Quick update: making my bed,
military-style, fell to the wayside. As nice as it was to climb under
those sheets, it was a bit of a hassle to fix every day. I had to
move my bed a few inches every time, and that was
enough for me to forget the entire thing. I still make my bed, but I
lay the sheets on rather than tuck them in. Maybe one day I’ll pick
it back up, but for now, I’ll settle for almost as nice.
Now,
to the real post. While any blog that’s available to the public is
meant for public consumption, the genuine reason I wanted to start this
was to get into certain habits by making myself accountable to random
people on the internet. It’s said that we should have a buddy when
attempting to grow new habits, so why not avail myself to every
single person on the planet?
So
what habit am I looking to start? And, more important, is it going to
be like my bed-making habit, where I settle for good enough?
Anyone
who knows me as a person—which is about two or three people—know
that I’ve wanted to be a writer for years. But I’m also a bit of a
lazy perfectionist: I want things to be right, but I also don’t like
putting in the effort. It’s a bit of a strange position to be in. It
isn’t like bed making, where the end is clear: a made bed. I can
settle for less because so long as the sheets are on nice, the bed is
made. But writing isn’t the same.
For
starters, the end might not be so clear. I have this one novel I’ve
been working on for the past nine years. It has a first draft,
perhaps in the only time I’ve defeated my lazy perfectionism to make
an imperfect mess. While I have a good idea to start the damn thing,
the end goal isn’t there. “Finish” isn’t enough. There’s
“how to finish” and that’s where I’m stuck.
Next,
remember, I’m lazy. If I don’t get it right the first time, I don’t
like putting in the effort to make it right. It’s perfect or bust.
This might be the case with many people for what
they want in life. You want to be good at what you want to be and
putting out less-than-stellar work is not something that
makes us feel warm and fuzzy. Now that I think of it, it seems to be
less laziness and more fear. Either way, fearful or lazy, nothing is
getting done.
Which
is why pulp writers are amazing. Title making a little more sense?
Don’t worry. I’ll explain the “1/4” part in a minute.
One
of my favorite books on writing is How to Write Pulp Fiction by James
Scott Bell. Mr. Bell highlights that this pulp writers cared about
their writing, but they weren’t part of the literary that tries to
hide theme and symbolism in their stories. No, pulp follows the
“write fast, write more” philosophy. While they may have
studied craft, their school was writing so many words that something
was bound to work. And when that something worked, they wrote more of
that until it didn’t work, in which they would keep writing until
they found something else.
How
much would they write? Well, there are two that blow everyone out of
the water: Stanley Gardner and W.T. Ballard. On average, they wrote a
million words a year. That’s about 20 200-page novels a year. This
meant they wrote about 2,739 words a day (about 11 pages).
I
am not either of these writers. But they are an inspiration.
To
my mind, the best way to overcome my limitations as a writer is, as
Mr. Bell writes, “TYPE HARD.” But 2,739 words a day is more
than I can bare right now. Not because if I didn’t try, I couldn’t do
it. Rather, I don’t have the hours. When I know what I’m doing, I can
produce a lot of words. But fiction and nonfiction are two distinct things. I don’t have to create a new reality with nonfiction. When
you’re making another world, things go a little slower.
But,
there’s no reason I couldn’t do a 1/4 of what they do.
250,000
words. It is, by all measures, still a lot of words. But also far
more doable: 685 words a day. Even if I took eight hours to produce
those words, it’s 85 words an hour. That’s slow.
Plus,
250,000 words is still a lot of finished works (based on minimum word
count):
-6
novels
-14
novellas
-33
novelettes
-33
short stories
And
that’s just common categories. I could write 333
sudden fiction stories (max 750 words).
And
thus, my goal is set. 250,000 words in a year. I won’t count
blog posts, which means even though I hit my goal and then some with
this post, I’ll write some fiction.
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