Ten Words a Day
I've been frustrated by not getting any fiction writing done lately, so I made a commitment to write every day: at least ten words.
Yes, ten. One average-length sentence. A rate at which it would literally take a year to complete a short story of modest length.
This obviously ludicrous goal was chosen precisely for its obvious ludicrousness: there is absolutely no reasonable excuse to not do it. When bullshit excuses not to write come up, it's impossible to not recognize them as bullshit. It's just ten words. They don't even have to be good. They don't have to be words I'll keep. But I have to open the notebook and write.
To no great surprise, I've written more than ten words each day, though, frankly, not much more. But it makes for noticeably more in the past week than for the past couple of months.
Once I've gotten really practiced at recognizing the excuses, I'll raise the word count. But not too fast... setting an intractable goal would be just another excuse.
Like PeeWee said in "Peewee's Big Adventure": "Your mind plays tricks on you. You play tricks back!"
There was a period last fall when every time I began to write, I went into a perfect blank-minded euphoria, where I stared out the window and felt a love for and oneness with everything. I sat in this state, sometimes for the whole time I had planned to write. I though to myself, "Lo and behold, I am becoming enlightened! This is much more important than writing, and besides this is where all writing leads." After this had gone on for quite a while, I asked Katagiri Roshi about it. He said, "Oh, it's just laziness. Get to work." -- Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldman
This is a terrific idea. For awhile I had a similar "poem a day" project, where I had to sit down with a notebook and come up with something every day, no matter how silly. I came up with some interesting writing exercises, just to get myself writing. For example, pulling words from headlines and writing a poem using them. It was a terrific way to get inspired. I really ought to start doing it again.
Posted by Alyce on January 28 2003 23:34
=v= Again, brain convergence with Zed. I've often compared writer's block with Pee-Wee's "unravelling a big cable-knit sweater that someone keeps knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting and ...."
Posted by Jym on January 30 2003 13:59
I think this is an excellent idea and I hope you don't mind if I lift it. Just the bit of sanity I need.
Jym: I love that sweater quote. We used to yell it at each other in peewee's voice as teenagers.
Posted by Zvi on January 30 2003 20:55
This may be less taxing on the nerves than my method, which is to write reams furiously and chain-smoke for hours, only to wind up discarding 99% and ending up with the same result: a single lapidary sentence. My SO, Neuza, a Brazilian novelist, writes only an hour a day. The late poet William Stafford, a mentor of mine back in the day, always recommended getting up at 5:00 a.m. and writing freely for an hour or two, saving your finished writing for office hours. The key's routine.
Posted by iggy-colin on February 2 2003 03:28