The Basement Office

A conversation with myself and my creative endeavours

  • news & views
  • Snippets & Experiments
  • The Expensive Universal Instrument!
  • Capricornucopia
  • About Me

Zero tolerance for zero days works!

Posted by Frank Cote on July 20, 2012
Posted in: Writing. Tagged: advice, word count, writing, writing process, zero word count days.

Wow, between work, family and just plain writing, a whole bunch of days have come and gone and I really wanted to do a quick update.

Work’s been kicking my butt (I’ll omit the details to protect the guilty and because I don’t want to turn this into a work whine blog.  I want to keep the focus on my writing adventure), I mention this because it will be relevant to this post.

On the bright side, I’ve rediscovered twitter (follow me at @Frank_Cote but I warn you I don’t really say that much) and got a chance to chat with some people I really admire (shout out to @KMWeiland, @Beverly_Akerman, @AngelaAckerman) and I’ve been writing a lot.

So there’s been some good things, but stress and work have been dragging me down and the feelings I’ve been dealing with have been the kind that in the past would stop me from writing.

I mean stop me for a long time, days and weeks.  Months possibly.

My no more zero word count days saved me.  Here’s how.

On of the most repeated piece of advice to writers trying to make it in the biz is this:  Be professional.

What does this mean?  That means treat your writing like your job/career.  I will even embellish a little and say treat it like your dream career.  Be passionate, be determined, be ambitious, be proactive and most of all be consistent.  

That means write consistently.  A lot.

I haven’t been doing that.

I’m still struggling with it, but doing much better.

Why?  Because I won’t tolerate having zero word count days anymore.

It’s actually amazing how it’s working for me.

Here’s a scenario that happens way too often:  I’ve had a shitty day at work for whatever reason.  It’s not important why.  The day was soul crushing and I come home drained.  I’m not just physically tired.  I’m drained to my core.  My brain is shutting down.  It’s all I can do to stay awake and involved for my wife and child who deserve better than a zombie for a husband/father.

We all have bad days, shitty days, days that make us wish we had never been born  (or if we are thinking more clearly, that other annoying people had never been born).   These days drain our energy and suck out our souls.

Those days I would not write.  If I had a string of them, well, there’s a dry spell.

I believed I could not write (not WOULD not write…but UNABLE to write).  Maybe you believe this as well.

If you believe that, you are wrong.  I was wrong.

That’s where being professional comes in.  It means that no matter what, you get your ass in that chair (couch, recliner, whatever) and write.

Write!  Damn you!  Write!

Once I decided to make the decision to eliminate zero days from my writing tracker, it changed everything.

Here’s what happened to me, and I’m certain this can happen to you.

Before:

Me:  Oh crap, what a shitty day.  Woe is me!  Life sucks.  Waaaaaaaaaaaaah!

My ever loving and ever suffering wife:  You should write.

Me:  Nope.  I got nothing left here.  I’m going to bed.   (insert more emo shit here, but you get the gist.)

Me:  [goes to bed]

Word count: 0  *wah wah*

That’s a pretty dismal and pathetic scenario that will never get me published.  Ever.

Now let’s look at the same scenario now:

Me:   Me:  Oh crap, what a shitty day.  Woe is me!  Life sucks.   *now with new and improved waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah*

My ever loving and ever suffering wife:  You should write.

Me:  Sigh.  Yes.  No more zero days.  No more zero days.   (repeat this until you write or until they put you away)
So it goes that  I’ll open my WIP and decide “OK, I’ll only write one hundred words.  One hundred words is easy.  I can do that and then I’ll go to bed.”
What actually happens next however is the awesome part.   I won’t write one hundred words.  I’ll write FIVE hundred, then maybe a thousand.  I might hit a scene that I’m enjoying, so I’ll keep going.   Sometimes, I’ll lose myself and just write and hit two thousand words (OK, that’s only happened once so far, but it DID happen!).

When I get those words down.  I always feel better.  I did it.

You can too.

Zero tolerance for zero word count days folks.  It works.

Advertisement

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Email
  • Reddit
  • More
  • Print
  • Tumblr
  • LinkedIn

Like this:

Like Loading...

Posts navigation

← Question of the day – Should you trust writing advice from a writer whose books you dislike?
I died but I feel much better now. →
  • Space Pirates! NaNo 2017

  • Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 74 other subscribers
  • I’m being a twit:

    • Twitter unlocked again at work. Yay?- 3 years ago
    • Holy crap! Twitter is unlocked at work??? #gonnaneedmoreselfcontrol- 4 years ago
    • RT @ratherastory: Tell the @CRTCeng to reject Bell's plan to end net neutrality. sumof.us/392732813t- 4 years ago
    Follow @Frank_Cote
  • Past Missives

    • February 2020 (1)
    • January 2020 (1)
    • January 2018 (1)
    • December 2017 (2)
    • November 2017 (10)
    • October 2017 (4)
    • September 2017 (1)
    • January 2017 (1)
    • August 2015 (2)
    • October 2014 (1)
    • July 2014 (1)
    • June 2014 (1)
    • May 2014 (1)
    • March 2014 (1)
    • December 2013 (1)
    • August 2013 (1)
    • July 2013 (2)
    • June 2013 (2)
    • May 2013 (1)
    • April 2013 (1)
    • November 2012 (4)
    • October 2012 (1)
    • September 2012 (1)
    • July 2012 (8)
    • June 2012 (2)
    • May 2012 (1)
    • April 2012 (1)
    • March 2012 (6)
    • February 2012 (2)
    • January 2012 (6)
    • November 2011 (2)
    • October 2011 (8)
    • September 2011 (8)
    • August 2011 (9)
    • July 2011 (24)
    • June 2011 (10)
    • May 2011 (8)
    • April 2011 (16)
    • March 2011 (13)
    • February 2011 (18)
    • January 2011 (3)
    • July 2010 (1)
    • March 2010 (1)
Blog at WordPress.com.
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • The Basement Office
    • Join 34 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • The Basement Office
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
%d bloggers like this: