On "On Writing," pt 1 (Patreon)

One of the things that led me back to writing, recently, was a patron's suggestion to read Stephen King's BIlly Summer - a fantastic novel of redemption and on the power of the writer's craft.  Following that, I started listening to King's "On Writing," off of Audible during the commute to work.

The autobiographical parts were surprisingly compelling--I'm not usually one for biography--but it was the writing-guide stuff I was most interested in.  And though I don't completely agree with everything King suggests (and I think he's totally on board with people disagreeing with him), I'm definitely thinking of trying to adapt some of his ideas.

Some of them are simply impossible.  I'd love to hit 2000 words a day, but I just don't think it's possible - writing isn't a full-time job for me (though wouldn't it be amazing if it was?).  And I don't have a space where I can just "close the door", as he puts in, and block out the rest of the world - I write where and when I can, having consistently failed to carve out a reliable pattern, a place and time I can write daily.

But one idea I'd like to adopt is his suggestion on writing a first draft.

King, apparently, finishes the first draft of a novel in about three months: 2,000 words a day, five days a week means about 40,000 words a month - so a 120,000 word novel in three months.  Amazing; but an impossible target for an amateur like me.  (He also says he doesn't write five days a week; he writes every day, holidays, birthdays and weekends when he's working.)

And while he's writing that first draft, it's completely personal.  He doesn't show it to anyone.  (Which is what he really means by the 'closed door', I think.)  Only once the first draft is done does he share it with trusted people and gets that first round of feedback, before leaving it to sit for a few month and returning to it for the second or third draft.

I'd like to try something similar, I think, though at a more realistic scale.  I'm aiming for 500 words a day--it seems a realistic target--so roughly 2,500/week.  And the whole Patreon things sort of precludes not sharing, I think - continuing to share chapter-by-chapter seems to make sense.  I'm hoping, this time around, rather than chapter excerpts to share a weekly update on word-count: some evidence that I'm actually writing again, as much for myself (perhaps moreso for myself) than for those who've hung on this long.