Achievement Unlocked: Achievement
Apr. 5th, 2011 04:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexandraerinSo, I've already written around 2,500 words today. I have a flash story up and two others (long-ish, for flash) ones ready to go into a queue and after I break to take a bath and muse for a bit I'll probably write some more of those.
And here's the thing that strikes me: I have to work really hard... much harder than I worked at the writing... to convince myself that 2,500 words is a good amount of work to have done. I'm proud of the individual stories I wrote, but it doesn't seem like much.
But it its.
2,500 words is mass market pages.
2,500 words is 500 words above Stephen King's stated daily writing target.
Comparing output in terms of sheer weight of words is not a great way to compare two authors on merit or work ethic or quality of anything. Even if I disagree with Cat Valente on some scores about the future direction of This Business CalledShowriting, she was dead on with her point that units of art are not interchangeable. But if one is having a hard time believing one is having a productive day, it's useful on an intellectual level to go, "Hey, I wrote 1.25 Kings today." (Sidenote: That means yesterday was nearly a 3 Kings day for me!)
But perhaps only an intellectual level. This is one of the problems with doing something that comes naturally to you: it never feels like an achievement.
I think that's got to be my next goal, if this anxiety-free writing thing works out: a sense of achievement. I've talked before about the need to have a response from the audience, the virtual "roar of the crowd". Now I'm wondering how much of that comes from a lack of any sense of accomplishment that comes from the act of writing itself? I know I've achieved things... impressive things... through my writing, but the writing itself doesn't feel like an achievement.
Yeah, I think that will have to be my next target.
And here's the thing that strikes me: I have to work really hard... much harder than I worked at the writing... to convince myself that 2,500 words is a good amount of work to have done. I'm proud of the individual stories I wrote, but it doesn't seem like much.
But it its.
2,500 words is mass market pages.
2,500 words is 500 words above Stephen King's stated daily writing target.
Comparing output in terms of sheer weight of words is not a great way to compare two authors on merit or work ethic or quality of anything. Even if I disagree with Cat Valente on some scores about the future direction of This Business Called
But perhaps only an intellectual level. This is one of the problems with doing something that comes naturally to you: it never feels like an achievement.
I think that's got to be my next goal, if this anxiety-free writing thing works out: a sense of achievement. I've talked before about the need to have a response from the audience, the virtual "roar of the crowd". Now I'm wondering how much of that comes from a lack of any sense of accomplishment that comes from the act of writing itself? I know I've achieved things... impressive things... through my writing, but the writing itself doesn't feel like an achievement.
Yeah, I think that will have to be my next target.