Short story. Over the early pandemic I joined a writing group to produce one of the many, many, many lockdown novels that were created during that time frame. I started it as a part of the NaNoWriMo challenge (writing 50,000 words in November) and eventually self-published the final version on Kindle six months later.
In order to complete the challenge you have to write around 1667 words per day. Some can stick to it, some start slow and then write in bulk near the end, some do the opposite and some give up.
Did I stick to 1667 words per day? Of course not.
Below is my daily word tally for the rough draft. The lowest days are around 400 words and one of the highest is around 4000.
I did the challenge a second time a month later, in order to complete the rewrite, this was the world tally.
Definitely a larger range of highs and lows and some days I didn’t write a single word. However, I know that every day I at least opened my laptop and looked.
Before the writing group started the challenge, there was an initial meeting to discuss strategies and share tips and tricks. Something someone said stuck out to me. This person talked about how they’d started exercising and how trying to stick to the writing challenge felt similar.
They had an exercise schedule that they committed to doing every day, there were some days they could push themselves to go further, some days where they’d do less and some days where they wouldn’t do anything at all.
However, no matter what they would at least stand on the mat. That’s it. They’d get the mat out, stand on it and then put the mat away. It allowed them not to lose the habit of the routine. Even if they weren’t initially feeling it, just by getting on the mat, it sometimes motivated them to do something and even if it didn’t, at least they got on the mat.
They wouldn’t focus on trying to hit the goal of 1667 words every day, they’d do what they could.
I carried that with me during the challenge and there were days where I wasn’t feeling it, but by at least opening a new chapter or looking at an old one, as I did every day, sometimes I’d be able to just start writing. And even when I didn't, that'd be ok too, since I knew I’d be back tomorrow.
Obviously, my current goal of writing an article once per week is a lot less strenuous. It's a goal I’ll stick to until the next one comes along. Some days I open my word processor, pop in a title and then think, “nah”. Then the next day I do the same thing and I can put together something new. Sometimes I write a lot, sometimes I write a little, sometimes I write nothing at all.
Anyway, that’s kind of what spawned this article. It wasn’t the one I wanted to write this week, but I couldn’t think of the words for that one. Perhaps I will the next week, or the week after, or maybe I’ll never think of them at all. However, popping something like this down allowed me to stick with the habit.
Now, I don’t know if I’ll ever publish a blank article…
But yea. This is me, getting on the mat.
Top comments (5)
Heck yeah, good on you for keeping it up!
This really reminds me of a convo that I had with a community member recently about it taking discipline to write regularly. Here it is:
I think we probs agree more than we disagree, but I'd argue that it takes discipline to build a healthy habit like writing.
For instance, I'm in the habit of drinking coffee every day, but it really doesn't take much work for me to make myself coffee each morning.
Writing a post is bit tougher than most habits but it does get easier the more you do it and you generally get better the more you do it. That's why I think it takes more discipline than it is just a regular habit.
It's more like going to the gym to me than drinking coffee.
Haha, granted I realize you referred to the act of regularly writing as a "habit" multiple times in this post which is a bit counter to what I said, but I think that's just semantics really. I think we ultimately look at it the same way! (And while I debated choice of words there, "habit" is a fine description in my mind. 😀)
Personally, I need to get myself disciplined and in the habit of creating music more regularly. The more you show up and "get on the mat" the better the results.
On this note, I still need to read Malcom Gladwell's Outliers which talks about experience being the major key to success.
Heya! Thanks for giving my article a read and for the insightful comment! And yea, I think my definition of habit is just something you do regularly. Though there is the definition where it's done without you even realising your doing it, or need to do it, like smoking or something along those lines.
I actually dabbled in music making, though I found it difficult to make music for the sake of music there always needed to be a purpose behind it. Like, if I was making it for a podcast or a D&D campaign or something like that. Otherwise, I just couldn't sit down to do it.
So yea, it's definitely a struggle I can empathise with. What aspect of making music regularly do you find difficult?
First off, making music for a D&D campaign sounds like such a fun idea! I'm a relatively new D&Der but we've been having folks come to our place to play once a month for the past few months and I love it... I might have to follow your lead and see if I can make something for our next session.
On another note, you reminded me that I previously made a theme song for a podcast at my last job (this podcast for DZone). I remember trying to channel the Nintendo Wii when making this beat, haha! It's just a loop, so kinda bland...
My biggest issue is probably that I play often enough but rarely record and when I do, it's typically lofi cell phone recordings. But, I really need to get in the habit of recording all my stuff using true recording equipment — because not only is it fun to have it, but also listening back I can more easily learn what I need to improve upon! Another other issue that I have is I frequently won't learn a song start to finish 😅 — I'll jam on little fragments and/or forget lyrics, haha. I also just like to pick up a guitar (or hop on my synths) and improvise... it's fun, but I need to be more disciplined and focused about learning good technique and recording myself once I find something particularly cool. And then, I need to go back to those recordings (drafts) and work'em out into a full song. I kinda have musical ADD... I like to listen to everything (check out this Music Monday series I've been writing) and am not shy about trying to play different genres that may be outside of my comfort zone. That's how I ended up hopping between guitar, synths, and drum machines without really mastering anything, haha!
To give you a sense, here's a lofi (cell phone recording) of a folky/bluesy acoustic song I'm writing called 6 Sailors. Here's a kinda silly acapella funk song that I was making up the other day (I plan to go back with friends and figure out instrumentation for it — typical, haha!). Also, here's a trip-hop sorta beat I was working on using my OP-1 synth... sadly I think you have to download it, so no worries if ya don't wanna.
You got your music posted anywhere? I'd love to check it out!
Thanks for sharing your music and good luck with the campaign music! I used to mainly do one-shots instead of campaigns since, as a DM, it made organising it a bit easier.
In reference to having many ideas but not finishing them, I actually encountered that with writing too. Before doing the NaNoWriMo challenge, I think a few months before that I started penning a book that didn't get anywhere. I remember looking online for 'average fantasy book length' and saw 80,000 words. So, for my first attempt I thought I'd need to write something 80,000 words long.
I reached 10,000 words and the main character still hadn't left the boat that they had gotten on in the first chapter. (I think I hit 10,000 by chapter 3) It was meant to be a world-spanning epic, that would involve relics from the past, time manipulation and a vast cast of characters. Lol. Literally nothing had been progressed for 10,000 words, except some backstory. It felt too massive and I gave it up.
When I stumbled across the writing group who was doing the challenge I debated about 'cheating' and using the 10,000 words I'd written and pushing forward with that. But, instead I started again. (Still, kept the main characters name because I like it). This was because of one other piece of advice I picked up from the group. (Or from someone I don't remember lol)
It was general writing advice, since some members of the group were not doing the challenge and were just writing. Anyway, they said to write your story until you start to lose interest and then check your word count. It could be at 100 words, 1000 words or even 10,000. As soon as you feel the itch to start to move on and not continue, that's your current limit. Then, using your limit, try to write and complete something that is only that long.
It doesn't matter if your finished story is 'only' 100 words, what's more important is that you finished it. It's no longer something you'll get back to and you don't feel too bad about losing focus or moving on, since it's already done.
After you've finished a few stories, your limit might increase and now you have a backlog of 'finished' projects to prove to yourself, that yes, you can complete things.
I 'sorta' did that for the initial challenge. Each day I'd switch to a completely new chapter regardless of where I was in the previous one and try to write a '1667' word 'story', that just so happened to connect to the previous 'stories'.
If it felt I'd only be able to hit 500 words, I'd wrap up the chapter and move to the next one the following day. Instead of being stuck on a 4000 word 'chapter 1', I had a 400 word 'chapter 23' and kept making more chapters every day until the challenge was done. I felt more confident I could keep writing chapters, as I'd already written over 20.
Though to tack on to the above, you have to define what 'finished' is to you. For me, the book being self-published on Kindle was 'finished' for me, but I did the chapter stuff initially just so I could get the words down before cleaning everything up.
I was reminded of this because of your acapella, I was thinking that it could technically be a 43 second song. That's still a finished song. Then you could move onto 'version 2' or something along those lines. The finished version doesn't need to be perfect it just needs to be 'finished'.
Anyway, sorry for the tangent. I will promptly remove the soap box xD. But it sounds like your having fun so I wouldn't worry too much about stuff. It's just I've bumped into a lot of people, me included, that seem to be down on themselves since they don't finish off their ideas, so I guess I kinda 'cheat' by just making the finish line a lot closer and easier to reach.
Anywho, I created this temporary drive with some of my D&D music it's ambience/combat music. There's a video in there called 'dnd_empire_raid_final_cut' which shows off how I used the 'Urgent Stroll' track in an old YouTube video. Though you may need to get past some of my voice acting.
Have a cool weekend!
P.S (It's electronic music, I'm not actually playing any of the instruments)
Such an awesome response. No need to apologize or get off the soap box — stay on the soapbox, haha! Honestly, I so appreciate it.
Thanks for sharing a different perspective on what it means to finish something. Sometimes I can have a bit of imposter syndrome about my music and be a bit reticent to share something that I don't feel like is polished or complete enough. But, I think you're absolutely right that a finished product doesn't have to be perfect — there are no rules for what a complete song is! And I am indeed having fun with it! 😀
Also, thanks for sharing your D&D tracks! I'm siked for the voice acting, haha. And, I can definitely get down with electronic music. I'll check it out shortly.
You have a good weekend as well! 🙌