My current writing is braided around work, feeding the kids, getting them to do or helping them do their homework, house chores, dog walking and other necessities like sleeping and feeding myself. Right now writing is a secondary part of my life, a passion instead of what brings food to the table and keeps a roof over my head. Thoughts of a second income producing “trading time for money” option nudges me, but instead I press on, brown-bagging it and keeping shoes that should be replaced for just a little longer, making small minor trade-offs so I can keep going.
There are days when I think the “story well” has dried up completely; when new ideas don’t arrive at my beckon, other days ideas flood in like our cellar when the sump pump decides to quit.
I’m finding during the mornings I can squeeze out about 500 words, sometimes the evenings allow another 400-500 words between everything else that typically pops up.
My point is: don’t despair if you can’t create a set time to write, write some each day, whenever you can. I picked up the chain again with by getting up one half-hour earlier each day, which allows me approximately 3500 words per week. To create a novella that puts me at 15 weeks (40,00+ words) or a short novel at 20 weeks (at 70,000 words). Another tactic is to review the next story beat before I go to bed, and once I finish my morning writing to allow my inner-muse/subconscious to mull over what to do.
To summarize:
- write every day, even if it’s only 30 minutes. Set aside some time
- review your story beats or what’s going to happen in the next chapter or paragraph by asking yourself “So then what happens?”
- look at the year in review – “future pacing” as it’s sometimes called. If you write a set amount every day, how many words will you have reached one year from now?
With that, we find Samuel and Lou have gotten closer to Lou’s goal of finding a ham, though Lou has never conversed with his dinner before, and the well laid plans of humans sometimes have unintended consequences.
We’re at 25651 / 42000 words. 61% done on Samuel’s next adventure, though my pomodoro timer is currently fighting off zombies with the help of my daughter and her planting tactics, so I’m not sure what the words per hour are.