Saturday, November 30, 2013

Head still stuffed and woozy from cold / sinus infection.  Holiday entertaining over.

It's good to be back in the saddle again.  Not my fault, but it's been too long.

1,310 words of the novel.  Six pages.  Broke down a very long chapter of the previous draft.

(And 1,192 more words if you count the entries for three blogs I wrote today, for a total of 2,502 words.  Should those count?)

May we all write well, and often.

Resistance is the writer's real enemy.  (That's kind of a Catching Fire homage, there.  And a nod to Steven Pressfield.)

Not Forgotten and Catching Fire

Last few days I've been sick, behind on work, preparing for guests, traveling everywhere on Thanksgiving Day and Night, and amidst company from out-of-state.  Temporarily off-track, but the good news is that I'm antsy about it.  I'll write more later today and I'll edit this soon.

Catching Fire was very good.  Review to come on main blog.

Monday, November 25, 2013

A little late today; lots going on.

Still not feeling well, and the holiday stress has started.  Gotta love the holidays.

990 words of Chapter 22, which is still not done.

Finally, a longer chapter than usual lately.

May we all write well, and often.

Sunday November 24, 2013

Chapter 21 of the current novel-in-progress.

Two pages.  (My chapters lately are short.)

454 words.  (Not bad as I fight through this head cold.)

Not too many words the last few days, but I'm writing each day.

Even just two completed pages per day gets a 300-page manuscript done in 150 days--or five months.

I'll take that.

May we all write well, and often.

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Struggling through an obviously-oncoming cold:

Chapter 20 of novel.

670 words.

Three finished pages.  Short chapter.

Not much, but not bad, through congesting sinuses and sinus pressure, especially behind my cheeks, my eyes and my forehead.  Hopefully I'm all right by Thanksgiving.

Feel free to leave your word count or page count below.

May we all write well, and often.

Introduction and Explanation

Hello, my name is Steve Belanger.  I have a job I like that is a huge part of me, and that pays The Man.  I'm very fortunate to have a job I like.  I know many people are not so blessed.

I'm also a writer.  I've had short stories and poems published (and paid for) in magazines and in books.  But I struggle to produce every day, as I'm sure many writers do.  The day gets away from you.  Stresses from work or home get into your psyche and you can't produce.  You know you have to anyway, but you can't.

Lately I've been in a rut.  I wrote and finished a short story in two days recently, but overall my production has been inconsistent and low.  And I have so much to do: one novel-in-progress, about one third done.  A few more waiting impatiently in the wings.  A memoir.  A nonfiction work.  Some short stories.

These things don't write themselves.  And I haven't been writing them consistently, either.

So what I've decided to do is very simple.  I figure it'll impel me to write everyday--even a little bit is better than nothing, right?--and I figure that it may even benefit other inconsistently-producing writers as well.

The premise is very simple.  Starting today, or tomorrow, I'll simply publish my word count.  I may mention a page count.  I might mention I've just finished a short story, or a novel chapter.  I probably won't mention any titles because I don't want to take the chance and slip, so that someone would consider that writing "published."

And I want you to join in.  Just post a comment that lists your word count, or page count, or summary of work done, like "finished chapter three" or "completed six-page short story."  You get the idea.  Maybe this will compel you to write every day as well.  If not, if it's just me, that's okay, too.  After all, if I may be so bold, I initially thought of this for me, anyway. 

If this works, I'll keep it going.  If it doesn't, I won't.  But I think it's worth a try.  Join in if you agree.