Sliding headfirst is the safest way to get to the next base, I think, and the fastest. You don't lose your momentum, and there's one more important reason I slide headfirst, it gets my picture in the paper.
Pete Rose
By Steve Weddle
There's a story we've probably talked about at some point.
A professor asks the students how they define themselves. One says she's a fighter. One says he's a learner. This is a creative writing, by the way. So he gets to this one dude who says, "I'm a writer."
Everyone kinda nods, looks down at their cups of coffee, maybe wishing they'd thought of that. The professor says, "OK. It is now 3:15. What have you written today?" The guy says he hasn't written anything that day. The professor says, "And you think you're a writer? Not today you aren't."
I can't be a writer every single day. I've tried. Doesn't work for me. I'd have to get up at 4 a.m. to write. I've done that before. I'm not going to be able to do that every day.
Then you're not a real writer.
Yeah, OK.
You don't want it bad enough!
Um, I think you mean "badly" enough, but whatevs.
I can write 5,000 words a day, but it's a one-and-done kind of thing. Or there will be times when I can crank through 1,000 words a day for a week or so at a stretch. But I don't write every single day. My bank account doesn't depend on it. My sanity doesn't. The happiness of my family doesn't.
I've read posts here and elsewhere about the difference between being an Author and just being a writer. An Author has obligations from contracts to conferences, from agents and editors, and on and on. Page proofs. Revisions. Sequels. Cover approval. (Ha. Joking about the last one.)
I write what I want, when I want, like that sad, drunk man at the other end of the bar softly singing to himself.
Recently, and for a brief time, that all changed.
I had five stories due in a matter of a couple weeks from each other. Now, I am, by trade, a newspaper guy. Before that, I taught college. Before that, I was a college student. I know from deadlines. If you tell me that something is due at noon on September 23, I will count back from that time. If I owe you a 2,000 word story, I'll figure how long it will take me to write it and how long after that I will need to work on it further -- beta reads, edits, etc.
If you tell me that you'd like a 10,000 word story from me by March 23, there is absolutely no chance that I will think again about that story until March 1, at the earliest.
Of course, when you have five stories due right next to each other, that changes. And that's where momentum comes in.
See, once I write one story, I kinda fall into another. I get the feeling, you know? Get "In the Zone" or whatever. I'll get the idea down, get the sentences shaped the way I like them, get things layered in there, see how the various images work out, and so forth. Maybe "On a Roll" is better than the zone idea. I dunno.
Writing every single day doesn't work for me. Writing in frantic, flailing spurts does.
I have work in Beat to a Pulp: Superhero, Both Barrels, Feeding Kate, Protectors, and Off The Record 2 -- all either out right now or about to be out. (PS - Many, many talented folks involved in these books)
And having that momentum is great. You're writing. Stuff is falling in to place. You're connecting with it all.
But then you're diving into that base, which is an extremely dumb move. Because now I'm kinda just lying here, spent.
The trick to keeping your momentum, I can tell you, is staying on your feet.
