Small Steps Add Up
I had been doing pretty well with the whole ‘I’m going to post a blog entry every week(ish)’ thing … until the whole Camp NaNoWriMo ordeal. If you are not sure what that is, you can check out the post where I explain it slightly HERE. All that blog neglect was worth it, though.
Last night, a whole one day early, I passed the 50,000 word goal and ‘won‘ the April event. Scorched is now over seventy percent complete. The novel will eventually become a series. You can check out the super-rough draft of the first four chapters HERE and HERE if you have not already. I would post more of them, but I want to leave some mystery for when it is totally completed and released.
Writing nearly every day for a month was pretty eye opening. It turns out that all those old cliches are true. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Don’t eat before you swim. Wait, that one is not related … it’s not even a cliche. In all seriousness, though, it was revealing.
Most traditionally published writers put out a book every few years. An elite few may release one a year. Then there’s George Martin of course, who may finish the Song of Ice and Fire series before I am cruising around in my hover car. During my writing month, I did an average of 2,000 – 3,000 a night. I took ‘weekends‘ off. If I did this for an entire year, I would produce 651,785 words. here’s a few things for comparison.
A Game of Thrones is 298,000 words long.
Divergent is 105,000 words long
Lord of the Flies is 62,000 words long
So, if judging by length alone, following a regimented but very easy schedule, I could write the equivalent of either two Game of Thrones novels, six Divergents, or ten Lord of the Flies. That is pretty insane. Roughly ten hours a week and I could put out 600+ novels in my lifetime. Now, truth be told, I am a relatively fast typist, but still. The point is, little, consistent steps add up and become big things. This isn’t only true about writing, either.
I have taken the first small step on my journey, when will you start yours?