Cheers
Dean

Sometimes I feel like I am the King of Dink.

I need to go back and re-read Dean’s recent post about “hard” writing. I know the reason I dink so much is that when I sit down to put words on the page, I am unconsciously too wrapped up in the “hard” myth.

When I was much, much younger, I couldn’t wait to sit down and write, because I was doing it for fun and wasn’t worried about selling. I could pound out two thousand words in about two hours, and have a ball doing it too.

Over the years I think I went too far in the opposite direction. Once I said to myself I wanted to sell, I began to scrutinize and fret, such that my production speed slowed, writing sessions became dull and painful — no more fun! — and when even that didn’t seem to be getting me any results — just more rejection slips — I began to question whether or not I should be doing this at all.

I think I’ll add to my list of goals for 2010: rediscover the ‘fun’ in the process, as a way to up my production, help me avoid The Think Factor, and make this entire project just generally more enjoyable, overall.

(notice I say this in about 250 words written over ten minutes because when I am writing on blogs I am not at all trapped in the “hard” mindset)

Brad – Oh, the dinking. How I love to dink around even as I’m sitting there telling myself to open that word file I can continue to dink and dink. Some days I can still reach my word count goal for the day, but then I look back and think I could have gotten way past my goal and been ahead of the game. Other days I don’t reach my goal and I get really irritated at myself. What did all that dinking get me? Farther from my goal.

Thanks for running the streak page. Anything like that takes work, and it was generous of you to donate your time and the space on your site.

Big congrats to everyone who kept a streak going, especially for a year and more. Woohoo! You guys rock!

Glad to see the goals posts again. I have already set my goals for 2010. Did pretty well making my goals for 2009.

Thanks for your inspiration!

I’ve been looking over my own Big Goal list for the year, trying to break it down into Little Goals so that I can get the work done incrementally. The end of 2009 and the first two months of 2010 are crammed, due to prep for the workshops, but after that….? I don’t have any pressing deadlines, save for those I make myself.

Had I not placed with Writers of the Future in 2009 I’d probably be feeling very down about my writing right now — as I didn’t even come close to meeting my production goals. But getting the win with the Contest really pumped me up — while getting the check pumped me up even more. I keep that check front-and-center at my desk now, so I can’t avoid it. Like the stack of cash from the GEICO commercial: it’s always watching me! It knows when I am playing video games or surfing or just effing off when I ought to be working!

One of the inescapable conclusions I’ve reached, is that I can no longer avoid establishing a true regimen for myself. Between writing goals, fitness goals, and several other projects I want to accomplish in 2010, I literally have very little time in my week to dink around.

And I adore dinking around! I do that better than I do anything else! And it scares me to think I have to grow up and stop dinking around in 2010, lest I fall on my face and be wondering — at the dawn of 2011 — where all the time went and why I didn’t get more done?

I also think there are two kinds of goals: expansion goals, and restriction goals.

Word and page counts — daily, weekly, monthly — are expansion goals. You are expanding into new territory, breaking new ground, getting new things done.

Restrictive goals would apply to something like diet: no more high-fat lunches at work, no more ice cream treats on weekday evenings, etc. For me personally, it comes down to restricting myself from time-wasting on the internet — my demon, my absolute and total demon — as well as restricting myself from doing stuff like video games or watching NBA basketball if I haven’t gotten my gaily writing goals completed first.

Lately I dwell greatly on those restrictive goals, because I know that if I fail with those, I will certainly — no, absolutely — fail with my expansion goals.

As I read on I thought about making a goal for the year, the number of words per day I was going to do times the number of days in the year, but that may not be a good idea after all.

So that means I’m going to have to keep reading the next couple of posts. I will be writing anyway, not counting any time I don’t feel like writing. I had a couple periods like that this year. I usually ended up writing something anyway even if it wasn’t the stories I was working on.

1. You must write frequently.
2. You must finish what you write in a reasonable amount of time.

I’ve always been one to set daily word-count goals, and then a yearly goal based on those. Rarely, though, have I been able to meet my yearly goal. I’ve gotten close, however. This year, for example, I set a goal of 150,000 words. I know I’m not going to make it, but I also know that barring anything unforeseen I will get into the 125,000-130,000 range come December 31. I’m not going to beat myself up about not reaching 150,000, though, because what really amazes me is what I’ve actually achieved despite having been just plain damned lazy from January through all of July. I’m happy with this, and I hope to do better next year.

I’d mentioned previously my goal to write 500 words per day, that I increased it to 750-1000, then 1250-1350, then 1500, then, most recently, 1700+/day. Today, I decided to see how it would feel to write 2000/day for the remainder of the year (I wrote 2010 words today). As I’ve stretched my writing muscles, I’ve learned it really doesn’t take me all that much longer to write a little more (roughly 15-20 minutes per page). Does that mean that I should try to write this much all the time? I don’t know… yet. I know that Stephen King and Robert J. Sawyer both have goals of 2000 words per day, but what’s comfortable for them may not be for me. I won’t know until I try, however.

My idea for setting my goal for next year is to go beyond the 150,000 word goal I set for this year, but to try to not make it something that feels out of reach. Right now 1500-1700/day feels quite comfortable, and 2000 a bit of a stretch, but that’s probably because I’m not yet used to it.

I like to take off 1 day per week, which means that I have 313 writing days in a year. At 1000/day, which right now would feel like a breeze, I could conceivably write 313,000 words. Factoring in life, I aim to write 250,000 next year, and I hope to exceed that, if at all possible. So, life could screw with me for 63 days next year, two full months, and I could still attain my goal, as long I manage to write at least 1000 words/day the rest of the time.

Memorizing Heinlein’s Rules will help. I agree. I’ve got them posted at my blog, so that I see them every day. The rules that I have posted, however, have been modified by Robert J. Sawyer and James A. Ritchie. I’ve quoted them below, noting the modifications (Ritchie’s additions are underscored and Sawyer’s additions are bolded).

1. You must write frequently.
2. You must finish what you write in a reasonable amount of time.
3. You must refrain from rewriting, except to editorial order.
4. You must put the work on the market.
5. You must keep the work on the market until it is sold.
6. You must start work on something else immediately.

James A. Ritchie felt that many beginning writers don’t make writing a habit, thus the addition to rule #1, and that most spend too much time on a given project, thus the addition to rule #2. And Sawyer, at his web site, felt that rule #6 should be added for the sake of novices, because although many pros understand it as being implied, many of us novices have the annoying trait of pinning all our hopes on one novel.

I read all manner of how-to books on writing, regardless of the genre they’re aimed at. I figure there’s lots to be learned from anyone who is published. G. Miki Hayden, in her book, Writing the Mystery, tells a fascinating story that apparently has origins in India. She writes:

A wise woman who lived in India (the Mother) once wrote that there are two quite opposite illusions we simultaneously hold about ourselves and our ambitions. First of all, we believe that our urge to step in a direction is identical with our completion of the aim. We don’t see that years of effort are required to develop those necessary underpinnings. Secondly, and at the same time, we don’t really believe that we have the ability to fulfill our longed-for goals.

We are wrong on both counts, the Mother says. We consider our achievements with too great a complacency, but we really lack confidence. We think we’ll never make the grade. The desire itself, however — while it isn’t the accomplishment — is a strong indicator that the capacity for eventual success lies within. Let’s take our inborn ability as a given and unwaveringly move toward the hoped-for end destination — becoming the writer we know is inside of us.

That first part — that “we believe that our urge to step in a direction is identical with our completion of the aim” — is, I think, an incredibly profound observation of human nature. Our capacity for deceiving ourselves goes beyond words, and it’s an important principle to remember.

I was actually looking at my ‘Dreams List’ from last year, stuff that would be cool if it happened but that I didn’t really have control over. One item on the list was selling a short story at semi-pro level or better.

Why semi-pro? Because I’ve always wanted to have a short story in Weird Tales, since I’m a huge Ray Bradbury fan. Well, I’m not holding my breath or anything, but Ann Vandermeer is holding one of stories for a second read. It would be amazingly cool if she bought, but if not I’m cool too. I’ll just send her another one right after that. I’m laying seige to the publishing industry. Resistance is futile. (And, yes, the Borg reference to the Star Trek writer was totally intentional )

Also, sad to see the streak page go but, oh well, maybe I’ll start a blog with my own streak page. And my race numbers as well. That I way I have a little public accountability.

Looking forward to reading the posts again and the new Killing Sacred Cows.

Steve