Writing 500 words a day

I was shocked. My brother, who isn’t really a writer, sent me an email inviting me to join him in a writing assignment. It was the 500-words-a-day group that Jeff Goins leads through his blog.

To be honest, even though I’m on Goins’ mailing list, I hadn’t noticed that email invitation. So, when it came from my brother, it carried more weight. And when Goins indicated his commitment included blogging, I realized it was just the kick in the pants I needed to start the year right. By writing!

Now, truth be told, I write 500 words a day nearly every day anyway. It’s what I do for a living, after all. But while I could use those words to weasel my way through to the finish line, the personal goal of writing that much was what really mattered most to my ambitions.

So, in addition to a blog and an article for work, on my way home I popped open one of the works-in-progress that I began last year and refreshed myself. I added a scene. Added some tension. Introduced a character. There’s still a lot of flesh to go on this skeleton, but there is more to the spine than there was twenty-four hours ago.

Then, some ideas came to me while I was in the shower this morning. More tension. And the story’s resolution came into view. It’s a children’s story – kind of a late birthday present for my daughters – but it’s also the beginning of a series. The inspiration to write was gelling into a marketable product!

You might say that an unexpected email from a trusted source resurrected the manuscript. But it’s more than that, really. What made it worth pursuing was that the goal was tangible and attainable. Five hundred words is essentially two pages. I know of writers who write thousands of pages a day. I’ve just hit 300 and I’ve only been typing about 20 minutes.

Of course, doing it day after day takes discipline. In my opinion, that’s a crucial ingredient to the recipe of a full-fledged writer and author. Call it discipline, call it consistency. Whatever you call it, it boils down to this: Writers write.

So, my writerly friends, it’s January 3^rd. What have you written today? I’m not going to criticize you if you haven’t written anything. I don’t know your schedule. But if you aim to reach your writing goals in 2018, there’s no time like the present to get into gear.

If my brother can do it, you can too.

I Resolve to Call Her Up...

I'm not the biggest Police fan in the world, but I always liked the lyrics to "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic." And the line "I resolved to call her up a thousand times a day" fit me pretty well when I was a teen resolved to not being stuck only with unrequited lust — though I was certainly familiar with it.

But as I grew older and wiser, bolder and wider, I recognized that I not only was capable of experiencing happiness, but also writing about it. So now that I'm a family man with responsibilities beyond the occasional blog post, I have gotten into the habit of writing down my resolutions.

Not everyone is a fan of resolutions and that's fine. I used to resolve to not make resolutions, and you might say I still do that: I write down my goals for the year, with target dates for achievement. I split them into work-related goals, personal and family goals, and writing goals.

I thought I'd share a couple here with you, and I'd love to hear what writing goals you have and are willing to share.

o Finish the first draft of my current novel in progress by 12/31/10. Right now, I'm at more than 25,000 words, which is probably about a quarter of the way to the goal. Not the ultimate goal for that particular novel, mind you, which I expect to clock in around 80,000 to 85,000 words. But I'm shooting for 100,000 in the first draft. From there, I'll need to revise. During my first edit of a manuscript, I try to trim about 10 percent of the words, which will hopefully account for the mess and repitition and all out crapola that's inevitable in first drafts. As Anne Lamott writes in Bird by Bird: All first drafts are shitty.

o Send at least one query out for my "completed" first novel by 6/30/10. This should be an easily attainable goal, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist (or maybe just a coward). In all seriousness, I made a conscious decision several months ago to not send any queries out in 2009. With my newborn daughters, I knew I'd have precious little time to spend on editing or revising the manuscript, and if I were lucky enough to get a healthy nibble on my hook, I'd be hard-pressed to reel it in with revisions while still feeding my girls and remaining married.

Ok, that's way too much about me. Please, let me know what you're shooting for in your writing in 2010. It doesn't have to be overly detailed. Maybe "Write every day," for example. Indeed, that's an excellent goal for any writer. I might just try that myself.