Friday, May 27, 2011

Friday Fabulosities--I'm one of those Page-A-Dayers




Now this made me very happy:
Make your writing a regular duty. Remember that one page a day--say 300 words--each day for a year gives you a 109,500-word novel. (Peter Lovesey, the great mystery writer.)
Yes, I am a page-a-dayer. Two years ago, frustrated by "never finding the time to write," I vowed to just write one page every day. That seemed manageable. And so it has proved. I've finished one half-finished novel, written another novel, dabbled in several short stories and picture books, and am midway through a new novel.

I don't say this to brag (well, maybe just a little.) I say this because sometimes it looks like there will never be time for writing. And there won't be, if you go about thinking that you must immerse yourself in a novel to the exclusion of everything else. That, in order to successfully write, you have to have several hours to swim in your story. I guess that might be something you could pull off, if you had no spouse, no children, and were independently wealthy and so didn't need a job.

But, for the rest of us, if we want to create, we have to find niggles and nudges of time to do so. If you can't do a page-a-day, try for half-a-page. Or a paragraph. Just keep moving forward. You'll be amazed at how much you will accomplish as the days, months, and years go by.

Here's to "A Page-A-Day"!

3 comments:

  1. I don't do this at all, but I have tremendous respect for those who do. I just ... don't enjoy writing like that. I like settling in and spending a few hours, and I won't write if I can't do that. I will edit, no problem. But writing? Nope. I have a spouse, 2 kids, and a job--and I write at night and on the weekends. Actually, mostly on the weekends. I think a-page-a-day is a great way to get started and keep going for many, though--and much like any kind of habit-forming, is more easily ingrained if you do it each day.

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  2. well, I don't know about a page a day...but I say write every day
    Me it's the planning ..the plotting I resist....rather I sit and write and then I find I'm in a labyrinth or worse a maze.....
    I am going to try the Snowflake method mentioned by Vicki
    and as for The Great Gatsby and Fitzgerald.....this is hard labor..reading this all
    I guess I am an unsophisticated boob
    ....right about now I could use a good beach read
    But good for you for actually finishing so much work...

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  3. I do know that blogging has kept me writing daily, and looking back, I actually wrote an entire memoir one, two pages at a time. The discipline is important.

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