100 Day Creative Challenge Day 55: One Bite At A Time
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is an example of ‘one bite at a time’ writing. On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 PM on November 30. The goal of 1000 words a day is a manageable way to produce a draft novel in a month.
There’s rarely a day I don’t write something. A Facebook post, a blog, ideas in my notebook, emails, lists. I write all the time.
Some writers write every morning at 5am before the day’s distractions take hold. Some write all day and others write when the mood strikes them.
Some take themselves off on retreats and go on a writing binge.
I try to focus on writing every day and less on the outcome.The more I get down, the more I have to work on. If I focus on perfection or getting it right especially when writing a first draft, I wouldn’t make much progress.
I must admit that my personality is wired to binge writing. There’s nothing more productive for me than retreating from the world and taking two or three days write solidly. It may not be the best writing, but it gets the story down on the page. I have to make myself write. Doing this 100 Day Creative Challenge has been a great discipline and a way for me to force myself to write every day.
When eating an elephant take one bite at a time. Creighton Abrams
If writing is something you love then either bingeing or one bite at time, or a mixture of both, is not a chore, it’s a pleasure.
Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way encourages creatives to complete morning pages. Completely stream of consciousness writing every morning will get the creative juices flowing. But you could also outline a writing project, do some rough notes, character sketches, setting descriptions, research notes.
If you write daily, you will dramatically boost output and your brain will become trained so you can produce something every day.
I never waited for my Irish Cream coffee to be the right temperature, with a storm happening outside and my fireplace crackling … I wrote every day, at home, in the office, whether I felt like it or not, I just did it. Stephen J. Cannell
