The idea of pushing yourself to write more words than you normally do is a great motivation tool. For typically slow writers, however, any self-challenge can motivate you to tear your hair out, So, is it worth all the air-punching and coffee-mainlining?
I do not consider myself to be a speed-reader, and you won’t hear me claiming to be a swift scribe. Like many independent authors, I am unable to dedicate several hours of any given day to writing. With that said, I will spare everyone the list of excuses because we all have other commitments in our lives. These familial, social, and “real job”-related responsibilities are indiscriminate of pros or average joes. Often enough, it isn’t a matter of discipline that stalls productivity, but rather the widespread blight of simply not having enough hours in the day. Or do we merely not make enough time?
Conceptually, the pressure of setting writing goals can be a much needed nudge to develop better writing habits. As a writer who has never partook (or partaken) in the daring attempt to complete a draft of a full-length book in an extremely short amount of time, I can only assume the pros and cons of this mad dash.
The benefits of pushing oneself to increase their output is obvious. More words, more pages, more content. Churning out stories means you can release more novels, therefore increasing your sales and readership potential. The negative aspects of a turbo boost in bumping your numbers up? To put it plainly is, well, the craze that comes along with it. Chances are, if you are a self-published writer, you probably aren’t getting enough sleep as it is. Raising your personal stakes to new heights of wild promises and over the top expectations equals a recipe for sleep-deprived disaster.
There are nights where adding a single word to my manuscript is all I can muster. I can’t say I’ve made my peace with this exactly, but I have, for the most part, accepted my reality. Acceptance; peace? Ah, who knows? When you’re fighting sleep and the early morning’s alarm isn’t that far away, you do whatever your mortal body can achieve.
After spending the majority of this blog entry seemingly trashing the thought of committing to the daunting undertaking of such a lofty word-count target, it would be a fair guess to say that I am not for it. The truth is, though, if you think it will help jumpstart your word count, then you should by all means go for testing yourself. Who am I to tell anybody what to do, anyway? The only piece of advice I can safely provide is this, and it’s common sense to begin with: with fast typing, comes much editing.
Best of luck to all participating in some form of quick-writing of a novel - regardless of what your limit is. To the rest of us slow-but-steady stewards of the written word, let’s not bang our heads against the wall anymore than we already do. There are other ways to leave your mark.
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Unsecret Identity: Eric Icarus - Book One is available now from the Amazon Kindle store.