I don’t even know how many times I’ve read published authors give the same advice to aspiring writers.
Hit your word count every day, no matter what, otherwise you won’t finish.
That phrase comes in many variations, but they all mean the same thing. Make yourself write to a set limit, each day, or you’re not going to finish your book. That’s excellent advice, but it’s not for me.
You see, I don’t really like rules. I don’t like regimented guidelines for completing a task. I’ve tried to write to a specific word count each day, and it’s just not for me. I’ve experimented with 2000 words per day, 1000, 1500, and I think even 800. While I think the advice is a decent idea from the perspective of “generally talking to everyone,” the practice of said advice doesn’t work for me.
Instead, I prefer to use a running expression.
One mile is better than no miles.
I exercise regularly, so this resonates with me. Not everyone is the same, and not everyone response favorably to what might be generally good advice. Since I don’t like to be boxed in with numbers or time frames or alarm clocks or anything similar, I go for a minimal effective effort approach.
I don’t set any goal for my writing. All I need to do to feel like I’m being productive with my writing is crank out one paragraph. Writing a book a paragraph per day isn’t the way to get the work done in a timely manner, but it will still get done. I start with one paragraph, and then keep going. If I wait too late in the day, or if I have to suddenly leave, or anything else keeps me from writing past one paragraph, it’s OK.
As long as I get that one paragraph in, day by day, I’m making progress in my writing. I usually write more than one paragraph, but with such low expectations, anything I write above a paragraph is awesome. If I write a small three paragraph scene, then I got out a whole scene. If I write three pages of action, that’s awesome. 2000 words per day is nice round number, and quite doable, but I’m not going to hold myself to it.
I have a day job. I have a family. I cook, I exercise, and I have to let the dog out to poop so there are no surprises on the carpet. Sometimes I don’t have a block of three hours for writing. Sometimes I have 15 minutes.
Yesterday, I finished one story and wrote the introductory paragraph to my next story. This evening, I cranked out over 900 words of the new story. It felt great.
Tomorrow, I’ll write again. At least one paragraph.
