Ol' Yuli Baba hasn't been around these parts much, but I promise it's not because I hate y'all— Tali!Ban is the hater.

I'm just trolling around to see if anyone has committed to writing a certain number of words a day, or maybe write for a certain bitta time. I've committed to it, and I've been consistent for about 10 days so far. I figured 5,000 words a day is a good challenge, kept on by the gynoid that lives in my head.

Already, I'm seeing results. Dysthymia? Social anxiety? Pauperism? Child hunger? Donald Trump's candidacy? All solved, give or take a few. Just the act of putting mah soul onto a screen or crisp shits of paper is all I needed. Sure, not all of it has been narrative, but that's okay— if all I need is a journal, or some outlet, writing helps. It wound up helping me establish solid goals that I've been achieving without fail.

So maybe it hasn't solved the issue of how to achieve peace on Earth, but it certainly has impacted my life. I'd go so far as to say it's the best damn choice I've ever made in my life (which isn't saying much; I'd actually need a life to begin with).

I recommend it! Writing every day helps. Most of all, it gives you a base to work with— simply writing every day isn't going to help you improve; no, you're going to need to actually work on that, but it goes far in that department.

Has anyone else tried anything similar?

 

There's the 500 words/day club.

Zenzao, I summon thee.

 

I may have an inkling of what you mean.

But 5k a day? That's, uh, mad. Like Joe mad.

 

No mention for me, zenzao? Oh well, I suppose you wouldn't know since you don't frequent IRC much, but I tend to do my writing in big chucks. Like, 10-20k per day chunks, and then procrastinate for another month or so.

Nauro and Roarian often bitch of this. but such is the way of elbow people.

I'm not a very stable or responsible person to hold myself to writing everyday.

 

Wait. What?

I'm never in IRC. I had no idea you... wow. Just wow. Fucking kudos, man.

 

Eh. I'm pretty sure 500/day is more efficient and productive overall. I just write fast when my muse is around. I'll have anywhere between 5-8k written in 2-3 hours, more on a good day.

But most days I don't write at all.

 

It can be fairly effective, yeah. I've charted a lot of different routes through a lot of different ideas. But most things come together very slowly. I rarely exceed 550 words a day outside of anthology drafts, as I tend to put it off to the end of the day(~11 pm). I don't think I've ever written more than 5k in a single day at my best.

 

Just as I can't practice piano for five hours a day, I can't sustain anything near 5k/day, largely because my stories tend not to be simple, linear things that can be splatted out quickly and with little fuss. When I'm writing, I'm happy to get 1k words/day. That's a long novel per year in terms of output, which is plenty for me.

 

Rep was writing in google docs once, while I watched. He honestly nearly writes as fast as I read, in some parts.

 

That doesn't mean much though because if memory serves, you read very slowly Drome.

 

I don't read slowly - I just paid attention to your writing in bursts. But there were times when you were spewing out sentences making it hard to catch up.

 

Rep, that's crazy. You know exactly what you want to write when you type at that speed? I stop at least twice if a sentence exceeds five words. Jesus.

Writing every day isn't always feasible for me, but I try to hit a broader goal of 3k words a week. I hit it most weeks. Plenty of false starts and original fiction snippets. I've kept around even some of the shit I produced back in 2008. I come back to that stuff sometimes, just to ponder the journey I've made as a writer since then. The biggest improvement came in the last 2 years, since I joined DLP as a member instead of just lurking unregistered.

Zenzao, you're the fucking boss.

 

Eh. The uphill battle is actually sitting down and starting to write. if I manage that, the rest goes by itself. I usually have a rough outline already in my head before I start writing, but the rest comes at the moment of writing. I know what I want to achieve with each chapter and some integral parts of the process, but I let the story flow as I write it and it comes to me. It seems to make more sense this way.

Not sure if I made sense, heh.

 

I use a similar process. When my muse is around, I'll dump 30k into whatever project I'm working on at the time. It's pretty organic actually, especially when dialogue is involved - much easier to just hand the characters the reins and let them take it where the conversation wills. I can refine everything later during editing.

But when the inspiration isn't around, writing is like pulling teeth. I've dicked around for hours before and come up with less than 40 words to add.

I know consistency is key, but damned if it isn't also the hardest part of writing.

 

Isn't consistency the hardest part of anything?

 

If I can consistently show up every day for a job I hate, I should also be able to work on something I actually like every day. That's the rub.

 

Basically this. Exactly this.

I've tried forcing myself to write stuff. I made it, but I was never satisfied with it.

 

This is why pretty much my only writing successes have been Circular Reasoning - which is a beautiful, beautiful accident - and my story Juxtaposition from the Unbowed, Unbroken, Unrelenting anthology. Both of which were/are created from this manic spree of writing. And then nothing happens for weeks afterwards. Everything else I've either missed the deadlines or I've flat-lined on where to go with the plot.

I have never found a cure for this. You can see this in my entries in the 500 club... which tapered off in 2012 from lack of effectiveness. I thought about blaming my ADHD, but that seemed too convenient.

It's like the creativity batteries need to recharge. The story holds my brain hostage until it's been written down and then I'm left with nothing while my muse fucks off for a while.

 

I see your point, Swim.

For me, the thing about writing that most slows my progress is worldbuilding when it comes to original fiction specifically. Rep can confirm. Had an original idea, started out well. Then Rep poked holes in it and then I started coming up with even more backstories for stuff and eventually it ballooned into a pretty big document that just had me like "and where the hell am I supposed to start?"

Deciding on a point of start and which storyline I wanted to tell was harder than I thought, but once I got the ball rolling, it got a tiny bit easier with every word.

Also, I'm working on a bunch of short stories, loosely tied together. I write a few hundred words for one, then go to another. They're set in the same world and may reference each other, but each is still its own contained adventure. I try to focus more on the characters and events than worldbuilding.