The journey of writing is all uphill, isn’t it? I’ve been writing books steadily for about two years now, but I still haven’t quite hit my stride, not the one I feel that I can, anyway. If i write too hard, I feel like I’m losing quality, but if I write with too much focus on that quality, I lose a lot of time. When I first started writing, sometimes I would go weeks without advancing to the next scene. Why? Sometimes it was laziness, but quite often, I just felt inadequate for the scene. Impostor syndrome? Maybe. I think it’s a little more complicated than that, but confidence-drain did play a part. Can you relate? Let me show you what helped me.
Unofficial announcement: I just finished Song of Kardu….again. I added about 29,000 words and made it what I want it to be, had it edited, and now I’m going to publish it under my own imprint. Self publishing still feels kinda like cheating, but I’m an author, I have control, I’ll make sure the product I send out is one I’m proud of. The indy market is cool.
To finish the book, I had to find the right word could. As it turns out, on a good day I can blast out 1,000 to 1,500 words without too much sweat. as long as I know where my story is headed for the moment, I’m good. I’d like to make my goal more like 2,500, but I don’t quite have the endurance for that yet. Instead, I’ve been going for an average word count.
Average?
Yep. Consistency isn’t always my thing. Sometimes I have to work extra hours, or I have family stuff going on, or my creative flow just isn’t hitting its stride for a day. That’s why I’ve been setting the goal for an average of 1,500. If I hit that, I’m fine, doesn’t matter if sometimes I get zero. You see what I’m saying? Of course.
Honesty moment, though. I haven’t written much for the past couple weeks. My new book release has been taking up freight loads of time as I do research and try to make sure I get it right. The blogging game has suffered too.
Luckily, I ain’t too bad at forgiving myself.
Till next time,
Daniel
