In April 2019 I gave myself a dare.
I wanted to write a
novella, about 30,000 words. I decided to log my successes and failures as an
open blog for other writers. That dare turned into this: Write a Book in a
Month, #2 in Inspiration 4 Writers.
Prior to April I certainly didn’t have a steady record of
30,000 words in a month. In the previous year, I needed eight+ months to write
96,000 words. That works out to be 12,000 words a month.
It’s actually 24,000 words on average that came through my
fingers per month. My work process is to do a complete Rough and a complete
Draft as separate documents: the rough hand-written and the draft into the word
processing software.
Handwriting the Rough gives me permission to scratch out
mistakes, to fly through scenes, and to slog through problems.
Still, the previous high point of 24,000 words is far short
of the 30,000. Not counted in the challenge were the blogs associated with the
Daily Log, an account of my writing along with method, focus, disruptions, and
distractions. Sometimes I had a lot to say;
some days, not so much.
I set myself this challenge because I needed the push to stay
disciplined with my writing.
The goal is 1,000 words per working day, with 5,000 words as
the weekly goal. I want to write for 30 straight days, then Proof Plus for 10,
and publish on the 10th day.
How did I arrive at this daily and weekly word count as my
goal? The 4 Bes:
1] Be realistic. Don’t push for what I wish, but for what I
can do.
2] Be time-aware. Use writing time wisely. Find places in
the day to achieve the goal.
3] Be devoted. Stick to the fiction project. Keep focused
throughout the day on achieving the daily goal.
4] Be specific. Know what I’m doing, when I’m doing it, why,
and how.
Take the dare! Succeed with the 4 Bes.
Come along to see how well I did and get 55 lessons to help Write
a Book in a Month. These lessons will help all writers achieve their
project goals.
MY fantasy series of the Fae Mark’d World include
To
Wield the Wind (
Spells of Air I) and
Weave a Wizardry Web (Fae
Mark’d Wizard ~ I). Write to me at
winkbooks@aol.com
The other books in Inspiration 4 Writers are Just
Start Writing and Enter the Writing Business.
