In reply to Lynelle Paulick.

Happy holidays to you too! I keep wondering when I’m going to run into your relatives here in town, and whether I should say anything if I do.

Thank you again for all the kind words. I’m a little torn, ’cause yeah: control’s mostly an illusion. That said, though, I think we can learn to do certain things better than we currently do. In fact I’m convinced of it. The question is whether it’s useful to try to get better at producing fiction on…dare I say it…a schedule? I say yes. Though I do value inspiration, I note that waiting for it to appear and ring a bell is a dangerous practice–and also that I seem to get better access to inspiration whilst my fingers are a-typing.

I’ve had days where I went on long walks, or even long pacing sessions, or runs, or…well, leg motion is the thing. Moving my legs (and feet, come to think of it, and thus the rest of me) certainly helps with big-picture thinking. But as far as designing/building/writing scenes goes, so far I get better results as I move my upper digits. I come up with all sorts of stuff. Occasionally a big-picture notion surfaces from the fingerfroth, and I’m trying to simply write “blah” and add a note about it, then keep going. Folding it all together is for later.

I can’t swear it’ll work in the long run. So far it’s been really interesting, though…

-D

In reply to William Ockham.

An interesting point of view–I know you hang out on some cool blogs, and I’ve noticed you write well, and I’ve wondered whether you had a semi-secret identity as a writer of fiction too. Which would be cool, because generally those of us who so create create the least-secret identity we can manage in the hope that someone, somewhere, will care. But I’m guessing at this point that you probably don’t indulge. (Though I’d be happy to read the results if I’m wrong, or if you change your mind!)

I agree with a lot of what you wrote, but the thing is…my goal was to find a way to write new fiction on a consistent basis, and secondarily to write a lot of it quickly. Since I already failed spectacularly and often at using “word count” as a goal, PWC is most likely not useful in that particular context.

That said, I really like your point about the purpose of editing. I even think I agree with it, though I’d never reached that level of clarity beforehand.

FWIW, consider this: editing, and whipping a story into shape, are relatively easy work when compared to getting a first draft out. I’m not saying they don’t require skill, knowledge, concentration, and effort–I’m saying I can do them in a crowded room while intermittently participating in a conversation and halfway watching a movie. I figure this is likely the result of decades of business/technical/ad-copy writing and editing.

Whereas the first-draft thing requires me (so far) to be by myself, and typing. Momentum is hard to get going, and is far too easily interrupted. Which probably means I’m stretching my brain to be able to write fiction at all, and I hope to achieve a greater degree of competence and a lesser degree of dependence on my physical/emotional surroundings and distractions–but I ain’t there yet, so…this post was about something I’m trying to increase my ability to generate first drafts.

More on this in a post to follow. {8’>

Hi there, buddy. Well, I haven’t “missed” your posts, per se, because if they’re not around, I fail to remember they are supposed to show up…sorryyy. Anyway, your idea of the Klingon font is brilliant. Didn’t read the other comments, but hopefully someone else said that too! Also–I sit on a ball as well!!! Made by Gaiam.com; I can only use it about 2 hours a day, though, or my hip flexors get all stretched out and messed up and I feel like an injury is coming on. Weird, but a good back straightener/balancer for a couple of hours, no doubt!

I could get all philosophical and go on about the idiocy of thinking one has so much control over bloody Anything, like thinking that consistency of effort is a linear event such that all segments are equally distributed. Painful BS. Reading some of the un-named writing gurus who propound the getting over of Resistance, always written as a capped term, annnnnd what YOU can do about it…makes me want to puke. Being on a set schedule is an oxymoron for creativity. Inspiration–of course, this is merely my opinion and my reality–is the only fitting bedfellow of creativity. And we all hate that, of course, because it is Freaking Not in One’s Control, whether one LIKES IT OR NOT. Yes, I’m yelling. Today is not a great day, as in, I’m (obviously) in a bad mood. But I’d say it again. And again. It’s a lie and a misconception. And it makes otherwise healthy, creative individuals insane.

And there you have it. How many words was that?

I love your intelligence, David, and I enjoy reading your comments. And the parts about software you add on are totally appreciated because of your ability to synthesize ideas. Not especially common, I don’t find.

So, thanks. Happy holidays.

[Warning for others, I’m assuming some familiarity with software development methodology terms. Some of the words may not mean what you think they mean.]

Let’s recast this as a story production process. I think that helps us with the definition of done. A story is done when it is publishable. I would argue that this means that you shouldn’t focus on word count, but rather publishable word count (PWC). You won’t know (at least in the beginning) what the PWC for a particular Pomodoro is and that’s fine. You would initially likely track PWC as a monthly metric. The only thing that is important about it is the direction of the change. Your goal should be to increase your PWC/month.

When I think about it this way, I think it is obvious that everyone is doing it wrong with respect to editing. People think the primary (sole?) goal of editing is to improve the story being edited. The primary goal of editing should be to improve your writing, i.e. help you learn to avoid the mistakes identified. Feedback from an editor should trigger a retrospective where you develop a plan for eliminating the cause of the identified error(s).

Therefore, don’t worry about increasing your typing speed until you can consistently create 60 PWPM (publishable words per minute). Otherwise you are just increasing your risk of repetitive stress injury.

Are you familiar with John Boyd’s OODA loop? You should be trying to shorten the loop for your writing. The easiest way to do that is to have a process that minimizes the decisions you need to make while you are producing a story. You want to line up any external resources and make sure they are committed to your goals before you start writing.

Each time a story is done, take the opportunity to reexamine your process and think of ways to improve it. Figure out what your impediments are and prioritize them on a “most bang for the buck” scale, i.e. the ones with the most return for the effort invested.

[…] read an interesting blog post by David Haywood Young a couple of days ago and saved it in Evernote to read again when I could, […]

In reply to ShellB.

Thanks! Glad you liked it. Sometimes I’m laughing over here and it seems like nobody notices. Of course it’s barely possible that I’m not always as funny as I think I am. {8’>

Hi David! I enjoyed this post! I find your humor so uuhmm funny! Just wanted to say that I will buy whatever you’re selling in whatever time it becomes available. I love your writing!