Today is going to be short. I've been out of town and just want to check in with you. One of the hardest parts of creating a first draft is what I affectionately call "the slog." That is where you sit in a chair for hundreds of hours and write an incredibly terrible stinky awful (ahem, first draft) book.
Here are some tips to help you keep going. Keep some nice tea and a special cup around for every 3000 words. Reward yourself for success. Race a friend. Pop an email over to someone you know who is writing a first draft. The challenge? I can write more words than you! Want a different strategy? Try spending a day at the library. Take a sack lunch and write all day long. Try this at a bookstore and then a coffee shop, then go to the park. Try the backyard too. That will probably pack on another 10,000 words.
Please let your inner critic take a break while you push through "the slog. Promise that you will make reasonable goals. "I will write 100 words every day this week, not 30,000." With that small reasonable goal, up it by 50 words a week until you reach 1000 per day for a week. Reset and do it again. Give yourself to permission to do whatever it takes to write that draft. Rent a cabin on Maui and take the laptop if that's what it is going to take. Take a class. Join a critique group. Wake up at 3:00 A.M. Go to bed at 3:00 A.M.
Bottom line? Write, write, write, write, write.
No doodles, but a proud mom moment. My son graduated with honors from his college this past week. The gentleman to the right is my son.
Today's playlist is Duncan Sheik's "Half-life."
Quote for the week.
It is not until you become a mother that your judgment slowly turns to compassion and understanding. Erma Bomback
OH, Molly,
Your son looks grown up and so handsome in his uniform. Hoo-ray for graduating with honors.
shelley s.
Thank, Shelley.
I've no words to express how I feel. Jo is one of the best people I know and it is such an honor to be his mom. (I feel this way about all of my kids.)
Molly, as always you give good advice. I'm settling down to writing about two pages every day now. Still a lot of "prewriting" -- this is stuff I know will never make it into the book, but it seems that I need to write it anyway.
You should be a proud mama!
I'm glad you are doing you prewriting. I'll dedicate my next post to prewriting stuff. I've got lots of exercises that I do to help build a book. Thanks for reminding me about that. Yay for two pages every day. I find that to be a very sustainable pace. :)