The Tortoise and the Hare

My belief: Writing isn't a race. It is a craft. It is often misunderstood.

In general, most people I talk to think writing should be easy. They think a story, a novel, a book is a quick process. Someone sits at a computer, bangs on a few keys, a month or two later sends it to a publisher and hey presto ...

Ah huh. Most of those people don't write.

I am not a prolific writer. I don't write 5000+ words a week. I will never be an insta-writer (as I like to call those who can just sit down and *BAM* pour out tonnes of prose in a matter of hours). I know people who do write at the rate of almost a novel a month. I wonder though, what does this achieve? Do they end up with cohesive stories? How much do they have to neglect to get the time and focus? What do they do with all that writing? Do they achieve their goals and dreams?

I am making progress. In word count, my current story is just over 43,000 words. While word count does not maketh a story, I am still proud of this achievement. I have never pushed a story this far towards completion before. Climbing over the 40,000 word count was a small yet significant benchmark in my writing. I am seeing the story build at my hand. The construction probably isn't as perfect as I would like it, but my characters are well into the journey of this adventure. They are evolving and reacting more than any characters I have written with before.

Looking forward, I am working on a section of my story that involves a lot of action and escalation. There are many more words to come to create the climax. I feel good. I am not near the end of completing the story, but the path is looking clearer and the words are slowly working their way onto my page.

I am not trying to win the race, but I do want to finish it. Whether the hare wins or not, the importance for me is following through to completion. The tortoise persevered, and so shall I.

Being Realistic

It hasn't quite been 10 months... but it may as well have been.

We won't even go into the fact I never started NanoWriMo last year.

What I have done however, is set more realistic goals for myself.

I try to write a least once a week. I try to write a minimum of 100 words. You might be saying "Gee - that isn't a lot." I suppose it isn't, but for me, I know that is an achievable target, even in a bad week when my kids take 95% of my spare time. The writing isn't just on my story either. ANY writing is good writing, so whether it is my family blog or my story ... or even here, as neglected as this poor blog is, if I am writing 100 words, I am achieving a goal. Obviously I would like to keep the word count climbing on my story though, preferably with reasonable prose and not waffle.

I've also re-invented how I manage my writing project. Before, I had the plot listed by numerous events and key ideas. Now, I've broken the storyline up into around 20 major events and mapped them out on a piece of paper so I can always refer back and know where the story is going, watch the rhythm of ups and downs, and make sure the story has a beginning, middle and end. It also helps me find the holes in the plots I need to work/write on. I'm not writing to edit at the moment. My goal is simple. To finish the story - and have the story make sense to me. Only then will I worry about editing it to make sense to everyone else.

While I would like to one day be published, I don't live the delusions of grandeur. We put pressure on ourselves, and others around us apply pressure when we reach for such a hefty achievement. That isn't helpful to any writer and can end up being a burden when people put expectations on us. At the moment I am learning to walk. I am refining my craft and learning to write. Maybe one day I will be ready to run.

Until then, I keep plodding along one step at a time, hopefully avoiding a few puddles along the way.