As might have been predicted, all my grandiose claims about continued scribing have fallen apart. I am full of shame.
For this post, and much else that's appeared here this year, I am indebted to the unceasing badgering of young Chris Slater. He's always poking me about getting off my duff and actually doing something, and he's both straightforward about its execution and not put off by my dodges and whining. I have many of you to thank for encouragement and accountability, but despite how it bugs me when I don't want to hear it, Slater's smack-downs have been instrumental.
So there's a little mash note for you, Chris.
In discussions with said Slater and looking over the wreckage of my claims to further authorship, I've come to realize that I've not yet internalized the "habit" of writing, partly due to the strange, uneven nature of the writing task last month, and partly due to my own really ugly personal faults. I think I'm going to have to keep my attempts public for a while, until I can get myself established in the routine of writing.
I am not asking for the kind of massive encouragement and/or punishment I demanded for the March Writing Project, but I will be keeping tabs of my continued progress here. That doesn't make for thrilling blog entries, but it should keep me honest. And I suppose that means actually posting here both with successes and failures; during March, you'll note the long gaps when I wasn't producing and I didn't post out of shame. Now my shame will be yours.
In that spirit, I'm proposing to write at least 20,000 words in the rest of this month, and the 50,000 standard for the month following. Those are the kinds of minimums I think I have to maintain to make a go of this job.
On that note, I had actually decided a while ago to postpone my next "new-novel-in-a-month" project until June, so if any of you want to take on this zany project with me, you get an extra month (and a little more time for those bound to school schedules). Since I'm already aiming at 50,000 words per month, in June I'm shooting for 60,000.
This all reads like madness as it comes off my keyboard, but what can I do but jump?
2 comments:
Actually, the June date works better for me, as I'll be nicely into my summer vacation at that point, and won't have the homework to worry about.
After all, I know that this is really about what's convenient for me.
So... the status of this is... um... what again?
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