Writing Time

It is that time again. Nanowrimo is here. Otherwise known as National Novel Writing Month. I participated last year and it really jump started me finishing my first novel. I ended up at around 88,000 words. I wrote almost every night through the month of November. It was great being able to track my progress and have know others were working toward a similar goal. By the way, the goal on the website is to write 50,000 words for the month. This is a really difficult goal, but if you work at it you can reach it.

Along with the website I have a quote from Ray Bradbury about writing that inspires me. The quote is from a Writer's Digest interview.

WD: You're terribly prolific, but a lot of writers produce one book in a lifetime. Would you advise young writers to spend all their time polishing one piece or to go for quantity?

BRADBURY: It simply follows that quantity produces quality. Only if you do a lot will you ever be any good. If you do very little, you'll never have quality of idea or quality of output. The excitement and creativity comes from a whole lot of doing; hoping you'll suddenly be struck by lightning. If you only write a few things, you're doomed. The history of literature is the history of prolific people. I always say to students, give me four pages a day, every day. That's three or four hundred thousand words a year. Most of that will be bilge, but the rest ... It will save your life!

I will be starting a new novel next month. I am not sure which one yet. I could do the sequel to the one I finished, or one of the two others that are bouncing around in my head. I encourage you to participate if you have a story inside you. Even if you never finish it you will enjoy the experience.

80,000 Time

I just hit 80,000 words with my book. I am shooting for 100,000 by the end of the year. I hope I can make it. Participating in the Nano Wrimo helped alot.

50,000 Time

I just finished 50,000 words on my novel. I am halfway to finishing my book. 100,000 words is the goal for the average novel. I have been working on it since Kelly bought me my laptop. This Christmas will be two years since I started working on it. I have written and written and rewritten. The weird thing is if you think about a real writer, and by that I mean someone who has published a book, they have written many hundreds of thousands of words for their books. For me though the 50,000 mark is one I have been striving for recently. It is a real relief to reach it. The rest is downhill... right?