2nd Test of First Theory and Positing of a Brand New Theory

This is my second test of how difficult it would be to write 500 words in one sitting. My first experiment proved that I COULD write 500 words in one sitting. And while I’m sure a monkey banging on a keyboard can write 500 words in one sitting, I figure it’s still something to be proud of. Small victories and all that good stuff. While I am again testing my 500 word theory, I’m also here to lay out another goal for another time, after I have more proof that I can write 500 words in one sitting. This goal is to see how hard it would be to write 500 words about one idea. I’m thinking I should start off with some small basic story, like a person getting on a swing, and the joy this person feels swinging, and then this person stops swinging and walks into the sunset, as it were. Yeah, that seems like a good overly-simplistic story  to start out with. Of course, I’ll probably change my mind by the time I get around to implementing this new experiment, but such is the price of being me, I suppose.  If nothing else, I can tell myself that I am actually putting forth SOME effort in this writing endeavor. In any case, I think doing a small story like a person on a swing is a good starting point. I’d like to think of it as being a children’s book story, but that seems to belittle children’s book authors. Sure, they really are small stories with basic words, but nothing is ever as simple as it seems, right? Right. I think that I’m going to have to do many experiments with the writing of 500 words of a single idea, as I fear it’s inevitable that I’ll start over-thinking the direction of the story with each word. That has always been my biggest weakness as a writer. Sometimes I get over it with a simple “fuck it” and get on with my writing, but that’s never happened with a story. It’s only happened with reports. Give me five minutes and the who, what, where, when, why, and how basics, and I can spit out whatever length of  report that is needed. I’ve always been excellent at that kind of writing, but it’s always been a bit of a temporary salve to the writing thirst I feel. Mostly, I find it boring. I can do it, but I don’t like it, in other words. Now, with what I’m trying to accomplish, I seem to have the opposite problem. I love the ideas, but I don’t like the writing aspect. It’s much harder than non-fiction writing, even though I can obviously make up whatever shit I want. Perhaps that’s the problem. I need guidelines and boundaries. And I need to see the whole picture before I put anything down to print. I don’t want to over-think things then, but if I have an idea of where I want to go, then I think I might have a better chance at feeling confident in how to write it. That’s this theory and I’m sticking to it. Maybe.

Word Count: 528

500 Word Count Method

This is a test. This is only a test. I’m seeing how difficult, both in thinking and time, writing at least 500 words a weekend would be. I want to see if I can make a story actually happen. I usually wait until inspiration hits me and that’s more often than not only given me some interesting and some not so interesting starts to stories. Never an end, and rarely a middle. When I write, I usually just start with an idea or a sentence and go from there, hoping that this is the one time my idea or sentence will lead to something whole and complete. My thinking now is that maybe I should focus on a word count goal for every time I sit down and write. Once I achieve that goal, I can revel in the satisfaction that I achieved my goal for that time. My buddy, Theo, suggested I try what his English Composition 1 instructor does, which is to sit down to write for only 5 minutes, and tell herself that she is only going to write for 5 minutes. When that 5 minutes is up, if she feels like writing more, she’ll tell herself that she’ll only write for 5 minutes more. If she’s satisfied with what she’s done then, she’ll stop. But if she wants to do more, she’ll give herself another 5 minutes. I’ve thought about doing this as well. But I think I want to try what I’m going to call “The Word Count Method”. Wrath James White, one of my favorite authors, seems to use this method. Perhaps not for the same reasons, but he gives himself a set amount of words to write, and then he works toward that goal. Sometimes he doesn’t reach that goal before for some reason or another, he has to quit for the day. But usually, he does reach his goal and then some. So I’m going to try the Word Count method and see how that pans out for me. The quality of the writing is not so much a concern at this point. I’m just trying to reach a word count while taking a story from a beginning to a middle, and hopefully, an end. I want to say that if I reach the end of a story that I will be happy even if I never write another. I hope that’s not the case, though, as I do enjoy writing. I just have a short attention span. So I’m hoping this will work and that the first story will lead to another and that will lead to another and so on. I’m a bit afraid now to look and see how many words I’m at, as I’m not entirely confident I’ve neared my goal. But I think I’ve said all I can about what I want to achieve with this method. I suppose I should point out that I don’t have a particular story in mind to start this all off with, and that could be a major problem. But I definitely don’t lack for story ideas, so I might just start with the first one that comes into my mind and go from there. Also, I should mention that if I get good results from this, that I might try doing a certain amount of words on another day. Since I work full-time now, and I’m often exhausted when I get home from work, this may prove to not be possible. But if it is, then I might set a goal of, say, 200 words one day a week during the work week, and see how that goes. But for now, I’m going to focus on doing the 500 words per weekend and see what happens with that. Well, I think I’ve reached the end of what I set out to do with this ramble. Let’s see how many words I’ve written….

Word Count: 654 (including “Word Count”)

SUCCESS!!!