After last week’s bout with the plague, I’ve had a hard time wrapping my brain back into the novel (you may have noticed, if you visit the page vs. the feed, that the word count hasn’t budged in a week). I want to finish it still, and intend to finish it, but I haven’t gotten myself back into the novel mode just yet for some reason.
On the upside, though, I have managed to stick to writing daily, even if it hasn’t been towards the novel. I started a short story this week, currently about 3500 words into it, and am really enjoying the freedom of the shorter piece. Granted, I’m completely out of my element in some regards – for some unidentifiable reason, I’m writing a mystery, albeit a contemporary steampunk piece set in a world of vampires…yeah, so its not your average mystery, but hey, baby steps 🙂 I’ll try and put up a word counter for it today or tomorrow, mostly as an inspiration point for myself (there’s something about seeing those little bars move across the screen one day at a time that’s motivational).
Its funny how adages prove to be true, even when you think they’re generic. Except for a day or two (like the day I was unconscious with the fever), I have written every day this year. Every single one of them. Not always voluminous, not always my best work, but I have put down at least 500 words a day every day. I didn’t think I’d noticed any difference in style or output, but when I go back and look at the individual day counts for words, the graph is actually steep enough to have an appreciable angle of ascent to it. Take the novel, for instance. When I started working on it, I was doing maybe, maybe, 1000 words a chapter over the course of a day or two. Now its averaging 1500-2000 words a chapter in the same amount of time. And the writing is improving. Of course, it would have to, but that’s just the self deprecating part of me stepping in 🙂 So its true – you should write every day, no matter what, if you want to improve. A quote from Dune (the Lynch version of the movie) keeps popping into my head about moods, but I’ll have to track that down again later.
Speaking of later…off to a day of work at the office. Later gators!