Recently my partner questioned my process. I am grateful for her and her thoughts and suggestions every day. My process has been 1000 new words on a draft a day. I’ve been at this for 18 days as of last night and the result has been well over 18,000 words of a story that is contracted for 20k. The issue came up because I have only 3-5 (haven’t decided) chapters remaining of that novella, which means it is going to end in the coming week. Now the book is not done. The 1000 words merely paints inside the lines of the chapter. It needs to be refined and redrawn and more. So, the question is what now?
We talked it out (though I am not entirely sure she always recognized when I am listening–that’s definitely something I am not clear about). I will continue putting down 1000 a day for the rest of my remaining days (I’m so damn morbid as of late… there’s gotta be something to that). However, I won’t move on from this story. I will add to the routine and continue putting an hour or more into the polishing of the novella in addition to the 1k requirement. The 1k will be part of the next story and the next and the next. My biggest problem as a writer has always been that once I finish a story it takes forever to wind back up again. This way I no longer need to worry about the wind up (or wind down) because I am still chugging along on something. I am still firing with all cylinders towards the next project.
This is the way I wrote as a carefree kid who had all the time in the world and not enough games (or platforms) to fill that void. Now I have begun to move my life in the direction where the primary focus is writing on the professional level and that helps tremendously.
Some Thoughts:
- Recently returned from a vacation–a respite from the desert if you will. Great time was had on the beach and I continue to see that as a home away from home and a chance to fall into a simpler (video game reduced) routine with my partner and with my kids.
- Speaking of games and gaming: I’m going to play for the rest of my life. Nobody is stopping me from playing, of course, but when I think about what really matters to me long term I find that games are top 5. I slip away in games the way I slip away in story. Games can be story but interactive.
- Honestly, I hope I live long enough to see VR MMORPG fully realized. I’d like to appreciate that before I go.