Achievement Unlocked

July 24, 2012

I have written for thirty days straight. I have twittered my daily word count and a continual total word count. Even on Tumblr I have written of some of the stuggles I have discovered as I wrote. As I have said in the pass I have read that 21 days can break or make a habit. At the beginning of this project I decided thirty straight days should break my procrastination and difficulty I face just trying to sit down and write. Thirty days could make a habit where I didn’t just wait for inspiration but exercised my brain. 

In these thirty days I found that writing everyday was harder then I expected. But I didn’t let event plans or hanging out stop me. Even when I wanted to let plans stop me. I told myself I had my reward before my work and I would get no where if I just kept going without the hard work it takes to be accomplished. I sometimes only wrote for half an hour but hey, I wrote even if I only produced over 400 or 500 words. At night I gave less time to my writing as it slowed and my bed called me to sleep. The best days was the full hour that seem to fly away as I typed away at my story. I learned I like writing in the morning or early afternoon better then at night. I liked walking around the rest of the day with the inner knowledge of what I accomplished. I am still amazed at all the times I broke 1,000 words in a section. 

Twitter became another positive. I had a few people cheering me on and being inspired by me. (What?!) I was/am shocked by the new followers, all strangers, I have just because we share an interest. That inspired me.  

I have ended this month with a story word total of 22,336 words. A story still in the process of it’s first draft. A first draft that sucks but I can finally say I’m okay with how horrible it is. A story I hope will improve with all the rewrites I plan to work on in future drafts.  

So, what is next? I hope to make a writing schedule I will stick to. Maybe five days a week at least an hour a day. Work on this story. Maybe work on an outline to another story I have been thinking about. I’m still looking for a job but now I don’t feel I should apologized for ”slacking”. This month’s writing showed me so much more about myself I didn’t know I had in me. Maybe writing was always suppose to be the path I went down. 

Achievement Unlocked

July 24, 2012

I have written for thirty days straight. I have twittered my daily word count and a continual total word count. Even on Tumblr I have written of some of the stuggles I have discovered as I wrote. As I have said in the pass I have read that 21 days can break or make a habit. At the beginning of this project I decided thirty straight days should break my procrastination and difficulty I face just trying to sit down and write. Thirty days could make a habit where I didn’t just wait for inspiration but exercised my brain. 

In these thirty days I found that writing everyday was harder then I expected. But I didn’t let event plans or hanging out stop me. Even when I wanted to let plans stop me. I told myself I had my reward before my work and I would get no where if I just kept going without the hard work it takes to be accomplished. I sometimes only wrote for half an hour but hey, I wrote even if I only produced over 400 or 500 words. At night I gave less time to my writing as it slowed and my bed called me to sleep. The best days was the full hour that seem to fly away as I typed away at my story. I learned I like writing in the morning or early afternoon better then at night. I liked walking around the rest of the day with the inner knowledge of what I accomplished. I am still amazed at all the times I broke 1,000 words in a section. 

Twitter became another positive. I had a few people cheering me on and being inspired by me. (What?!) I was/am shocked by the new followers, all strangers, I have just because we share an interest. That inspired me.  

I have ended this month with a story word total of 22,336 words. A story still in the process of it’s first draft. A first draft that sucks but I can finally say I’m okay with how horrible it is. A story I hope will improve with all the rewrites I plan to work on in future drafts.  

So, what is next? I hope to make a writing schedule I will stick to. Maybe five days a week at least an hour a day. Work on this story. Maybe work on an outline to another story I have been thinking about. I’m still looking for a job but now I don’t feel I should apologized for ”slacking”. This month’s writing showed me so much more about myself I didn’t know I had in me. Maybe writing was always suppose to be the path I went down. 

A Few Bumps While Writing

July 2, 2012

Ah, the start of week two. Storm clouds are in the distance. I had some trouble writing today. I realize I need to be more prepared about how I want things. Time to work on the look, size, and number of characters I really want. Today I will be taking some notes and hopefully working out these kinks so tomorrow my story and word count won’t suffer from pauses and switches in scenes. 

Todays Word Count: 679

Total word count after 8 days: 5,423

Can’t Get Out

July 1, 2012

She had the idea that maybe she would leave. If not today then Thursday. She would drive to Boston, walk around town, and take pictures. She would climb the tower again and look around a city going about their business. She thought about the city that had people with purpose.

The more she thought about it the more she knew she wanted to visit a city she hadn’t see. Not Boston, Atlantic City, or Washington DC. She knew she shouldn’t keep thinking of running away to get away from her problems. She knew they would just follow her. She was forever trapped to be unhappy. She thought, I guess it is better to be loved even if you didn’t really love back.

Writing About Writing

June 28, 2012

I don’t know where all this writing energy has come from. When I have a free moment it’s all I can think about. Today I dug out a book I bought years ago (possibly 2005), No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty. He is the founder of National Novel Writing Month. I never fully participated in NNWM. I think I wrote a few hundred words and quit. Now, this writing I’m doing is not me participating in my own writer’s month. I always remember this book having great tips for kick starting or continuing through tough times and I know I will have writer’s block in the future.

The purpose of this post? I think it was yesterday’s writing. I had a portion of the story I wanted to change but I knew I shouldn’t delete. Sure enough one of his tips from the book, “Don’t Delete, Italicize”. Brilliant! So much better than parentheses. This little tip made me feel I was on the right track.   

One problem I almost had was with the program I’m writing with, Scrivener. I couldn’t find how to place an italic button on the main writing menu. If you have the same problem or maybe I’m just a little brain dead it’s not a big deal. I am implicating the task the manual way (Commend or ALT ‘I’). Other then that. I really like using Scrivener. Haven’t used the outliner or cork board but I love the ‘full screen’ option, which lets you choose the width of your paper and fades the background. Less distractions. 

Okay, enough talk about writing! I promise. 

Day Four

June 28, 2012

Today, 679 words.

I promise I won’t Tumblr (Edit: or WordPress) blog my word count everyday. Maybe just twitter it. Day four and I’m feeling I could keep this pace up. Break the mental fear, procrastination, and whatever else stopping me from writing. And not just writing these little scenes or the days activities and insecurity in my journal but a story that fits together.

Just Write

June 27, 2012

Words written today, 664. Editing while writing is one of my offenses but I didn’t go back. Well…okay, I did but I realized rewriting would get me no where in the story so separated the past writing by putting it in parentheses and wrote what I wanted to write from there. Now I have the start of two scenes in the beginning of chapter two but like Hemingway said, “The first draft of anything is shit.” and I just have to keep going. Edit and rewrite at the end.

Word Count

June 26, 2012

Today I wrote 439 words. It is said it take 3 weeks to break a habit or instill a new one. I think I’m trying to do both. I would like to have a better writing schedule and continue to sit down for the next 19 days write without whatever stops me getting in the way.

Anyway, I’m proud of day two. Maybe, tomorrow, I’ll stay seated after I run out of images to write and just try to continue…