Tag Archives: Debbie Ridpath Ohi

42,000 words or bust

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My novel is suffering from a case of the hiccups. I’ll start, I’ll stop, I’ll blog, I’ll set it back down, I’ll pick it back up. Idea here. A few hundred words there. Not enough to get the steam whistles blowing and the train really moving down the tracks.

So I’m going to publicly announce my re-entry into Debbie Ridpath Ohi’s 500 words a day challenge, to force myself to be held accountable for my word count. This is a logical amount of words one person can write in a day. It’s not too big, and not too small. Even on the shittiest days, you can write 500 words. And the trick, as Jerry Seinfeld says, is to get out your calendar and put an X through each day you complete the task. But not just that. More important is:

DON’T BREAK THE CHAIN.

You can have all the excuses in the world, but we’ve all got 24 usable hours in every day. Start off with your 500 words in the morning. Do them before bed. Do them in the last hours of the day if you like. But don’t break the chain, or you’re done.

The chain is what keeps you moving forward. 500 words is not the challenge. The challenge is doing it every day. The challenge is not breaking the chain.

So I’ve got my calendar out. I did my 500 words yesterday. I’m doing them today. I’ve got a chain. I’m not going to break it. And you can check my progress in the Don’t Break the Chain! widget under “Further Information” at the bottom of the page to help keep me honest.

I’ve got 12 weeks left in the entire year of 2010 (jeez, can you believe it’s almost over?!). If I write 500 words a day, 7 days a week, for 12 weeks, that’s 42,000 words.

42,000 words or bust. Novel ho!

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Moving beyond the bedroom

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Cartoon by Debbie Ridpath Ohi (via Inkygirl.com)

Cartoon by Debbie Ridpath Ohi (via Inkygirl.com)

I’ve been thinking about applying for an MFA program, lately, as it would afford me time to write a real novel. Not just a 30-day NaNoWriMo marathon novel, which is all about quantity over quality, but a real, honest-to-goodness time-consuming, thoughtfully-penned novel.

That, quite frankly, is both exhilarating and totally terrifying.

Part of the terrifying aspect is that, like any application for school, you’re supposed to write up a succinct cover letter detailing any awesome aspects you bring to the table, which would convince them that you’d be an asset and a credit to the program. You’re supposed to sell yourself. They want to know about honors you’ve achieved, fellowships/grants/scholarships you’ve been granted, people you’ve impressed.

Sometimes, I wonder whom I’ve really impressed, or what I have to show for the past two years of freelancing work. I’m not saying it hasn’t been fun, but it hasn’t exactly added up to the kind of career I used to dream about when I was a starry-eyed creative writing major. Mostly because I haven’t been doing much creative writing.

Hence my desire to keep up with my haiku-a-day project, to do NaNoWriMo, to take on the 3-day Novel Writing Contest, etc.

So I have been asked to think about my goals, my dreams, my future—as these little questions are meant to prod you to write something about those types of things—and I am wondering where I really aim to go these days. Although I certainly enjoy writing about sex, and probably will always have an interest (some might say obsession) with this area, it’s not necessarily the area I want to specialize in forever. It’s just one of many interests, and it’s very easy to get pigeonholed when you write a sex column and run an erotica website.

I guess what I’m saying is that I’d like to be someone with a life outside the bedroom, to not be boxed into my boudoir, no matter how comfy it may be. Now the only question is where to go from here?

Moving beyond the
bedroom can be challenging;
I like a challenge

I write a lot, but I need to write a lot more

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Several things have spurred me to write a lot more lately:

  • I’m sick of the crap payment I get from one of my usual gigs. Coupled with the company’s overall lack of respect for the work I do for them (and, by all the reports from other writers I know, the general lack of respect this company has for their writers), as well as the fact that I’ve been a freelancer there for two years now, but will never get a raise, direct deposit payments (?!), or better quality assignments from them, and it’s about time to be moving on. NOTE: This is a gig where my published works remain uncredited.
  • I read this great article by Debbie Ridpath Ohi Deb Ng called “40 Freelance Writing Markets Paying $100 Or More (Much More)” (which Debbie Ridpath Ohi had tweeted about, hence my confusion regarding its author) and started to investigate some of the higher-paying markets she mentioned. Some of them, like Wish, have unfortunately gone out of business, but there are some on that list that I have had on my “to do” list for a long time. I mean, I actually subscribed to The Sun about a year ago, with the intention of studying their freebie issue and then writing up a brilliant submission, but I still haven’t written anything for them! I keep telling myself I’ll get around to it, so it’s about time, don’t you think?
  • I actually wrote to an ex of mine who works at a local magazine, asking how the heck you get someone over there to pay attention to you, having written about 90,000 emails to various editors that have all gone unanswered. A few minutes after I wrote the note to him, the editor I’d last approached sent a response to my email. It was a rejection, but at least I got a response this time. Oh, and the editor said I should definitely pitch something else, so that’s another plus—and another reason to just get my computer implanted into my head somewhere, so I can be writing at all times.
  • I’ve been doing well on the 500 Words A Day Challenge, too! I took Monday off, but have kept up so far, even blasting way ahead on Sunday when I was suddenly inspired.
  • I need to become a famous writer so I can have crazy book jacket photos of myself that give David Sedaris a run for his money. You know, photos that are even cooler than this one:
    • David Sedaris breathes fire; he is really that cool.

    David Sedaris breathes fire, because he is awesome.

  • Finally, I just read a couple of articles about how NOT to write a story, which reminded me why I wanted to write fiction in the first place: because there are no limits! Lots of people writing books these days have no imagination; they are writing junk that breaks all of the rules of entertainment, and not in a good way. I know I can do better, because I don’t want to crank out books based on a formula. Art does not happen in a lab, or by colouring in the lines. Art is messy, dangerous, and crazy, and I’d much rather be an artist than a well-paid shill.

All of this adds up to me needing to put fingers to keyboard a lot more. And not on Facebook or Twitter, although those are certainly fun diversions. So basically, I just wrote this blog to say that I’m going to be holing up in my hermit hole and writing a lot more. If you see me out and about, I’m either a) researching, b) going to the post office to mail off my manuscripts, or c) getting a much needed caffeine transfusion—so don’t get in my way!