… my story however… That’s a different … story … thing. You know what I mean. Tonight is a writing night, a night I’ve specifically set aside for the writing of words and the making of stories. Only writing is hard some nights.
I know I’m not alone on this. Other authors get a really good story going, only to crap out half way, either do to lack of motivation, or entirely too much self-doubt, or something else that’s shiny pops up and they just have to chase it because you always have to chase the shiny things! Uhh… what was I saying…something something shiny thing… Ah writing!
So, in my famous last post I claimed the goal that I was going to write twenty days this month. That goal is not off to an inspiring start. Here we are on the eighth, and I’ve got fuck-all done so far. As the year goes, I’m not doing so bad, but if I want to finish this bloody book, I’m going to have to start cranking out more words. I didn’t make WordKeeper just to sit there and mock me for how bad I was doing, sticking to my goals. I made it to motivate me to see those numbers go up, and while that was happening my story would, of course, be writing itself or something.
*sigh* No, WordKeeper is doing exactly what I wanted it to do. And if I feel like its condemning me every time I log into it, that’s my fault. I mean, writing is still fun, I’m still full of stories that I want to tell, but writing this second draft is becoming painful. Its becoming like … GASP! … work!
I know, I know. Super surprising, right? Writing a book is actually a ton of work, like every blog I’ve ever read claimed it would be. And writing Impervious is still fun. I still love doing it… its just much more… “work” than it was in the first draft. I didn’t have to worry about anything in the first draft other than putting words on the page as fast as I could type them. I didn’t have to worry about consistant worldbuilding. I didn’t have to worry about settings, or characters that made sense from one chapter to the next. All I needed was a loose idea of who was going where and I was good for a night. That is probably why NaNoWriMo works so well for me.
So, no, I am not my word count. My word count is goingto be hard as hell to keep where I want it while I’m in the middle of the second or third draft. My book, on the other hand, is my word count. So, no matter how painful it is on a given night, I need to write, and I need to make those words count. A play on words was not intended there. Lots of people don’t like keeping track of word counts. They say “Don’t count your words, make your words count.” Which is fine, I guess. But you actually have to write words to either count them, or make them count … and right now, I’m just about writing them.
Impervious is happening people. This is a book that is going to exist in real life, and people other than me are going to read it. I don’t care if its just those family members I can guilt into it. That being said, my hands are now warm. I’ve chased the shiny little thoughts down the rabbit hole and I’m ready to get back down to business tonight. To my fellow authors, whether you’re counting your words or you’re making them count, good luck in writing that thing. Remember Chuck Wendig’s Penmonky’s Paean. “I am a writer and I will finish the shit that I started.”