Holly Lisle mentions a forgotten writing truth in her blog entry today; that little bits of writing, done regularly, rack up word count.
I’d forgotten that, too. When I started writing seriously for publication, and after publication, my daily goal consisted of: do something every day to move forward. It might be edits, or research, or writing, but the book in progress moved forward every day. Doing this, I was incredibly productive. I didn’t stress out over daily word or page count goals. I just kept going forward, every day, and the book would get done.
Then somewhere along the way I started setting specific goals I had to meet. This in itself is not a bad thing, but it is when you have a life outside of writing that includes small children. Or any other major time/energy commitment. Some days I couldn’t get much done. By my previous approach (move forward daily), I’d be in fine shape, because good days balance out the bad ones over time. But with the goal not met, now I had failed. And failure instead of progress became the measure. I kept trying to change the goal to make it reachable even on the worst day. I kept miscalculating. No matter where I set the bar, nothing seemed to work.
Except that thing I used to do that always works; just move forward every day. That’s it. That’s all. If I do that, I met my goal. It sounds like it’s not enough, but I finished a lot of books very efficiently that way, and I was never stressed about my progress or lack of it.
I think I need to go back to doing what works and give up more defined goals. Thanks for the reminder, Holly.
I love this…I forgot this too Charli! Success depends on how you define it. Thank you for pointing out Holly’s post.
Keep moving forward, words to live by. Have a great weekend. 🙂
I love it. How simple yet so powerful.
Just what I needed when all I could see was the not done bits.
Who says this old dog can’t be taught new tricks? 😉
K.
Michele, you’re welcome, and Holly’s site is full of good stuff. It’s always worth a visit.
Ann, I may get them tattooed somewhere so I don’t forget again. *g* And good grief, I forgot it was Friday! Enjoy your weekend.
Kristen, I don’t know why it’s easier to focus on what we don’t do than all the things we do, but it is. A novel can’t be written in a day, though, and it really does have to get done one sentence at a time. Here’s to new tricks, whatever our chronological age. *g*
A good reminder that it’s the simple things that work the best. I’ve done what’s called club 100 where you write a 100 words in 100 days. You can set it up to only write 5 days a week or have a weeks vacation but essentially the object is to write something everyday. This works for me.
I’ve heard of the 100 words/100 days thing. I really think the key to everything is simplicity and being daily.
Words to live by. I tend to be disappointed in myself if I don’t write. My husband is always reminding me that on those days I’m doing other stuff for my writing career.
NJ, there is a lot of other stuff to do. It’s a balancing act. But consistency always pays off.