A few days ago, I was wondering how much time I spend writing my blogs, essays, flash fiction, and guest blogs.
It didn’t take long to realize that figuring out THAT number was going to be like trying to find and separate aluminum needles in a dumper of iron filings with magnetic tweezers. There were too many variables: Do I include research? Are hand writing articles then editing as I enter them into a word processing program (as I’m doing as I write this) one act or two, requiring the measurement of TWO periods of time? Do I include noodling? Do I include editing?
How much time I spend writing wasn’t going to give me a very useful number – plus it was going to be well-nigh to impossible to calculate.
A number I COULD figure though, was how many words I produce a week.
Ah! Here I had a reasonable methodology. I post four times a week: a Sunday piece of writing like a Possibly Irritating Essay, a Slice of PIE, or Writing Advice. Tuesdays it’s Ideas on Tuesday; Thursdays I post a piece from a novel or book-length fiction I’m working on in one of four categories; Saturday is my BREAST CANCER REAPER essay (the name of which, BTW, I am thinking of changing – go to the site here: http://breastcancerreaper.blogspot.com/2011/07/resources-and-possibility-of-new-name.html and give me your input!)
In addition, I do a once-a-month post at Friday Challenge and sporadic articles for that spot. Oh, and an occasional post on Chila Woychik’s blog at Port Yonder Press (http://portyonderpress.com/aboutus.aspx).
All told, it comes out to about 7200 words a month. I’ll add another 2800 words to that to encompass a modest estimate of my project writing so I come out with a nice, round 10,000 words a month. At that output, I should be able to pump out one decent SF novel a year or a couple of YA/Teen novels.
And I haven’t…why?
Because I like blogging, I like interacting with people in the blogosphere and, if you must know, I think I have “something to say”.
My next question though is this: if I REALLY wanted to write novels, then what do I think I’m trying to do blogging so much?
Your thoughts?
Image: http://www.ariionkathleenbrindley.com/old-man-at-computer.jpg
3 comments:
A science teacher is asking why he seeks immediate gratification over a greater amount delayed gratification? I hope that's rhetorical, because my response was. And glib. And uses prepositions to end sentences with.
Well, I'm not sure what to say, because I'm trying to do both. I started blogging to have a record of our family life and to get practice writing something every day and trying to make it interesting. I think the discipline of writing daily has been a good one. (I also have to smaller blogs where I post much less often.) But for me, the routine of writing my blog every day made it easier for me to add writing fiction too. I am finishing my fourth novel and getting ready to start my fifth.
Mike: I know -- the effort of writing along with dealing with my wife's cancer made me a bit...dark when I wrote this. I ain't stoppin' -- it was just time to reflect. As to ending sentences with prepositions: I have to decide whether I want to sound pompous or "real". Considering the place I teach, "real" seems the better choice to write with. (;-))
Linda: Yeah, I am, too -- that's why I started noticing my "project writing" count was dropping and my "blog writing" was increasing. I NEED to increase my PROJECT words. But what gives?
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