All Work and No Play

Well, I haven't murdered anyone, but Jack was right with his page after page after page of repetition. All work and no play drives you mad.

I did pretty well on the 500 words per day thing, even managing to break the 1,000 mark several times, but found that the need to write something was taking over the need to write good stuff. On the whole, the experiment paid off and I've got some great, unexpected results, but some days, you just can't make the time, or your brain feels fried. Besides, I'm concentrating on completing Shingle (currently at 24,000 words) and that requires time to sit and reflect, weigh up all my notes, imagine and project. So sitting down at 11pm thinking, "gotta write something NOW" doesn't really work. At least, not taken day by day.

So I've turned the gas down a touch. However, I am still keeping track, so I'll end up with an end of January total (currently 17,400 words) and can try to beat that in Feb, then in March and so on... do it that way.

Better to do that, and take the odd a day off, than go down the Shining route.

BTW: Love that movie. Still the second best horror film of all time.

So Far, So Good!

Half way through the month and I've managed to keep to the goals I set out at the start of the year. That doesn't sound much of an acheivement, but to find time to sit down and write a minimum of 500 words per day, every day, soon becomes a real challenge. It's also addictive, and facing the end of the day without having hit my mark makes me feel a bit uneasy. That's probably why the last week of writing has been completed late at night. I'm not going to moan about family life and stuff because the alternative it to get up early in the morning. The answer is simple: if you need to do the work, you find the time.

Anyway, I've got to say that I am feeling the benefits, even after 20 days. I've got three short stories on editors' desks and I've churned out nearly 15,000 words of new work since Boxing Day. I've got loads of stuff for new projects, several short stories and one YA novel. Right now, I'm back on Shingle and it feels good - like I'm over a hill and being dragged by the throat towards the end - great to feel I'm back on track with this, because I really love the story. I'm almost at the halfway point and currently, it stands at 18,000 words; I'm aiming for 45k first draft, unedited. That's the hard part - pushing ahead without editing is tough - it's so tempting to go back and fiddle - but that's the whole point of this experiment, to focus on new writing instead of getting bogged down in editing.

Just needed to get something down to help me keep to these goals. I'm writing this watching Most Haunted Live, and Stuart has just had a right old drama. Great stuff.

BTW - todays mark was 1000 words, during the first half hour of Most Haunted. Sometimes the words just flow!