I don’t know why my mind is going to football right now, but I never know why my mind does the things it does.
I wrote 2100 some odd words yesterday. 1000 of them during the day. If it wasn’t for that 1st 1000, I wouldnt’ have made it. By 7pm I was wiped out. It took a lot of effort to get my butt in the chair, and even more to actually write once in the chair.
That first 1000 was like reaching that first down very close to the goal line with a very good pass. The rest is all about the few inches to get over it for the touchdown. I made it by writing 100 words at a time.
I hear “I don’t have time to write” a lot. I do, because I’m the one saying it a lot. I’m not the only one.
Here’s a little secret I’m learning folks, write it down because it’s a doozy.
It’s all about the inches. Can you write 50 words in 5 minutes? 100? Well, 10 times five minutes during the day makes 500 words. Can you sprint and write 500 in under an hour? 30 minutes? Well you’ve got your 1000. Touchdown!
The NaNoWriMo year I wrote the first draft of Revenant, I won that 50K with 4 Hail Mary passes. I went to the Sunday writing jams and I’d write 5-6 thousand words. I’d skip a day, then write 3000 before the wednesday meetup, then I wrote 19 thousand words on Monday in a flurry of anger and frustration at other things. That very long pass made it all the way to 50K.
This summer, I’m aiming for 100K in sixty days and I won’t be throwing Hail Marys. It’ll be short passes til I get the touchdown.
100 words at a time.
If you’ve EVER thought you don’t have time to write, go write 50 or 100 words and time yourself. You might be surprised.