I’m going to try something new. More precisely, I’m going to try something that’s new to me, in the hopes it’ll prove worthwhile; it’s my version of Failing Fast.
I’m not a fast typer, I usually find myself reaching for the right word, or retyping a bit of sentence more than once because it’s not quite right. I read a bit, and then get to fiddling because I missed some things out, instead of marking it and moving on. I should have learned all these lessons some time before, as I’ve done NanoWriMo and the only way I could win was to keep pushing forward, and never look back.
Of course, I can also remember being in a coffee-guzzling, sleep-deprived, storyline-obsessed haze for most of the time as well. I remember coming out of it thinking that working at that pace and that regularity wasn’t sustainable. I also remember thinking “Oh my.” Fifty thousand words in 30 days. It was possible, I did it, and I still have no real idea how it happened.
So I’m going to try attacking stories with the same amount of devil-may-care attitude again. I’m going to try to get it down as quickly as possible and fix the problems after the fact. I’m going to try learning how to do significant rewrites, and I’m going to end up learning how to literally tear chunks out of a story. I’ve been writing short pieces of fiction recently to get myself into a habit, and then going back and chopping it down to an arbitrary amount. Hopefully that’ll stand me in good stead.
Part of the reason for doing the shorter stories it to see if I can concentrate on different things for a while. They say that practise makes – well, in my case, less sucky and prone to make idiot mistakes. We shall see. Let me see if I can get my ‘Concentrate and Commit’ rate up bit by bit. At least I’ll be typing something. Otherwise I’m going to admit defeat, leave the story I thought I’d be working on alone, and move on to the other one for a while. If I know me, just as I’m really getting into a groove, I’ll be inspired to go back.
Hey, as long as its typing and moving toward another finished something, I don’t much care right now.
I still don’t have a cover for the finished story. I got so far into having one done and then – life. It happens. And as long as I keep breathing, It’ll probably happen again.
