So I plunged in and wrote what I call a Quickie Book. It's going up on Kindle as I write this. I have a couple of short stories there and was almost done a third one when I stalled. Last summer.
Looking at my 147 books on how to write, most of which I skimmed, I felt that I was a failure because I was not cranking out large spewings of words on a daily basis.
Waiting for a plane last month, I figured out that if I had written 300 words a day since last July - say 9 months - I would have had a sizeable book written by now.
That's 274 days from the first of July to the end of March. At 300 words a day, 82,200 words.
But no. I had to agonize over not being able to write 5,000 words a day and getting that book done in a couple of weeks. Which I didn't do.
New Way of Writing
I wrote this Quickie Book to reacquaint myself with Kindle and I set it up this morning. I also put my two short stories available for free from tomorrow until next Tuesday, April 24. My author page on Kindle is not all that well populated.
The ASIN for Write 300 Words is B07CHTP15S. It doesn't show up yet but soon if you search for that, the book will show up. It will be free from tomorrow until next Tuesday.
One reason I am talking about this is that I plan to publish a book a month for the rest of the year.
Watch me go! At 300 words a day.
P.S. An update: 300 Words a Day is now online.
This is a wonderful way to approach writing! So happy you published this "quickie book" and look forward to many many more! All at 300 words a day, of course!
Yes! And at 300 words a day, I can do it. I have a short story that is 3/4 done so I am going to finish it...at 300 words a day!
I've dropped on the right spot.. I need to learn more about writing skiIl to have an impressive result. writing may not be one of my favourite activity but since I was so excited about contributing some ideas on this plaform it boosted my motivation to have more feed about effective writing. Have a nice day.
That is what happened to me. I got to like posting on Steemit and it made me think about why I could do that but struggled with writing a book or even a short story.
Joanne, HUGE Congratzzz on facing that anxiety and coming up with a doable solution.
AND for getting your new Quickie Book finished, uploaded and published to share with the world. Once you add it to your author page, you'll have four there. Yayyyy, you!!! ;)
300 words a day. Yep. MUCH easier on heart and mind, stress-wise. LOVE this!!!
PLUS a book a month? I may just join you. I've been feeling like I should start publishing regularly again. Non-fic for now though. ;)
I am thrilled that I uploaded it -- kind of took away my stagnation. 300 words a day hardly take any time. Thinking about thousands of words did!!!
They will be short books. But I will get used to actually doing what I love rather than scaring myself with the idea.
Love all your new accomplishments and purposefulness, Joanne. You're riding all your waves so very well. xxx
I can totally relate to the anxiety/pressure that come with writing. Some nights I'll sit down to write a post for Steemit only to get up an hour later with a blank page. Sometimes I psych myself out of writing because I think if I don't have the perfect post planned out nobody will like it or read it. Sometimes that's true. Sometimes those last minute, whimsical posts turn out to be something that people like.
Writing is definitely a gamble. Some posts/books may get more eyes than other posts/books, but I think that as long as you're actively practicing your craft, you're never wasting time.
That said - it's so awesome you published something today. :-) I'll have to check it out.
Oh the curse of perfection. Well said, as long as we ace actively practicing our craft, we're never wasting time. I have been feeling so liberated and I am not looking around for quick ways to shortcut my way to income. I keep telling myself that I am not motivated by money and never have been but lately I had a real insight into how I always took on crappy writing gigs for the quick buck to pay bills. Once I let that go, I felt so much freer. Now I can take time to write and not worry about beating my own record for words per day.