Another zero

Daily Goal: 500 words.
Yesterday I wrote 0 words.

My plan is to write a more detailed outline for the short story, but I haven't written anything for two days now. Of things relating to literature, I have been doing plenty. I have read and watched videos about writing. I have almost completed Blood Meridian. I have been looking for what book to start next. However, I don't really feel to up for sitting down and writing much.

Today it even seemed like a chore to sit down and write this blog. Once I got started, however, it felt great. A daily blog is a guaranteed thing that will force me to think and work with literature each day at a specific time. I think that in the long run these sessions will provide the structure and discipline that will facilitate a more rigid work ethic.

Two days off won't kill me. Neither will three and I seriously doubt that I will write anything more than this blog tonight.

On YouTube in suggested videos this one turned up:

He comes across as a bit pretentious perhaps, but I do like his approach to writing. In a few blog posts back, I wrote about how he said he managed 500 - 800 words on good days. In the above video and the rest of the series, he goes into a bit more detail about how he writes.

500 words a day

Daily Goal: 500 words.
Yesterday I wrote 20 words.

Sad is all it is: 20 words. I might as well post them:

“I’ll show you where it’s dug.” The kid set off towards the river without looking back.The boy followed.

 Actually those are, probably, just nineteen words. I wrote a temporary title, "Crossing", as well.

After I finished my blog post yesterday, I did refill my coffee, and then turned straight to writing. After those twenty words I thought:  "This is a nice start. I'll take a little break and write the rest afterwards."

I want to write 500 words, minimum, every day. No days off. It is a work ethic that countless great authors have kept to and it makes sense. A day off from a story only creates a distance that you don't really want. You stop thinking about the story. I am still thinking about the story that those 20 words will hopefully turn into, but if I write nothing tonight, it will slowly slip from my mind.

Stephen King, I believe, writes 2000 words a day. His only days off are Christmas and his birthday. I read that, I think, in On Writing, a really great book about his experiences as a writer. Hemingway wrote 1000 words each morning. He first read and edited the 1000 words he wrote the day before. This I've read somewhere, I can't remember. He would sometimes stop at exactly 1000, so he'd really want to finish the sentence the next day.
I am pretty sure that I don't write the same way Stephen King or Hemingway write/wrote. I have never read anything by Ian McEwan - he is on my reading list - so I don't know if I could identify with his style or method, but I saw this little video on YouTube:

500 to 800 words on a good day sounds more like what I can manage. That doesn't mean I couldn't write more. Writing a blog post like this takes little effort. I find it difficult, however, to write good fiction, at the same pace I write a blog or a diary or a journal.

The story, "Crossing", of which I got twenty words down on paper yesterday, is about two boys who want to cross a river. That is my idea for the story, together with the first line of dialogue, mentioned above. I don't know if I'll drop it for something else tonight, but soon, I hope, I'll find something to stick with until I feel that it is good enough to send into some magazine for consideration.