Wednesday, April 28, 2010

2000 a day might be a bit Crazy!

My husband has pointed out that trying for 2000 a day would be a good amount if I was actually a full-time writer, but since I am still looking for a job...

{sigh} I hate that I can't just do what I want already. I am 47 years old. I waited until my kids were grown and now I just want to be irresponsible!!

But the fact of the matter is - you can't live without money, and for the near (or even God-forbid, distant) future I must continue to make money of some kind to keep the debt collectors away.

Balance is the thing that is needed here and 2000 words a day isn't balanced - that is more than you need to accomplish the NaNo goal of 50,000 words in a month.

So what kind of goals are reasonable?
Which targets are motivational and which are distructive?

I don't know - but watch this space while I struggle to find out!

3 comments:

  1. Just to clarify, I didn't say 2000 words wasn't reasonable. I only commented that 2000 words a day was the same goal a writer needs to obtain to succeed at NANO. That's not a bad thing. If you want to finish a NANO novel, that's a very good (necessary) thing.

    If you want to be a writer, occasionally taking a month to write like a NANO writer is also probably a good thing. Since it's been over a year since you've written your last NANO novel, perhaps taking a month to do another one isn't a bad idea.

    What I'm saying here is "if you want to write 2000 words a day, I'm in favor of that decision. Just be aware of what that decision really is."

    I am...

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  2. I have finished NaNo while also working (and going to school, and...) but it was a marathon, and at the end I was quite spent.

    In thinking about it (and facing exactly the same issue myself in my own writing), I'm wondering if it might be good to have a time/word count goal - whichever comes first. Sometimes I can write 2000 words in an hour and sometimes it doesn't come in a week. But maybe if the goal was "2 hours a day or 1000 words, whichever comes first".

    I've heard other writers talk about an incredible variety of word-counts, from 8000 words a day for a particular lunatic game-designer and freelancer (who writes full time) to 500 words a day for another person who is a mom of a young child, podcaster, and also holds down a FT job.

    It seems like a balance. I personally do better with time limits, but given the nature of most of my projects (roleplaying games) word-count just doesn't work as well as a measure. I can put in hours of quality work on a game and not move the word-count meter at all because I'm just moving things around, improving them, writing out tables or whatever.

    I'll be curious to see what you end up doing.

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  3. Thanks Guys!

    Chip, I didn't mean to portray you as un-supportive - quite the opposite you are my biggest and most encouraging fan.

    Doug - good point. You always seem to sound so much more reasoned about these things than I am. A regular dose of your level headedness is much needed!!!

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