Back in July I asked if any of you had ever wanted to write a book. Comments ranged from “Yes” and “no” to “I think of little else.” And I threw myself on your mercy, begging you to start putting down words every day. Because writing a book is as simple as writing something consistently. Then one day you have enough, you have made enough of a mess with your first draft that you can start cleaning it up.
I am currently in the middle of that process myself. Sometimes it’s hard, sometimes it’s easy, sometimes I think it’s going well when in fact I am writing absolute garbage. But in most cases, it is still fun.
Even if you are only writing 500 words a day, it adds up. It has to. Books are made of words and if you write enough words you will soon have something that is book-length. It will not be your finished product, unless you are some perverse anomaly of the writing world that writes every publisher’s dream novel the very first time at typing speed. If that if you, don’t tell me. I will be too jealous.
For everyone who responded to that post, I wanted to check in and see how it has been going. Have you been writing? How is it going? If you didn’t get started, why not? This isn’t supposed to be a breast-smiting confessional, so don’t spill your guts and apologize. Just think about it. If you want to write, then I would love for you to actually write. I know how good it is for me, and I do believe that most people benefit from the process.
If you need anything else to get you going I would read:
Let’s go!
Josh
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As you know, I’m a big NaNoWriMo fan. I’ve currently got 23500+ words under my belt so far this month. Since I’ve been doing so well, my husband has challenged me to break 70,000 words instead of 50,000. I’m not sure if I can make it that high, but I’m going to try.
This year’s novel is a post apocalyptic/dystopian romance that I’ve titled Terrainier. 40 years after the Arctic Flu killed 99% of the human race and cleared the cities, Terrainiers compete with Land Pirates to ransack the cities for useful materials. It’s natural that a Terrainier and a Fixer would become partners, but falling in love isn’t the only matter that complicates what should be a professional relationship.
If you’re interested in tracking my progress, you can follow me at http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/416530
Nice work, Michelle. hit that 70,000.
Hey Josh, I’ve been following your blog for a little while now (from your Men With Pens guest post on posture, etc), but I haven’t commented before. This one is right up my alley, so I have to jump in now. Like Michelle, I’m knee deep in NaNoWriMo (maybe only ankle at this point, I’m only at 17k words so Michelle is amazing to me!). This is my third year, but I’ve never finished. However, each year I’ve done better than the previous year. My first year, I ended with 14k and last year I made it to 24k. Progress is everything, and like you said it all adds up. I keep telling myself, third time’s the charm!
Sarah, it sounds like you are well on your way to making 50K this year! You’re exactly where you should be!
I’ve finished every year, but last year it was really a push. This has been my best year yet. But it is taking a lot of time. My husband is saying he’s a NaNoWriMo widow. The only time I’ve been this busy is when I was going to school full time while working full time, and I didn’t have my own house then.
I hope so! This year has been my best as well, so I’m moderately optimistic. I write on my lunch break at work and usually get my daily goal in that hour alone. This is the first year I threw out the whole “write something that would impress people” and decided to write what I’d want to read.
Hi Josh…I am sure you have heard of Ariel Gore?
Well, besides you, she is my inspiration for writing. But a lot
of credit goes to my husband. He
helps me come up with ideas to pursue. We are working on
something called, “The Mini-Van Sagas.” I don’t think I can
come up with as many words as Michelle and Sarah (above)
though. I mean how much can I say about mini-vans before
everyone is crying?
I’m also a NaNoWriMo fan. I’ve found it much easier this year (being only my 2nd time with NaNo). I’m using a lot of classical music to keep the ideas flowing. I just passed the 17000 word mark and am aiming for the recommended 18334 for today.
I’ve also made a deal with myself this year that until my daily 1667 words are written, I cannot play any games on my XBox; its been a huge motivator for me
I missed out in July. And this post is what I needed today.
I am going away this weekend to a mountain house with a group of pals and in-between the heavy metal, video games, and whatever else-goes-on, I should get some writing done.
Since I purchased an iPhone in august I have stopped making notations in my notebook (carried everywhere just like the iPhone) that are rated to anything other than eating and lifting. It is damn good to be back training yet I could use the release given by a pen and no plan.
I have not even posted on my site in three days as my desktop is kaput and the iPhone blogger interface issas than stellar.
So maybe I am super Duper glad I subscribed to your rss feed. You came right to my mailbox with the cool post and helpful comments.
So I want to write a book that involves a kid who gets sick and is given meds to alleviate the sysptoms of weird spells where he maintains conciousness in a catatonic state and, for story telling purposes, pretty much becomes his grNdfather in Nazi occupied FrNce about 70 years ago. It’s called “blank by a blankity blank”
Never told anyone that except for The Butcher and my Girl.
Thanks!!!