In my spare time I’ve been training for a triathlon. Given my asthma, the sympathy weight I gained (and never lost) while my wife was pregnant, and years and years of moderate drinking and light smoking (don’t tell my HMO!), this isn’t exactly something I’m a natural at.
All the books, however, tell me that all I have to do is practice. Run twice a week, bike twice a week, and swim twice a week, going a tad bit further every week; and eventually you’ll be good enough to swim a mile, bike 24, and run 6 in somewhere reasonably close to 3 hours.
Well, I’ve been doing this now for about 2 1/2 months, and despite my skepticism about experts, it actually works. I’m in good shape, and was able to run my first sprint triathlon (1/2 the distance of a full tri) in a decent time.
It reminds me a lot of what it was like 10 years ago, before I’d written my first novel. I wanted to be a writer and I wanted to write novels, but I didn’t know how to do it. I read Stephen King’s book, On Writing, and kind of pooh-poohed his suggestion that if you write at least 1,000 words a day, even if you have no idea what to write about, you’ll get used to the rhythms of writing. Eventually, when the little angel lands on your shoulder and hands you a plot, you’ll know how to exploit it.
Years later, I tried out the Stephen King method (I should point out that Stephen King is neither the only nor the first author to suggest writing to a page count… rumor has it that Ernest Hemingway would actually end each day mid-sentence), and it turned out to be the only way I could churn out World Leader Pretend.
All of this was just a long lead in to get you to take a look at a former writing instructor’s wonderful blog, Michelle’s Daily Dose for Writers & Readers. Michelle suggests a writing exercise a few times a week on the blog, so if you run out of things to write about, take a tip from her.
Hey Jim,
Congrats on the upcoming publication! The story of your writing regimen and Stephen King’s advice reminded me of J.G. Ballard’s writing process as well. His comments:
I try to write about 1,000 words a day in longhand and then edit it very carefully later before I type it out. I have been known to stop in the middle of a sentence sometimes when I’ve reached my limit. But self-discipline is enormously important — you can’t rely on inspiration or a novel would take ten years.
I always prepare a very detailed synopsis before I start writing. Sometimes this will be anything up to 30,000 words in length. It’s just me working out my story and my cast. I once did one for a book called The Unlimited Dream Company where the synopsis was longer than the book.
I probably read that quote directly somewhere along the way of assembling the quotes book, but here’s the blog entry where I found it again.
Interesting. I agree entirely with not relying on inspiration. I felt flat throughout the writing of my second novel.