Well, it was only half an hour of writing, for a total production of 144 words - but the snail was on pace to hit 288 before he petered out completely. This was clearly one of my many 'false starts;' in this case an expansion of a one-sentence journal entry that yielded the following: a scene I wasn't interested in, a character that I liked but didn't understand, and a possibly-interesting relationship that had ended before the scene began.
I saved the file -- cut and pasted it into a file of other dead-ends, to be exact -- but I don't think I'm going back to it anytime soon.
Still, I consider that progress. The butt was in the chair. Words were pushed out, albeit slowly. My mind works like a cranky old lawn mower, I have to keep pulling the cord until the engine finally catches. There's gas in the tank, but I've only begun to look for the spark.
Time to pour us a couple of pomegranate martinis and see if we can stay awake until the ball drops. Happy New Year everyone, and may your own creative sparks fly in 2010.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Does Blogging Count as Writing?
My resolutions for the incipient new year are depressingly familiar, and I suspect not just for myself. Exercise more, eat less. Read more, work less -- or at least work smarter, rather than just harder. Spend more quality time with Penny (the wife) and Ellie (the dog).
And write more. Write more, and rewrite more, and edit more, and submit more for publication. Really. This time I mean it.
As you might have guessed from the above, I've been going through a spot of writer's drought lately. I can spout all the usual excuses (tough day at the office, suffering with a bad cold, a month's worth of Heroes episodes to catch up on, my Facebook status is, like, two days old ... ), but realistically?
Realistically, I simply haven't been putting my butt in the chair and banging away. I haven't been writing. And I could have been.
Hence, this Blog. I'm thinking blogging counts. I'm banging away at the keyboard, aren't I? It may not be fiction, or particularly enlightening, but it is word count. (One hundred and seventy seven words, to be precise, before this parenthetical sentence. Woo hoo!)
For the New Year, the promise / threat to myself is, I either write fiction for at least 30 minutes (only half an hour! what a wimp) on any given day that I'm home with access to the office, or I update this blog. I might even update the blog on days that I actually do manage to get some writing done with thoughts on the work in progress, or more likely thoughts on the process of the work.
Other writers are welcome to chime in with their own hints, hacks, and tales of success or woe. Non-writers are likely to be bored to tears. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Why? The idea being, as with all New Year resolutions, to develop new and improved habits, and break the old cycles of bad behavior. To push the butt back down in the chair until some words come out.
Yeah, good luck with that. Sounds like I'm barking at my own shadow to me. But maybe it's worth a try.
Happy New Year's Resolutions, everybody. Stay tuned.
And write more. Write more, and rewrite more, and edit more, and submit more for publication. Really. This time I mean it.
As you might have guessed from the above, I've been going through a spot of writer's drought lately. I can spout all the usual excuses (tough day at the office, suffering with a bad cold, a month's worth of Heroes episodes to catch up on, my Facebook status is, like, two days old ... ), but realistically?
Realistically, I simply haven't been putting my butt in the chair and banging away. I haven't been writing. And I could have been.
Hence, this Blog. I'm thinking blogging counts. I'm banging away at the keyboard, aren't I? It may not be fiction, or particularly enlightening, but it is word count. (One hundred and seventy seven words, to be precise, before this parenthetical sentence. Woo hoo!)
For the New Year, the promise / threat to myself is, I either write fiction for at least 30 minutes (only half an hour! what a wimp) on any given day that I'm home with access to the office, or I update this blog. I might even update the blog on days that I actually do manage to get some writing done with thoughts on the work in progress, or more likely thoughts on the process of the work.
Other writers are welcome to chime in with their own hints, hacks, and tales of success or woe. Non-writers are likely to be bored to tears. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Why? The idea being, as with all New Year resolutions, to develop new and improved habits, and break the old cycles of bad behavior. To push the butt back down in the chair until some words come out.
Yeah, good luck with that. Sounds like I'm barking at my own shadow to me. But maybe it's worth a try.
Happy New Year's Resolutions, everybody. Stay tuned.
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