Writing Advice

In my never ending quest for inspirational writing quotes I came across these, one after another:

The secret to writing is just to write. Write every day. Never stop writing. Write on every surface you see; write on people on the street. When the cops come to arrest you, write on the cops. Write on the police car. Write on the judge. I'm in jail forever now, and the prison cell walls are completely covered with my writing, and I keep writing on the writing I wrote. That's my method.
— Neil Gaiman

I never have written every day. When I'm writing a book, I write Monday through Friday. I always try to take Saturday and pretend to have some sanity.
— Maya Angelou

Two well-known writers. Two very different pieces of advice. Here’s some more, and if you’d like to read the full article I lifted these next quotes from, just click on the author’s name and it’ll take you there.

Spending five hours on a Saturday writing isn't nearly as valuable as spending 30 minutes a day every day of the week. Especially when you're just getting started. The idea is repetition — developing a discipline of showing up, making this a priority, and working through The Resistance.
If you want to get this writing thing down, you need to start writing every day. No questions asked, no exceptions made. After all, this isn't a hobby we're talking about; it's a discipline.
— Jeff Goins

Write every day.
If you’ve ever considered professional writing, you’ve heard this advice…
If you’re not a full time writer (like King and Lamott), this is terrible advice. This strategy will, in fact, reduce the probability that you finish your writing project.
— Cal Newport

So who’s right? Neil and Jeff, or Maya and Cal?

Truthfully, they’re all right.

Some writers have a regular schedule, treating writing like the job it is. They write at a specific time of day and have a set time or word limit. Some will write every day but have no set schedule. They write whenever they can find a free minute here or there. I know a writer who wrote an entire novel during her 15 minute breaks at work.

Some writers write whenever the mood hits them. It might be a few words, it might be a burst of a few thousand. They write when they feel like it and stop when they have nothing left to say.

I find, for myself, that it depends on what I’m writing. If I’m writing flash fiction or a short story, I do best by writing spontaneously, and in the case of flash all in one session. But with longer fiction I do better if I can work to some kind of schedule. This isn’t always possible, but I give it a try on a regular basis.

There is no one true way to write. All that matters is that the words get written.

You want to write every day? There’s an app for that. Write Every Day

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Wordage Report

New Words:

Driving Into Forever – unknown
Blog Posts – 765+806+0+1,637=2,982
Total = 2,982

It wasn’t a great week, word wise, but better than the last week was. It’s unfortunate I didn’t keep track of what few words I managed.

Editing:

I got 9 hours of editing in, but not a lot of progress.

What I’m Reading:

Still on my Nora Roberts kick with the tree books, but I think I’ve slowed down a bit, just two — Divine Evil, and the Witness.

I started a new boxed set on the Kindle, the Barely After Dark series from the Shifters Forever Worlds by Elle Thorne. I’ve already finished the first one, Cross, and started the second one, Lance.

Goals

Well, I didn’t finish the edits on Blood Ties, but I did make some headway. I’d gotten bogged down in a three or four chapter section, but managed to straighten it out again. The next bit is heavy on the action, which means it’s going to be heavy on the editing.

I gave up on the index cards for Driving Into Forever. It was incredibly time consuming, and I never did seem to quite get the hang of it. So instead I decided to simply write out the story – just as though I was telling it to someone (which, in a sense, I am). It doesn’t have to be in order, I can add things as I think of them, and when I’m done I’m hoping to use it as my outline.

I did not come up with a new non-fiction series for Wednesdays, and in fact I think I might give that particular post a rest for a while. I only get like four people reading it anyway, and it’s really time consuming.

Okay, I confess I read more than just “on breaks” and we started watching The Stand on Amazon Prime so I got about another foot done on my afghan. Although the good news with spending so much time on reading and crocheting, I’ve spend a whole lot less time on the mindless game. I’ll take the little victories where I can find them.

This Week’s Goals

1. Forge ahead with the edits on Blood Ties.
2. Keep going on the bare bones story version of Driving Into Forever.
3. Try to ease back on the reading a bit.


Here’s to a new week ahead.