1000 Words A Day · 7:54am Oct 11th, 2014
The Journal is tagged because I wrote that as part of this endeavor.
Several weeks ago I started doing this thing where I write 1000 words every day regardless of anything else that may be happening in my life. It was suggested to me by a friend who claims Stephen King gave that advice and I haven't bothered to check if that's true.
At first I was going stir-crazy. I work stupid hours as it is (as in me being there is literally dumb. Half the time I'm just talking about some book I've been reading with a co-worker anyway. Plus I'm on salary so they lose nothing by keeping me there or sending me home) and what free-time I do get should not be spent alone in a chair. I live in Hawaii, I should be hiking or surfing or some such activity! Don't get me wrong, writing 1000 words has been a great thing and I'm glad I started doing it.
I've learned that the best thing to do is give yourself a time-limit. Maybe a two hour window in which to write. One thousand words is not a lot. It also helps to give yourself negative reinforcement. I, for example, force myself to run 5 miles for every day I miss. Which is a slippery slope because that cuts into my writing time (more incentive to not miss a day?). I've only missed one day so far so I guess something is working for me.
My most recent story, The Journal, was part of the '1000 words a day' thing. As in conceptualized in a day and put to paper, and it's my most popular story. Honestly though a lot of what I've written in the past few weeks has been kind of silly and most haven't been pony related, maybe a total of 5 or 6 in the past month. I haven't posted any of the other stories because they are the kind of silliness that I can't imagine people would read. I can best describe it as literary junk food. For example one of the stories is Applejack digging an alarmingly large hole only to forget why she was digging it and has to retrace her day to remember why she started digging in the first place. Another is about Fluttershy trying to find somepony to buy a duck for silly reasons. Admittedly they are better than The Exorcism of Pinkie Pie, which is not something I'd recommend reading. I wrote it with my friend Jack Daniels nearly two years ago (if you think I'm a bad writer now ...) and Mr. Daniels suggested that I submit it right away. I don't want to remove anything from my page and I haven't edited the story yet (mainly out of fear of embarrassment upon seeing exactly what's inside). My point is being better than my drunk self is not where I want to set the bar.
More to the point if you stick with it then I think writing 1000 words a day is a very good thing.
For anyone interested in coming updates from me:
-I am working on a pleasant slice of life story to be uploaded for, and around, Nightmare Night (there may be another story added before then if I can decide on an ending for it).
-An update for Across The Pond is currently being edited and should be good to go by the end of the weekend.
-That Blue Box will undergo maintenance on Sunday where I will polish the hell out of it before setting a plan for the next set of chapters.
-The Crime Mares Club is on extended hiatus until I figure out what the hell I was trying to do there. I do intend to give it a proper ending but I may just rewrite the whole thing.
