29 April 2011

deadline and reflections

April 30th is my deadline. And today is April 30th. Logic would dictate that today is my deadline. Also, if you were me, you'd know that I most certainly will not hit the deadline of midnight tonight.


I think that, regardless of missing this personal deadline, I'm going to keep muscling through and finish this thing ASAP. But looking back I did miss this deadline, so let's look at why:

  • As per my own advice, I need to write every single night (as I've already stated). There were nights I was dog tired or wanting to do something else. I'm a husband and a father, and I'm not a bump on a log. But if I'm gonna do this writing thing, it needs to happen every night. On schedule.
  • Stop looking at the end. I have a habit of looking down the road and gauging how good the book will be or how marketable it will be when finished. While it's not bad to keep those things in mind, they can not be a factor in the completion of this book.
  • 'Number of words written' and 'word count' are two different things. Sound stupid? Yeah, but listen. As you may have seen, my tracking of words and word count being a factor in writing the book have been a big hindrance. I'm good at no longer tracking the word count. However, I don't track my number of words written during each session. Short term goals are good and so is consistency– if I know that I can consistently write 1500 to 2000 words in a sitting, it'll get easier and easier. Short term goals without the long term hassle...how nice does that sound?
So I think those are my three biggest culprits– the writing schedule being the most nefarious. And that's an easy fix.

But you know what? I certainly beat the snot out of this book...and what's most important: I'm still excited about the characters and the story and still motivated to finish it.

One last thing to share. I found this great video last night.

Not only was it informative on some levels, it was refreshing and reassuring to hear that I'm not the only one who finds this so called writing 'process' a challenge...so, a thank you to the late great Stephen Cannell for that.

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