lwidmer | Words on the Page

Headache-inducing Marketing

Posted on November 22, 2011 by lwidmer

NaNo count: same as yesterday I swear they smell when you’re thinking about a vacation. I’m taking time off beginning noon today. I decided that Friday. That’s when projects began to arrive, all needing priority, most having the same deadline. It’s about to get interesting. My mother is the type who leaps out of bed…

Monday Morning Dash

Posted on November 21, 2011 by lwidmer

NaNo count: 35,025 words How was the weekend? I’m glad to be back at the computer. As much as I love time off, I’m aching and tired from cleaning. We have all four bedrooms full and the basement had to be set up for one more bed. I wish everything was finished, but I’ve made…

Link Love Friday By the Numbers

Posted on November 18, 2011 by lwidmer

NaNo count: 31,104 words It’s hard to imagine how much one thing can really dictate the day for you. Yesterday I spent the day working, but my focus was on my daughter’s boyfriend. He’s upstairs right now getting over pneumonia. He came for a weekend. Last week. Poor kid was burning up and there was…

Why Writers Need Strong Backbones

Posted on November 17, 2011 by lwidmer

NaNo count: 30,115 words Super day yesterday. I lined up a few interviews for the article assignments, then I spent the rest of the day talking with new clients. One was a referral, which was a surprise phone call. Another was the confidential client whose vetting process took a bit longer than expected. But I’m…

Organization 101

Posted on November 16, 2011 by lwidmer

NaNo count: 27,551 words Super day yesterday in terms of actual seat leather. I picked up two article gigs and was able to get busy on them right away. I have a few of the interview sources lined up already, so it’s a matter of scheduling and getting it done. I spent some time working…

Technology and Today’s Writer

Posted on November 15, 2011 by lwidmer

Nano count: 25,015 I took a partial day off yesterday (three hours, to be exact). It felt like a week. For some reason, I came back to this desk feeling like such a slacker. I hadn’t touched my NaNo manuscript much, so maybe that was it. I did manage to get some queries out and…

Deep Breaths

Posted on November 14, 2011 by lwidmer

Nano count: 23,204 words Maybe it’s because I had so much going on that it felt like the weekend was a blink. Here it is, Monday again. I did get some “me” time in, plus yesterday was our group meditation practice in the city. Nice way to start a new week. The Firebird Festival is…

Link Love Friday and Musical Stuff

Posted on November 11, 2011 by lwidmer

Nano count: 20,086 words Happy Veterans Day to all service people living and beyond. You cannot know just how much your sacrifices and your service means to the rest of us. Thank you. A nice day yesterday. I’m still waiting for an expected project to roll in, so I had time to work on Nano….

My Nano No-Nos

Posted on November 10, 2011 by lwidmer

Nano count: 17,194 words A great day yesterday. Once the first Someone With Tools left, I was able to get a lot of writing in for Nano. The second SWT never showed, so I had ample time to get my thoughts down. I’m relishing this short-lived free time. My word count doesn’t necessarily reflect the…

After You

Posted on November 9, 2011 by lwidmer

Nano count: 13,386 words Despite my plan to spend all of yesterday on Nano, I had to go out of the house twice. I’d bought something that had to be returned that day or I lost my chance to do so. Then I had to send the large project back, so a trip to the…

Devon Ellington

November 9, 2011

It's not just Lisa Gates who says that. I've been advocating doing the first 1K of the day (or more) first thing for years, and THEN going on to the other projects. Carolyn See says you must write 1000 words per day, five days a week for the rest of your life. Even Ray Bradbury talks about writing 1000 words a day.

It's not just when you feel like it. It's EVERY DAMN DAY.

If you do your own writing first, no one can take those words away, no matter how crazy your own day gets.

The requirement in the year long intensive is a minimum of 1K/day on the novel, and now we're also working on short stories and exercises IN ADDITION to it.

There will never "be" time, and the choice is simple. Write or don't write. How badly do you want to write? If you're serious about it, you write. If you're not, you make excuses.

And your book remains unfinished, un-revised, un-sold, and un-read.

Lori

November 9, 2011

Actually, what Lisa had said then was "put yourself first." She was referring to women prioritizing everything else first and leaving their own needs last. Let me go back and reclarify that point in my original post.

Lori

November 9, 2011

Devon, I'm not a fan of required word counts (the irony of it is I'm doing Nano, but hear me out). There are days writers can do 4,000 words and there are days they can do 10 (My post tomorrow, already written, is about this very point). I'd much rather say "This is my time to write" rather than saying "I MUST write at least 1,000 words." And you know there are writers out there who would see it that way – I would because I'm anal when it comes to organization. 🙂

And maybe it's all in what motivates. Maybe that minimum word count would work for other writers just fine. It's just the Aquarius rising in me that makes me want to resist. LOL

Anne Wayman

November 9, 2011

sigh, I'm way behind on NANOWMO, but not because I haven't been putting myself and my writing first. Just too damn busy… which is why I wrote about needing time to stare out a window.

Lori

November 9, 2011

Anne, I get that busy sometimes, too. Monday was too busy for me. I made up some time over the weekend on it, but admittedly not a lot. Today I'm making up for some lost time. Just finished a scene and am starting on another. LOVING some of these characters and where they're taking me.

Paula

November 9, 2011

All week it's been nagging at me: I never put myself first. Well, almost never. I probably come across as a dormat, but I don't ever want to be like a couple people I know who will push, scheme, and argue as much as it takes to get their way. Usually it's simply not worth my effort to push back.

This week I started thinking, "Would so-and-so go to the same lengths for me?" My sister? Yes, even if she needs occasional reminding that watching her dogs for weeks at a time isn't exactly a picnic (even if I have it down to a science). But with everyone else I know, the only times they go out of their way for me is if/when they can fit it into their schedules – and then they usually make it clear to me how much they're sacrificing on my account. The message: Their time is worth more than mine. It's not true, but some people actually beleive it.

Me? If someone asks me to do something for them, I'll find a way to do it and I'll make it look easy. I like making other people happy, but not at any cost.

I'm pretty good at putting my needs first when it comes to work, but not outside the office. I guess I need to hang out with Devon and absorb some of her no nonsense approach to life.

Cathy Miller

November 9, 2011

Am I the only writer in the world who is NOT doing NANO? 🙂

Wade Finnegan

November 9, 2011

No Cathy you're not. I don't have the "novel inside of me" mentality. I really like writing articles, profiles, and features. Finding out about something new drives me to write. Maybe, sometime I will have a story I must tell, but right now I like telling the story of others.

Damaria Senne

November 10, 2011

Thanks for the advice Lori. And you're right – I do need to start putting myself first. Usually my personal writing happens at the end of the day, after I've done everything else. So it's the first to suffere when my schedule gets hectic.

Damaria Senne

November 10, 2011

Thanks for the advice Lori. And you're right – I do need to start putting myself first. Usually my personal writing happens at the end of the day, after I've done everything else. So it's the first to suffere when my schedule gets hectic.

Damaria Senne

November 10, 2011

Thanks for the advice Lori. And you're right – I do need to start putting myself first. Usually my personal writing happens at the end of the day, after I've done everything else. So it's the first to suffere when my schedule gets hectic.

Devon Ellington

November 10, 2011

Minimum daily word counts make you sit there and deal with the problems in your work. If you haven't worked out a plot point or some other hole or problem, you sit down, flounder, write ten words and give up. You keep making excuses, more and more days go by when you're "stuck" and the novel falls by the wayside.

If you do 1K/day, you have to deal with it. You push through. It won't be perfect, but now you've got something to shape in the revisions.

And, once you get into the rhythm, after a couple of weeks, it's easy to sit down and drop into the world of your book. So, instead of saying, "I only have ten minutes to write, it's not even worth starting", you can drop in and write for ten minutes and come up with nearly a page or so.

If you're on a roll — go and write 4000 words in a day. I often do.

When you're on a publishing schedule, you don't get to have more than a day or two per book to only write 10 words, no matter what you feel like or what the time frame is. It's like any freelancing gig. You sit and get the job done.

If you don't train yourself to do it before your first novel, you blow it when you start going on contract, and your publisher drops you.

Books aren't written doing 10 words one day and 4K the next. They're written through building a steady, daily rhythm, and not walking away from the page when it's tough.

Pamela

November 10, 2011

Hi, Lori. The advice is good, it is applying it that's a challenge for me. I have a day job that won't allow me to do my writing on the job. Getting up early enough to fit in writing time and getting ready for and getting to the day job would mean waking up so early my eyelids droop just anticipating it. I wish like Hemingway I had the luxury of sitting til noon every day in front of my laptop. And I can't ditch the day job just yet. Or am I making excuses…?

Lori

November 10, 2011

Do you think you're making excuses, Pamela? Only you know the answer. 🙂

Give yourself five minutes in the morning maybe. Or maybe get up ten minutes earlier and write. I bet you could find five or ten minutes, no?

Lisa Gates

November 11, 2011

I love it when you write about me when I'm not paying attention. It's like getting an unexpected bouquet 🙂

Boy do women suffer this issue in spades. Our diffuse awareness, our natural penchant for the word yes, our desire to be of service and beautify our corner of the world — all good things. But really, busyness is a choice. Doormat is a choice. Post office is a choice. And writing a novel is a choice.

I always find that if the WHY isn't compelling enough, no amount of goal setting and "intending" is going to amount to squat. We all have circumstances and things and people and stuff that we allow to stall our commitments, but can we tolerate the thought that "dishes" might be the things that will define us in the end?

At then end of our days do we want to say, wow, I got those dishes done…but oops, I never wrote that novel? Can we tolerate setting aside the BIG FAT SOUL SERVING SATISFACTION our writing and storytelling and self expression gives us (and the world)? Can we tolerate the thought of never being who we really are?

You know the person who was 300 pounds and ends up running a marathon at age 50 because she finally made the connection between her self worth, her health and her limited time on the planet?

We have to chunk up to the bigger space our writing lives in to make actual space for it in real life.

My 2 cents and I'm stickin' to it 🙂

Lori

November 11, 2011

I love your two cents. 🙂 Thanks for sharing it, Lisa. So true about choice – we're free to make ANY choice, yet we defer that for someone else's choice, someone else's benefit. I've always said the world won't end if Lori doesn't dust. So far, it's been true. 🙂