Process
Like Godzilla on Tokyo
I’ve been retired for about eight months.
I took early retirement from my state university IT job at the beginning of the year. Covid met less tax income for the state, meaning less income for the university. I jumped at the chance, like Godzilla on Tokyo.
When I was working, my daily minimum was 300 words. That’s not much, about one double-spaced page a day, but I’d often struggle to fill it. I thought of the word limit as the headlights of a car, and that I could see about 300 words ahead of me as I wrote. After that, I had 24 hours to think up my next 300 words. I got better at reaching the goal as the end of the year, and retirement, loomed.
My post-retirement daily word minimum is 900 words. Three double-spaced pages, which again, is not much, if you can devote the full day toward writing it. I approach it in a similar way: I can see about 900 words ahead of me while writing, in my mind’s headlights, to continue the simile. So, I write my three pages, and then I start thinking about tomorrow’s words.
The 900 words expands out to fill the day, I’m finding. I write a sentence here and there, then follow every passing distraction on and off the internet until 1 or 2 p.m. rolls around and I see the day is passing me by. That is when I’ll hunker down and write. I can realistically write 300 words in an hour. When I’ve hit 900 I’ll generally stop. I like to leave the page knowing I have something in the tank for the next day. And I like the rhythm of moving forward about the same amount every day. That was true when it was 300 words a day, and it’s true now.
I’ve promised myself that I’ll write short stories for most of the rest of the year. Part of this is because I need the practice, and short stories really test my abilities to structure and plot a story, one of my weaknesses. Part of this is so I will have a book of short stories ready by the end of the year, all centered around the idea of suburban horror.
I’m taking notes for a novel, though, and should start it around the beginning of the new year. I’m thinking I’ll need to abandon the 900 words a day minimum. There’s comfort and familiarity in a word minimum I know I can reach most days, but writing a novel, for me, is a leap into the unknown. I think it’s time to push a little further outside my comfort zone. Embrace the fear. Increase the range of my mind’s dim headlights.
A quick couple of notes before I call it a day. I won a contest last month at StoriesSpace (https://www.storiesspace.com/). It’s a free site, writers critiquing writers, and I mention less to get eyes on the story (it’s titled Monster, if you are interested) than to promote the site. It’s really a friendly, welcoming place, and I’ve test driven several stories there. Actually, the opening draft of the first twelve thousand words of the novel are there too (Chew), though I’ll be taking them down in a few months.
Peace.
The links. If you like the writing, buy a story!
August’s story: Monster
July’s story: Goodneighbor.com
June’s story: Feral
May’s story: Nine Lives
April’s story: Prince Albert in a Can
March’s story: Fuck, Marry, Kill
February’s story: Veronica Scissors
My first novel, Life Under Water
My erotic flash fiction series, Serious Moonlight (as J G Cain)
