Though it’s probably not quite what you might expect given what I cover on my blogs, I’m currently writing a book, a good ol’ sci-fi epic to be exact. The thing is, I’ve had the plot idea for years, ever since school, when I was asked to write a 1000 word piece as part of some generic homework. It was meant to be a do-just-enough-to-pass project, but I happened across a fledgling plot in those 1000 words that I really liked. In my mind at least, it eventually grew into a full story.
And in my head is where it stayed for nearly a decade. I’d occasionally try and commit it to paper but my efforts never lasted, I had neither the patience or the confidence in my abilities. I had this idea that you had to sit down and plough through a dozen pages regularly in order to write a book. Anything else seemed lazy or didn’t convey the appropriate amount of effort for such a grand project. My rationale was that if I was going to do this I’d have to do it properly and put in that magical hard work, whatever that involved.
Except I couldn’t ever find a block of several hours daily to write, and even if I could, I sincerely doubted my ability to stay focused and motivated for that length of time. It just wasn’t that appealing. If it mattered that much to me, surely I’d be able to put in all that time and effort, surely I’d be able to sit there so enthused by what I was writing I’d lose track of time?
I’m not going to describe the ways in which this was a bad way of doing things, there are enough productivians who can do that for me. Suffice it to say, I finally realized if I was going to do this I’d have to find a way of regularly writing that worked for me personally, and ditch all these perceptions about hard work that others had created.
What is “hard work” anyway? Some say it’s work that is challenging, that stretches you, that puts a sweat on your brow. Yet, why do people brag about the hard day’s work they’ve done, only to fall asleep right after their dinner, miss out on their kids and their hobbies and wake up the next day only to repeat the whole tiring process all over again? You can spend hours on something and still get nowhere. Perhaps a better description is of a project that you put your heart and soul into. But still, who says that has to be measured in hours committed or the number of beads of sweat on your brow?
So, after much trial and error, for the last five months I’ve stuck to a schedule of 1000 words a day, Monday to Friday (with the occasional holiday and break thrown in). Some people may balk at this puny 1000 words, after all if a typical book averages 100,000 words it is a mere drop in the ocean. That’s how I felt at first. But five months later I’ve done 85,000 words and counting! There is still a lot to do, a lot of polishing (this is after all my first attempt at a book) but it turns out taking small regular steps really does get you far.
I’ve avoided mentioning this until now because my approach still felt a bit like a cop-out, the old attitudes still clung on. I envisioned telling people about it and having to justify my efforts, when they’d invariably ask how I could get anywhere writing so little. But I recently read a great post by the Friendly Anarchist Fabian Kruse who described how the American author, Norman Mailer, would do as little as 750 words three times a week, and John Grisham, who wrote his first novel an hour a day for three years. It puts the whole National Novel Writing Project in an entirely different light. I suggest you check out 750words.com if you want something different (as a guide, this post is just over 750 words).
1000 words was a nice number for me, because it feels substantial enough to leave me feeling satisfied each day, but also leaves me with an hunger to pick up my laptop and continue with it the next day. It’s by no means set in stone of course; if I happen to be on a roll, I’ll run with it and do even more words. The point is, whether it be 1000 words of 100 words (or whether it be another hobby entirely), if you do it consistently, you’ll look back on your progress in three months time and be surprised at quite how far you’ve come.
{ 3 trackbacks }
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Ooooh! A sci-fi epic! I’m so excited for you, great work. 85,000 words is nothing to sneeze at. You’ve worked hard. Baby steps is the best way to accomplish any big task and this was a good reminder for me. I’m setting up a new website and, at times, it feels completely overwhelming. Thanks for reminding me to just move slowly but surely.
Thanks Chrissy, good luck with your new blog. I felt the same way when I started PTWS. It seems there are so many tweaks and changes you have to do to make a blog functionable out of the box, but I think if you stick to the bare essentials and slowly add on the rest it’s much less stress-inducing :)
Wow, that’s a cool story. 85,000 words is quite impressive! Keep us updated on how it’s going, or when it’s finished!
Cheers for that Fabian. I’m currently on a hiatus as we’ve recently had a baby, but hopefully I’ll be able to start it up again soon.
I don’t think there’s really any other way to do it, to be honest. I first heard about this idea in Stephen King’s book “On Writing”. Since then, whenever I hear an author (from amateur up to best-selling) discuss their craft, I notice that they always speak in terms of “I do x words/pages/hours a day, every day, no matter what”. The only way to improve at being a writer is, well, to write. The quota system just puts a smaller scope on things and gives you a way to feel good about what you’ve accomplished, instead of looking at the enormous pile of work still yet to do.
That’s precisely it Mark. If your focus is on doing a book, you’ll be forever discouraged from doing it, because you’re mind will always be on how much you still have to do, and how many months of work you have ahead of you.
If the focus is on 1000 words or whatever, you can complete your goal within a couple of hours every day, and feel a sense of accomplishment each and every time.
Way to go! The problem nowadays is that with Google giving us millions of search results within less than a second, we have grown accustomed to the idea that everything has to happen fast. In Germany we have a saying that goes, ‘Gut Ding will Weile haben’, meaning good things need time to develop. Same with your sci-fi epic. It might never become a bestseller (because that’s another story) but one thing seems for sure with the small step approach, you’ll finish it and you’ll never have to tell yourself that you didn’t try it. Now a Chinese proverb: ‘Even the biggest journey starts with the first step’.
Keep on writing, James!
Thanks for commenting David. We do live in a society where we expect instant results, and we expect them without having to put the effort in. In many ways, to get something like a book written, we have to go against this status quo, and if you were brought up surrounded by this attitude, your very instincts.