my writing, just not in that project. And as the weeks of revisions for the other project passed, I started wondering if my new WIP was really striking my fancy after all. I opened it up when I had the chance and tried to make some progress on it, but I just kept filling in little scenes I already knew would happen. I struggled to really get going on it, or brainstorm any new scenes or components.

When I finally finished the revisions, I reread everything I'd already written in the WIP to reacquaint myself. Then I wrote some. And the next day I wrote some more. Finally, I was able to focus on it, and as a result I'd get random ideas and inspiration while I walked to work or when I was taking my shower - times when I wasn't even thinking about it intentionally.

I just had finals and all the craziness that finals create, and there were days when I didn't have the chance to write. But because I was writing that book more days than not, it was on my mind even on the days I couldn't put any words on the page. Essentially, I made progress just by having the work engaged in my mind.

That, I think, is the true benefit of writing every day. It's not the number of words on the page, it's the motivation and inspiration that comes from having the story in the front of your mind rather than the back. It is so much easier to sit down and write now than when I only had a chance to look at it once a week, because I'm not sitting down trying to remember where I left off and what happened last in a certain sub-plot. I'm accidentally solving sub-plot issues when I'm doing other things, like watching TV, merely because writing nearly every day leaves me engaged with the story every day.

Do you write every day? What are your feelings on the "Write Every Day" mantra?

Fun Fact Friday!

Yep, it's Friday! My first friday of the new school year, and it is quite welcomed. But nothing makes a Friday better than some fun facts, right? Please, just humor me.

1. Ants are the only animals that can survive in an operating microwave.

2. Under a full moon this week, coral will have a mass mating party. Seriously. Read about it.

From noao.edu

3. According to my page-a-day calendar, it is Wednesday, August 26th, 2009. Just so you know.

4. This song is currently driving my WIP. And it's awesome. I do recommend a listen.

And so, I wish you a very happy Friday!

Blogfest time!

So, I just found out about the "I can't say it" blogfest hosted by Shelley @ Stories in the Ordinary today, but it fits in so well with my WIP that I couldn't resist entering.

As a preface, I would like to say that I will definitely get to everyone's entries, but it won't all happen today thanks to that whole job thing. But I can't wait to read them all!

Okay, I'm not going to give much back story on this... I'm just going to share it. Here you go!

I was armed with my lemons, and when he asked about them I just said I really like the taste, which is ridiculous. Just because a person likes chocolate doesn’t mean he keeps it near him throughout his entire shift. But Justin nodded along like I was normal. Again, what is normal?

Since I really enjoy making drinks he took all the sweeping and table cleaning duties, and in the few moments customers weren’t lined up in front of the counter we talked about school and classes and going to college and how Austin and Dallas are different.

Dallas is definitely the better city, but he begged to differ. And the final blow came when he asked why I was here then, in Austin, and I had no response. Instead I ran to the bathroom. I actually didn’t need to throw up that time, I just needed space from the lies.

Sometimes I feel squandered by them, as though they are originating outside of me rather than within me. And sometimes I feel like that game at bowling alleys that convinces you to keep dropping in tokens or quarters because that block is sliding back and forth and eventually, for the right person, there are just enough tokens piled up that the block has nowhere left to go and pushes a handful of them over the edge. The lies keep piling up and eventually I just won’t have anywhere left to put them.

Eventually they are all going to come spilling out and I have the sense that the final lie that does the trick is not going to consult me about the time or place it slips out of my mouth.

(Also, because of the whole work thing, I'm posting this late Tuesday instead of Wednesday. Shhhhh don't tell)

Slow and Steady...Or Just Make a Run For It

I've considered myself a slow and steady writer for a long time. I wrote my novella for class by writing about a page a day. The longest work I had written prior to a week ago, at 28,000 words, I wrote over about four years. It kept slowly growing as I thought of a new plot idea and went back to it.

In this post I made a goal of writing 750 words a day, with the ultimate goal being finishing the first draft of my WIP by the time I went back to school in September.

I finished the first draft yesterday.

Me, the slow and steady writer who thought 750 words a day was accessible but probably around my max, started coming home from work and writing 1,000 words, then 2,000 words a day, then 3,000. Between Thursday and yesterday I wrote 20,000 words. And then, to my shock, I was done.

And not only was it my first draft, it was my first draft ever of a novel length work. Even if it is absolutely no good, that was a huge step for me.

It has a lot of revising that needs to be done, because I decided to just get it all out on the page and then figure it out from there - but I'm very eager to start it. And throughout this process I've thought of several topics I want to blog about, but I was too caught up with all the writing! So be on the lookout for them.

I think that writing this so quickly is definitely the thing that has shocked me most in my writing journey (which began when I was five!), so what's the most shocking part of yours? Seriously, I want to know!

Titles for Goals and Goals for Titles

First, thanks to everyone who commented on my last post. All of the comments were great and gave me a lot to think about as I move forward with my WIP.

And, on the topic of that WIP, I have set a goal for myself, which I figure is more likely to be achieved if it exists somewhere beyond my thoughts. The goal is: (drumroll)... to have the first draft of my first novel length work done by the end of summer. Which, for anyone who is counting, is determined by my weird quarter schedule, meaning end of summer equals middle of September.

I did the calculations, because that's how I roll, and it's about 750 words a day, which is a very accessible number in my opinion. I don't see that and think, impossible! Although I won't have traditional word count helping me along, because I am hand writing it on legal pads, which really really REALLY excites me.

On another note, I struggle immensely with titles. I have the most difficult time titling my work, because I have no idea how to sum everything up into a few words. The title I just gave my novella is so awful I am embarrassed that it is at the top of the work that I passed out to my class for workshop.

Does anyone have a knack for coming up with titles? How do you do it? And what do you think makes a good one?