It’s been a long time since I blogged. At first this was because I was writing but then the summer holidays arrived. As I’m a stay-at-home Dad or House-husband, the summer holidays mean that the three boys take priority. As they get older, they stay up later, and my writing time diminishes. I have, unfortunately, never been one of those people who can rise early in the morning and write before the boys wake up. Unfortunately once you stop writing, and especially if you start submitting to agents, it becomes really hard to get your momentum going again.
I found salvation in a writing blog that I’ve signed up to – Randy Ingmersons Advanced Fiction Writing Magazine. I get a monthly email and it is always an interesting read. This month there was an article about how to organise your writing and increase your productivity by setting word count targets. It was all really useful but one particular nugget helped me out. It’s a simple starting point for writing when you’re struggling – write 350 words a day.
It’s kind of a trick because it’s very easy to write 350 words – it’s not a huge amount and can be done in twenty minutes if you set your mind to it. The reason it’s a trick is because hard to stop once you’ve written 350 words. Usually I write between 450 and 500 words every day. It doesn’t sound like much but it does mean that the word count is going up quite satisfyingly. certainly after a dry spell, it’s a good feeling. For ages, I’d written about 16 or 17 thousand words, now it’s over 21 thousand.
And what it does is keep your book alive in your head. I do a lot of my writing in my head, running plots and characters around while I’m doing other, slightly more mundane jobs. Then, when I have enough, I write it down. But while I’m writing a mere 350 words a day, then my book is moving forwards.
So that’s my one tip for the day – write 350 words. I’ve made this blog a living demonstration of the principle – it weighs in at 350 words!