January 17, 2009
Well, it looked dicey for a while there, but I kept my promise and started my new novel today! I only wrote 340 words, which isn’t much…but it’s a start! Typically, I shoot for 1,000 words a day, which seems to be a good level for me; it’s attainable in spite of my day job and other obligations, yet it enables me to finish a novel draft in three to four months. On Day One, though, my goal is just words on paper, no matter how few. Just something to get me started, to get the ball rolling…because that first step can sometimes be the hardest.
And it was hard today, let me tell you. I was gone most of the day, meeting my brother for lunch and a movie midway between here (Johnstown, Pennsylvania) and his place out past Pittsburgh. I didn’t get home till 5:00 this afternoon, then went right back out again for dinner with my wife. After which, we went to the grocery store. When we got home, we watched TV a while, so I didn’t get to the computer till 10:55PM…but I did finally make it. I put words on the page, and tomorrow I will put more. That’s what the whole writing thing really boils down to in the end: putting words on the page. Doing the work. Discipline. Putting yourself in a place where the magic has a fighting chance of happening. Because a novel won’t write itself. Well, the flow has a way of taking over and spinning itself out with almost no conscious control by the writer sometimes, but that’s not what I mean. The words won’t appear on the page without my fingers on the keyboard. And now I’ve started, and I feel really good about it. See you tomorrow!
