The Entry for December 23: Counting Down To 1 January 2005

The Entry for December 23: Counting Down To 1 January 2005

December 23.

23 + 7 = 30.

30 +1 = 31.

31 + 1 = 1.

Does that sound right?

If you have been following this thread then it does sound right. Starting on 1 January 2005, a group of friends from Long Island (and perhaps elsewhere) begin a commitment: to write one thousand (1k) words per week for the entire year, towards a completed novel. For the average person that's 4-5 letters per week to friends.

Of course, Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)and Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937) wrote far more massive missives in their personal correspondence.

Not all of us are quite so prodigious or prolific in our personal correspondence, but that is not the point; one thousand words per week can be anywhere from 2-4 scenes, or one scene in your novel, depending on what you want to accomplish with it, what direction to steer your opus, whether it is based on either fabrication or experience.

You can tell I have been using the thesaurus at dictionary.com, right? ;-)

The point is this: Writing isn't hard, really: we're just organizing it so that we actually get the manuscript done (at least the first draft of it). You may find yourself writing out of sequence. This is all right, you can straighten things out during revisions and if you compose on a computer it's even easier to organize your notes. Remember to back up your data and perhaps even print out a hard copy every now and again, just in case you have computer problems or data loss. Even the best systems crash. You might be lucky, but don't count on good fortune. Try to at least number your notebooks in sequence if you write in them, even if you don't date them.

A notebook in your pocket at work, no matter how small, will let you do a bit of writing on your bathroom and coffee breaks. If oyu have a tape recorder with a built in microphone, maybe even one with the autothing that pauses when there's nothing to record, will let you talk your way through a scene or three while you're stopped at red lights. (I would not recommend it while driving unlesws you're caught in a really bad traffic jam -- and if you have kids in the car you might want to think twice about it). A scribbled line or three here and there, in the kitchen, in the bathroom, before you go to bed, when you first wake up in the morning--all of these can be accomplished in free moments.

The important thing is getting it written. You can worry about revisions and editing after it's done.




Regards,
Elizabeth Anne Ensley.