Regaining momentum!



Momentum is important. I know when I lose momentum, my story stops flowing. In the months of October and November, I lost my momentum. Below I will list the word counts I reached for each of the months since I have started wring "Aundes Aura".

September - 7,904 words.
October     - 846 words
November  - 1,341 words

And finally,

December (so far) - 2,635

Something incredible happened in the very beginning: I just knew exactly what to write. In that first month I wrote a phenomenal number of words when compared to the other months. There are still about ten days left in December, so by then I should have more than 5,000 words done for the month. I'm feeling great!

My daily goals are small, but it seems they have been effective. My goal is simply to write at least 200 words a day. It keeps the story moving, and having a goal helps me move on through the more difficult sections. The number of words I do usually sits somewhere between 200 words and 1,000 words. For example, last night I wrote 600 words.

Unfortunately, I have not written at all on some days of this month. I am completely determined to reach my goal, and thus I have begun a "word debt chart". Every time I miss a day, I write down the date on the list, and next to it 200 words. Every time I write 200 words more than I needed to to reach my goal for that day, I can cross that date off the list, having "paid back the debt". It is difficult to explain, so I will give an example.

On the 14th, the 17th and the 19th I didn't write anything at all. Those dates went onto my debt chart. Last night I wrote 600 words. That is 400 words more than my 200 word goal. So I cross off the 200 words from the 19th, and the 200 words from the 17th. Then that's 400 words of debt paid back. This will help me reach my 200-words-a-day goal.

Am I crazy? Have I gone too far?

posted under |

1 comments:

zellakate said...

Ryan, that is not crazy! That's a great idea. I need to try that. I do have days that I schedule for my blog writing, though that can be a bit erratic, due to the nature of my blog. (I cannot post if I didn't read!) But I will definitely have to try this for my WIPs. It's easy to get behind, and this idea makes you stay accountable. Thanks! :)

Post a Comment

Newer Post Older Post Home

Welcome to The Dark Corner of the Mind. My name is Ryan Sullivan and my aim with this blog is to help others with their own writing, as well as to make note of some of my own writing endeavours.

Here at The Dark Corner, Real Life is both our best friend and our worst enemy. Look to him for inspiration, but don't let him get in the way too much.

If he does, bribe him with cookies.

Mailing list for new books by Ryan Sullivan


Click for Amazon page!

Three Bridges

Total Pageviews


Recent Comments