It's simple: start small, build a routine, form the habit, and WRITE.
So it's 2014.
It's been officially been 9 years since I decided I wanted to write a novel. How's that going you ask? Oh, I've written tens and thousands of words over the years sure, but I'll give you the real answer - fucking badly. Sure, I can sit here all day and give you excuses about school or work or friends or lack of talent or writer's block or even fear of failing.
But fuck that.
You know the real reason why I haven't be able to finish a novel?
Because I haven't committed to it.
I haven't sat myself down and said let's draw up a schedule, block some time off on my calendar and try to churn something out everyday until the one day, somehow but inevitably I've completed that novel I decided I would write 9 years ago.
That's what I want 2014 to be for me (and you!). I want it to be a year of writing shit down and getting shit done.
We're all aspiring writers here. But it's not a secret that it's hard to find time to sit down and actually commit to writing after a long day at the office or a long night of homework and so you tell yourself "Oh, I'll do it tomorrow". Well, eventually tomorrow turns into next week and next week turns into next month, and sure enough - another year has gone by.
But you say, there's Nanowrimo! True, but I inevitably fail at Nano every year because for someone who writes a few thousand words every couple of months, the idea of finishing 50,000 words in one month is absolutely daunting. That's an average of 1,666 words everyday!
So how exactly do we become comfortable with doing this? Practice. Routine. You do it so many times that your brain just does it unconsciously and naturally. Think about it... from touch typing in the dark to playing the unmarked strings of a violin, these are not things that were picked up or developed in a day. It was drilled in through sheer repetition and routine. That's what I hope to accomplish this year with my writing challenge.
Start small. No one started by playing Beethoven concertos... we all have to begin with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star or Mary Had a Little Lamb or something equally mundane. Start small and easy and repeat and gradually build on it.
So I was inspired by the slew of new year's posts on reddit by proud people who had just completed the 52 Week Money Challenge (which was in turn originally inspired by the following blog post.) I decided to tweak this for my own purposes.
The premise is simple. Week 1, you will write 100 words. Easy-peasy, right? Awesome. Week 2, you will write 200 words. Psh, still easy. Week 3, write 300 words... you see where I'm going with this right? Every week you will write 100 more words than the week before... so that at the end of 2014 and at the end of 52 weeks of continuous writing, you will have produced 137,800 written words, equivalent to a 500+ novel.
With that said, I would like to invite everyone to join me in this challenge as well.
So at the end of this year, we will all not only have written a complete novel but more importantly we will have developed a consistent weekly routine of writing so that the next 100,000 words will come so quickly and so simply we will look back and wonder what exactly was holding us back all those years ago.
Personally, I'll be starting this blog to chronicle this (mis)adventure. I'm putting myself out there so that I might feel some sort of accountability on my part to actually stick this out throughout the rest of the year.
For those who want to keep track of their writing and word counts throughout the year, here is a copy of a simple template I created for myself. Just copy and paste it onto your own file for your personal use.
TL;DR: Write a 137,800 word novel in 52 weeks. Week 1: write 100 words, week 2: write 200 words, week 3: write 300 words, etc.
So it's 2014.
It's been officially been 9 years since I decided I wanted to write a novel. How's that going you ask? Oh, I've written tens and thousands of words over the years sure, but I'll give you the real answer - fucking badly. Sure, I can sit here all day and give you excuses about school or work or friends or lack of talent or writer's block or even fear of failing.
But fuck that.
You know the real reason why I haven't be able to finish a novel?
Because I haven't committed to it.
I haven't sat myself down and said let's draw up a schedule, block some time off on my calendar and try to churn something out everyday until the one day, somehow but inevitably I've completed that novel I decided I would write 9 years ago.
That's what I want 2014 to be for me (and you!). I want it to be a year of writing shit down and getting shit done.
But you say, there's Nanowrimo! True, but I inevitably fail at Nano every year because for someone who writes a few thousand words every couple of months, the idea of finishing 50,000 words in one month is absolutely daunting. That's an average of 1,666 words everyday!
So how exactly do we become comfortable with doing this? Practice. Routine. You do it so many times that your brain just does it unconsciously and naturally. Think about it... from touch typing in the dark to playing the unmarked strings of a violin, these are not things that were picked up or developed in a day. It was drilled in through sheer repetition and routine. That's what I hope to accomplish this year with my writing challenge.
Start small. No one started by playing Beethoven concertos... we all have to begin with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star or Mary Had a Little Lamb or something equally mundane. Start small and easy and repeat and gradually build on it.
So I was inspired by the slew of new year's posts on reddit by proud people who had just completed the 52 Week Money Challenge (which was in turn originally inspired by the following blog post.) I decided to tweak this for my own purposes.
The premise is simple. Week 1, you will write 100 words. Easy-peasy, right? Awesome. Week 2, you will write 200 words. Psh, still easy. Week 3, write 300 words... you see where I'm going with this right? Every week you will write 100 more words than the week before... so that at the end of 2014 and at the end of 52 weeks of continuous writing, you will have produced 137,800 written words, equivalent to a 500+ novel.
With that said, I would like to invite everyone to join me in this challenge as well.
So at the end of this year, we will all not only have written a complete novel but more importantly we will have developed a consistent weekly routine of writing so that the next 100,000 words will come so quickly and so simply we will look back and wonder what exactly was holding us back all those years ago.
Personally, I'll be starting this blog to chronicle this (mis)adventure. I'm putting myself out there so that I might feel some sort of accountability on my part to actually stick this out throughout the rest of the year.
For those who want to keep track of their writing and word counts throughout the year, here is a copy of a simple template I created for myself. Just copy and paste it onto your own file for your personal use.
TL;DR: Write a 137,800 word novel in 52 weeks. Week 1: write 100 words, week 2: write 200 words, week 3: write 300 words, etc.
