One of my goals for 2018 was to put in 1,000 words of fiction every work day. Or at least Monday-Friday work day — if I have to meet deadline by doing extra on a weekend, I’m not going to add some fiction too.
Three weeks into January, I’m wondering if that was a good goal or not.
I set it because whenever I got busy with Leaf articles or work on Now and Then We Time Travel in the past couple of years, I’d cut back on fiction. Obviously I have to give up time spent on something, but fiction is what I want to write most, so that’s counterproductive. And it takes that much longer to get things finished. I’d have been done with Southern Discomfort in possibly October if not for the time I put in on Leaf and Screen Rant articles.
And I’d be foolish to think it won’t happen again. I may end up doing the Space Invaders book I’ve worked on (the publisher’s still mulling it over). I just picked up another round with Leaf rewriting articles for one of their websites. This past month, though I didn’t have either. And I’ve begun to notice that a lot of fiction-writing isn’t actually turning out words. It’s plotting. Or replotting. Or editing. None of which count, but they’re all important. And when I start proofing the final draft of Discomfort that’s going to be a lot more important than writing new material.
Still, I think it’s a good goal. It’ll keep me creating or writing something or rewriting something constantly, and that can’t be a bad thing. And if it turns out it is, I can just say OK, No and give it up (it’s not like there’s any penalty for changing my mind). But for the moment I shall forge ahead.
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