Perseverance

I remember watching a movie about Ernest Hemingway. At one point in the story, he sets about writing a book. Every day he records the number of words he has written: 438, 476, 421. You get the picture. I was impressed that he went back to count the words, no easy task on a typescript, but I was more impressed that he was counting at all.

In another movie Alex and Emma, Luke Wilson owes money to the mob and has a month to finish his novel to pay them off. Unfortunately, he suffers from writer’s block. Kate Hudson helps him get over it. While I would not attempt to write a novel in a month, even a cheesy one, I admire the effort.

To accomplish anything at all as a writer requires perseverance. You have to keep slogging away at the text, even if what’s coming up on the screen is crap. You can always fix it later— or delete it.

While I am writing, I typically produce 4-8 pages a day, perhaps 1000 to 2000 words. I am obviously no Hemingway, but I can consistently put words to the page.  What enables me to do that is that I spend too much time thinking about my story before putting anything on a page. I usually have most of the plot worked out, and certainly the scene I intend to write on that day. This process doesn’t help my sleep much, but it helps my writing tremendously.

I never suffer from writer’s block. In fact, I’ve got a dozen or more plots percolating, waiting for me to get to them.

What I do suffer from is procrastination. I spend way too much time between manuscripts, dreading the next one. I suppose it’s fear of failure at some level, but how much lower can I go? It isn’t like my last book was a bestseller and I’m afraid the next on won’t be. If I sold only one copy of my first book, with my third one I can certainly top that, you’d think.

At any rate, the most difficult part is sitting down to start. Once I’ve opened my word processor, I’m half way home. I have another advantage. I rarely have much editing to do. Perhaps you’ve noticed I ought to do more, but what I do looks good to me. Usually while I’m editing, it’s more about adding to the story than it is fixing mistakes. I can keep the characters straight, even if you can’t. I’m not overwhelmed with misplaced, missing or extraneous commas, although you might disagree.

Maybe I ought to work for Clive Cussler. Then while I’m churning out bad fiction, at least I’d be making good money.