Birthday

Daily Goal: 500 words.
I wrote 100 words.
Sundays/Stories Finished: 6/0.

My birthday was yesterday. My plan was to write something and update the blog and then brag about being more industrious than Stephen King, who doesn't write on his birthday. I didn't write anything, went tired to bed without a blog update, and I am, of course, no where near as industrious as Stephen King.

I did write something today, but I haven't mad a count. I think it wasn't more than a couple of paragraphs, so 100 words should be a good guess.

I keep adding to the story. I keep nearing the goal of a finished draft. There is this one crucial scene that is the crux of the story and I haven't written a word of it yet. There are a few sentences and a number of words I know I want to use that have been circling in my mind for probably a month now. It is a bit daunting getting close to that scene (the end of the short story), but exciting too. Everything seems to hinge on getting that ending right.

I don't know if I will post the story here. I should and I will with other stories, but I might skip this one. Once the draft is finished, however, I will let you know the process of editing and how that goes, as well as the process of sending it in for consideration somewhere and getting a rejection slip.

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.