Day 488: Trying out a writing streak experiment
Writing Streak:
I think I’m going to try to do a writing streak. I haven’t really done those because I’m afraid to. My thinking is, I’m afraid some other health issue will crop up, so why bother to keep up an unbroken streak?
But I was reading some writing books and one mentioned writing a book in 100 days. I like that number because it makes it easier to break a novel down by 100. The book talked about writing a certain number of words a day for 100 days.
I’m torn about that. I actually kind of like the idea of writing only 900 words a day and finishing a 90,000 word book in 100 days.
But I also know myself, that it’s hard for me to write prose if my outlining and blocking isn’t done. This is because I’m so bad at making decisions for how I want the plot or the scenes to go, and for me, outlining and blocking is all about making all those decision ahead of time.
I can’t quite remember, but I think I tried doing both writing prose and outlining every day, and it ended up being confusing. This is because I was blocking scenes ahead of where I was writing, and when I wrote prose, I’d forget what information the characters had or hadn’t discovered yet.
But … I still really like the idea of doing 900 words of prose a day, and then using the rest of the day for blocking. It breaks up my writing day so the writing session itself doesn’t seem quite so daunting.
Also, it keeps up writing momentum, and I already know I tend to be strongly impacted by inertia. If I write a little every day, the story stays fresh and I don’t have to waste time trying to remember the story world when I’ve taken a long break (like recently) and I’m trying to get back into the swing of things.
I like the idea of a prose writing streak, but can I really do it? Well, I guess that’s why I’m keeping this daily writing blog, to record my experiments.
I think I’ll try it for a week, writing about 900 words a day, and then using the rest of the time for blocking the rest of the book. If I finish blocking early, then I can use the time to start outlining the next book.
And even on days I feel crappy, I’m going to try to do at least 15 minutes of writing, even if I don’t do any blocking or outlining. That way I can keep up my writing streak.
I honestly don’t know if this will work, but I’m willing to give it a shot.
I’m going to start today, even though it’s Sunday and I usually take a break on Sundays. I've noticed it’s really hard to keep momentum when I take a break, and since I want to keep a streak, I will write on Sundays, too, even if it’s only 15 minutes.
Update: Want to see how I’m doing so far? Click here to check out writing streak day 210!
Blocking:
I looked at the number of hours I’ve taken to do the blocking so far, and it’s about 60 hours, which is too much. I wanted to keep my blocking hours down to 75 or less.
I think I’m going to try to finish the blocking in only 15 or 20 hours. I might have to rush things a bit, but that might not be a bad thing. Rushing will force me to make a decision in places where I was waffling over what to do or second-guessing how I’d laid out the scene.
Instead of waffling, I need to trust in my story structure and my scene structure. I’m pretty confident that the book's story structure—even my entire series plot structure—is solid, and tinkering with it won’t make it dramatically better. It would only iron out wrinkles that very few readers would even notice (I think).
So I should instead just finish the blocking as fast as possible, and then I can focus more fully on writing the book.
Practice rather than perfection:
I happened to pick up a writing book yesterday and was reminded that it’s practice and experience that makes you a better writer. It’s number of words and number of completed books, not in tinkering the current book, that helps to perfect writing skill. I remember reading about this before, but I was reminded that psychology research has shown that it’s quantity of work and hours of practice that improve skills.
So I should focus on writing more fiction words rather than what I’ve been doing lately, which is trying to make the book’s blocking as perfect as possible.
In terms of practice versus perfection, the only thing I’m pushing back on is the concept of vomit writing. I already know my biggest hurdle is self-editing, so if writing a cleaner rough draft reduces the friction and internal conflict of self-editing, I’m willing to take the time to do that. But I’ll still try to write a little faster rather than agonizing over every word.
So I think I’ve come up with a plan for at least the next week:
1) I’ll write at least 15 minutes each day, aiming for 900 words a day, and then doing blocking for the rest of the day.
2) I’m going to try to get the blocking done in the next 15-20 hours.
3) I’m going to focus on more words written than in perfecting what I’ve got.
***
I ended up getting a lot of writing done! I got about 1500 words. I was going to start blocking, but my headache has gotten much worse, so I think I’ll stop here and try to go to bed early.
Writing: Time spent: 1 hour, 26 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 1519 words
Writing: Overall writing speed: 1057 words/hour
Writing streak: 1 days
Blocking: time spent: 0
Editing: Time spent: 0
Time spent doing other writing-related business: (Forgot to set Toggl timer)
My takeaway for today: Try a writing streak to see how you do.
My second takeaway for today: Curb your perfectionist tendencies when it comes to plotting. You know your structure is solid already, so trust in that.
My third takeaway for today: It’s quantity of work and hours of practice that will make you a better writer, so focus instead on writing more fiction words.
I think I’m going to try to do a writing streak. I haven’t really done those because I’m afraid to. My thinking is, I’m afraid some other health issue will crop up, so why bother to keep up an unbroken streak?
But I was reading some writing books and one mentioned writing a book in 100 days. I like that number because it makes it easier to break a novel down by 100. The book talked about writing a certain number of words a day for 100 days.
I’m torn about that. I actually kind of like the idea of writing only 900 words a day and finishing a 90,000 word book in 100 days.
But I also know myself, that it’s hard for me to write prose if my outlining and blocking isn’t done. This is because I’m so bad at making decisions for how I want the plot or the scenes to go, and for me, outlining and blocking is all about making all those decision ahead of time.
I can’t quite remember, but I think I tried doing both writing prose and outlining every day, and it ended up being confusing. This is because I was blocking scenes ahead of where I was writing, and when I wrote prose, I’d forget what information the characters had or hadn’t discovered yet.
But … I still really like the idea of doing 900 words of prose a day, and then using the rest of the day for blocking. It breaks up my writing day so the writing session itself doesn’t seem quite so daunting.
Also, it keeps up writing momentum, and I already know I tend to be strongly impacted by inertia. If I write a little every day, the story stays fresh and I don’t have to waste time trying to remember the story world when I’ve taken a long break (like recently) and I’m trying to get back into the swing of things.
I like the idea of a prose writing streak, but can I really do it? Well, I guess that’s why I’m keeping this daily writing blog, to record my experiments.
I think I’ll try it for a week, writing about 900 words a day, and then using the rest of the time for blocking the rest of the book. If I finish blocking early, then I can use the time to start outlining the next book.
And even on days I feel crappy, I’m going to try to do at least 15 minutes of writing, even if I don’t do any blocking or outlining. That way I can keep up my writing streak.
I honestly don’t know if this will work, but I’m willing to give it a shot.
I’m going to start today, even though it’s Sunday and I usually take a break on Sundays. I've noticed it’s really hard to keep momentum when I take a break, and since I want to keep a streak, I will write on Sundays, too, even if it’s only 15 minutes.
Update: Want to see how I’m doing so far? Click here to check out writing streak day 210!
Blocking:
I looked at the number of hours I’ve taken to do the blocking so far, and it’s about 60 hours, which is too much. I wanted to keep my blocking hours down to 75 or less.
I think I’m going to try to finish the blocking in only 15 or 20 hours. I might have to rush things a bit, but that might not be a bad thing. Rushing will force me to make a decision in places where I was waffling over what to do or second-guessing how I’d laid out the scene.
Instead of waffling, I need to trust in my story structure and my scene structure. I’m pretty confident that the book's story structure—even my entire series plot structure—is solid, and tinkering with it won’t make it dramatically better. It would only iron out wrinkles that very few readers would even notice (I think).
So I should instead just finish the blocking as fast as possible, and then I can focus more fully on writing the book.
Practice rather than perfection:
I happened to pick up a writing book yesterday and was reminded that it’s practice and experience that makes you a better writer. It’s number of words and number of completed books, not in tinkering the current book, that helps to perfect writing skill. I remember reading about this before, but I was reminded that psychology research has shown that it’s quantity of work and hours of practice that improve skills.
So I should focus on writing more fiction words rather than what I’ve been doing lately, which is trying to make the book’s blocking as perfect as possible.
In terms of practice versus perfection, the only thing I’m pushing back on is the concept of vomit writing. I already know my biggest hurdle is self-editing, so if writing a cleaner rough draft reduces the friction and internal conflict of self-editing, I’m willing to take the time to do that. But I’ll still try to write a little faster rather than agonizing over every word.
So I think I’ve come up with a plan for at least the next week:
1) I’ll write at least 15 minutes each day, aiming for 900 words a day, and then doing blocking for the rest of the day.
2) I’m going to try to get the blocking done in the next 15-20 hours.
3) I’m going to focus on more words written than in perfecting what I’ve got.
***
I ended up getting a lot of writing done! I got about 1500 words. I was going to start blocking, but my headache has gotten much worse, so I think I’ll stop here and try to go to bed early.
Writing: Time spent: 1 hour, 26 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 1519 words
Writing: Overall writing speed: 1057 words/hour
Writing streak: 1 days
Blocking: time spent: 0
Editing: Time spent: 0
Time spent doing other writing-related business: (Forgot to set Toggl timer)
My takeaway for today: Try a writing streak to see how you do.
My second takeaway for today: Curb your perfectionist tendencies when it comes to plotting. You know your structure is solid already, so trust in that.
My third takeaway for today: It’s quantity of work and hours of practice that will make you a better writer, so focus instead on writing more fiction words.
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