10,500 Words For The Love Of The Game

10,500 WORDS FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME Elizabeth Spann Craig, on her blog Mystery Writing is Murder (August 11, 2011) wrote: “You can often tell when someone actually loves to write down. “The writing seems animated, glowing, sharp. When I volunteer at my daughter’s elementary school, there are some tales that even really younger kids have written that simply pop off the page.” Boy, I couldn’t agree extra. Looking back over my life as a author, from second grade onward, by way of all the varied phases up through exhibiting up (near the underside, I’ll admit, however hell, I was on it) The New York Times hardcover fiction greatest sellers record, and then on to books that didn’t do as properly, then one other that did very nicely, and so forth, I even have to admit that there were occasions once I was writing for other causes than simply for the love of the sport. I’ve had some experiences, as a professional author, where each word appeared to come back from some dry, chafed place, some waste-disposal repos itory . . . each sentence was an act of self-mutilation. Well, that might be putting it somewhat strongly, but I’m a fantasy writer, man, so what the hell? I had a good time with the city fantasy novel presently making the rounds with editors, and I hope it reveals within the writing. But even more so than that, I’m having a blast with The Haunting of Dragon’s Cliff. I gave you a sneak preview of this sword and sorcery project a number of weeks in the past here, and I’m still working my means by way of the primary draft, albeit far more slowly than I like. But, Phil, you ask, if you love this book a lot, why aren’t you setting every little thing else aside to blast your method via it, loving each second you spend at the keyboard? I can provide you excuses about how I’m additionally a father of two and have to make a dwelling out here within the Great Depression II, and consulting work and freelance assignments, and so forthâ€"which I also like to do, by the best way, so this isn’t some kind of I-have-this-horrible-day-job-I-have-to-wade-via grievance, however yeah, that has so much to do with it. Mel and I are out on our personal with this one, editing one another, publishing it (finally) ourselves, and daily life like payments and kids going back to high school and my spouse beginning a new job and yadda yadda yadda interferes. And soccer season has started, and I’ve misplaced my first fantasy soccer recreation. There’s received to be an excuse in there somewhere for not ending what’s actually a novella, and one I adore, which I should have completed two months ago . . . however I can’t really consider something. Even when I love what I’m writing, I can’t seem to get again to these days the place I was only a writing machine. So like an excellent twenty first century American, I went to the internet for help. There I discovered Michael Agger’s Slate article “Slowpoke: How to be a Faster Writer” in which he supplied this recomme ndation: “Since writing is such a cognitively intense task, the key to turning into quicker is to develop methods to make writing literally less thoughts-blowing. Growing up, we all become speedier writers when our penmanship becomes computerized and we now not have to think consciously about topic-verb settlement. It’s obviously a huge help to write down a couple of subject you understand nicely. In that case, the author doesn’t need to maintain all the facts in her working memory, releasing up more consideration for planning and composing.” Writing fast is all the time something that’s haunted me, as a result of it’s never totally eluded me. I’ve gone via periods where I’m amazingly productive, however it’s been a while since I can say I was really in a kind of productive periods. In an upcoming Fantasy Author’s Handbook interview, I requested veteran author Alan Dean Foster how he can have been so prolific for so lengthy. Here’s his answer: “Discipline. Wr ite every day, even when it’s just one web page, even if it’s awful. The trick is to get from page 1 to web page 350. Once you’ve accomplished that, you'll be able to go back and repair and revise. Too many people attempt to make each web page excellent as they write it, or worse, wait for “inspiration.” The inspiration will come as you work. Write one page a day, every single day, and at the end of the 12 months, if nothing else, you’ll have written a novel.” Okay. But discipline is difficult. Still, I’m a to do list guy. I’m a Mac maniac and love the little Stickies app, which allows you to create virtual Post-Its to park in your desktop. I even have my to do record on a kind of (supplemented by Entourage) so I can see it while I’m at my desk. I love the feeling of highlighting an item and deleting it, which means I’ve done it. And I despise the sensation of highlighting it and cutting it from at present to stick into tomorrow, which suggests I’m pushing wo rk back a day. In truth, I’ve added a new to do list merchandise to Friday, which I hope will compel me to finish all hanging to do record objects for the week before I name it a day on Friday. This coming Friday will be the first of these. Let’s see how that works, particularly since one of tomorrow’s thirteen to do listing objects is: > FINISH ARRON I’ve tried to put in writing two chapters of The Haunting of Dragon’s Cliff daily, which is about 3000 phrases in all, and my to do record reflects thatâ€"or no less than it did. Now, for right now, Tuesday 9/13/eleven, I even have this merchandise: > Arron Hmm. That’s six chapters, or three days’ price, which is about 9000 phrases, and there are only 23 chapters within the outline, so I’m actually about 10,500 words out from the end line. I’ve written 10,000 words in a day before, racing a deadline, and it left me with an excellent sense of accomplishment, and a bunch of unfinished to do record gadgets. Can I do that once more? Can I establish the stuff on my to do record that completely has to be accomplished this week for me to maintain the lights on, then strip away all the additional stuffâ€"and there is some further stuff, I have to confessâ€"and get this project done? Goals should be realistic, in any case, otherwise they’re referred to as goals. But once more, I have written 10,000 phrases in a day. Again: Hmm. It all boils all the way down to this: I love scripting this story. And I need to spend at least a part of on a regular basis doing one thing I love, don’t I? Hmm. â€"Philip Athans About Philip Athans