That Jeff Goins sure is a hard taskmaster! Not only does he want me to start writing, get up early to do it, keep getting up early to do it, write new things, write ugly things, write in new places, and write things other people have already written, now he wants me to finish something!
I’m reminded of a line from the movie Sliding Doors when Jerry (the loser boyfriend) says he has some good news. “Ah, you’ve finished the book!” his best friend cries. “The book? I’m a writer, I’ll never finish the book!”
Well, I won’t finish either the radio play or the Venn Diagram story before the 15 days are up (especially since the Venn Diagram story seems to have mutated from a quick little short story into something quite a bit longer – not a novel, probably, but certainly a novella!), but I did finish writing a proper outline for the latter today. Check!
On top of that, he wants me to build a team; a group of people who are willing to spur me on, keep asking how the project is coming along, read bits of it, point out errors, inconsistencies and anomalies and generally help make it happen and make it better. Well, Jeff, this whole process seems to be making that happen, so thank you!
I’ve had more people comment on these posts than on any of my previous blog posts, I’ve ‘met’ a couple of the other writers and had conversations with them on twitter and our respective blogs, and I’ve been talking about my writing more to my face-to-face friends (!) – partly through explaining why I’m so tired these days!
The really best thing, though, is that through my blogging and tweeting about writing, a friend who lives far away has taken up writing again, having put it aside for several years!
It seems we’re all bricks in each other’s great buildings. I’ve certainly appreciated the support I’ve had already from this community, and hope I can build into you in some way, too.
I’ll be asking for some feedback once I’ve got something finished enough to show you – if you’re up for being in my team, do let me know!
Thanks!
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And in case you were wondering, yes, I did write yesterday, I was just too tired (and headachey) to blog about it later – I went to bed at 8pm! *Yawn*. Will have to find a way to make this sustainable after the 15 days are up!
(And will have to find a way of blogging without using so many exclamation marks – please be assured, I don’t overuse them like this in my real writing, honest.)
on Jun 14th at 10:06 pm
I’m jealous of your 8PM…I overslept this morning because I stayed up far too late talking about blog design and traffic analysis with my dear husband. Such sweet talk we have…… I got 2400 words done this morning, but didn’t finish a darn thing today…but i’ll be part of your team if you’ll be part of mine? I’ll find your exclamation points if you catch my ellipses….
on Jun 14th at 10:15 pm
Wow, 2,400 words! That’s impressive! Would love to be part of your team, thanks. The other thing I need help on is commas. I think I’m getting better at actually finishing a sentence once in a while and starting a new one – and since someone taught me how to use semi-colons my sentence structure has been revolutionised, but it’s still something I probably get carried away on, as this sentence demonstrates! 🙂
on Jun 15th at 1:11 pm
Don’t be too impressed. i think 2,300 of them are probably “um, what do i write about next?”
I write unbelievably long sentences too. I became acutely aware of it when a colleague did a tech writing workshop for our team and ran a sample document of unknown authorship (happened to be mine) through an analysis tool. The tool said my average sentence contained something like 63 words. Average. That got my attention.
on Jun 15th at 1:49 pm
Ooh, ouch! 63 words definitely count as long! I disagree with Jeff’s blog from a while back, though, that says short and snappy is the future of writing (like The Hunger Games), I definitely think there’s a place for writing longer sentences, with the richness that allows. Let’s help each other stay balanced, though. (Your story about Zach suggests you’ve been working on this though – lots of good short, pithy sentences – well done!)
on Jun 14th at 10:25 pm
Good for you! I won’t totally finish anything during these fifteen days either, but this challenge has helped my launch my blog and meet people I would never have met before. http://writewhatyouknowdotorg.wordpress.com/ I’ll be a part of your team if you’ll be a part of mine. 🙂 Have a great evening!
on Jun 15th at 1:45 pm
Great, it’s a deal!