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?
Adam works hard but tries not to take himself too seriously. He is the second-best author in his household, and has published a total of zero books under his own name. When he isn't spending his time writing things that never happened or wondering if he was born either 3,000 years late or 3,000 years early, he can be found hugging the air-conditioner in his home near Phoenix.
