How Many Words Do You Write?

The author John Braine once said, "A writer is someone who counts words."

Do you?

You should - because it's a sure fire way of getting around writer's block -and a good way of keeping yourself on track.

Having specific word counts to aspire to, will keep you writing more - and for longer. 

You'll have more to show for your efforts, more to submit, and consequently more work coming in. 

Your writing success is directly correlated to your word count.

Last night I was talking to a writer - well, someone who wanted to be a full time writer - and she told me she'd taken a year to get to her manuscript to where it was now. 

I asked, casually of course, how many words she'd written so far.

"Four thousand," she said. 

Four thousand! 

G'ah - that's less than eleven words a day - what's she doing, I thought, chiseling them in stone?

By stunning contrast, Robyn held the whip to me yesterday (metaphorically speaking) and I produced 2500 words for a treatment we have to get to a producer by 5pm today. 

And I did that between 10am and 2pm - taking a break to make lunch - because I had to pick up the kids at 3. 

Talk about pressure!

But that's the point. 

If you don't pressure yourself, you ain't never gonna have enough words down to make you a contenda (to mis-quote Marlon Brando in 'On the Waterfront'!)

Writing something every day is important. 

Pushing your limit is important too. 

It doesn't matter if you start out writing just eleven words a day - as long as you consciously try and increase that amount as each day passes.

I try to write - actually try is not the word, have to write would be more truthful - at least 500 words a day or I feel bad, like I've failed in some unannounced contest. 

2000 words and I feel good- complete somehow.

Which means that I could have written my friend's manuscript in two days - rather than take a year over it.

I know this is common among writers.

People call themselves writers because they have a writing project on the boil - whether they're actually working on it actively or not. 

I used to do this too. 

I felt like a writer because I had a novel that I would dip into every now and then. 

I spent years like this, believing myself a writer because I wrote sometimes.

Now I know different. 

Writing for a living means exactly what the phrase suggests: you write because you have to live, and you live to write. 

Writing becomes the center of your life - and you make a living from it!

The whole idea of that seemed like a fantasy before I took the plunge - before I realized I just had to let go of the silly 9 to5. 

Before I realized that holding on to a false sense of security was wasting my time - time that could be better spent being a writer.

This would be my advice to you:

Don't wait, plan, and dream about being a writer. Just do it.

Take the chance - we're only here once, our lives are on loan.

Do what makes you happy.

Reject compromise. 

Reject criticism. 

Reject everything and everyone who would want to see you live a lesser life.

Simply, write, and...

Keep Writing!

© Rob Parnell

Writing the Big Scenes in Fiction

Let me ask you a question.

Do you avoid / dread / loathe writing the big scenes in your fiction?

Over the years I've noticed one of two things.

One, the writer is so nervous about writing the big important scenes that they will subconsciously avoid them by taking ages over getting to them.

Here's how it goes.

There's a crucial scene in the story where there's a confrontation or a climactic event - and the writer is creeping up towards it, filling the pages with exposition and preparatory dialogue - only to freeze just before 'the big scene' and put off writing anymore - sometimes for months or, in some cases, years.

The other scenario involves glossing over that part of the story. You'll often see writers fill pages with the run up to the big event - all good showing instead of telling and yet, when it comes to 'the big scene' it's told from a distance or from an uninvolved point of view or, most commonly, in retrospect, after the event.

This might seem strange, though it's fairly common.

It's kinda related to what I've talked about often - the idea that writers are sometimes afraid to confront their own deepest emotions. I think that in the same way most sane people avoid confrontation, writers will avoid opening themselves up to a challenge.

Climactic set pieces make very compelling reading. Writers are often judged by their ability to pull them off - and perhaps that's the problem. Writers don't want to be judged by writing that is focussed, action based and as graphic as an open wound.

We'd prefer to hide behind the relative comfort of internal dialogue, character exposition and literary description. 

Mistake!

'Big scenes' normally involve heightened emotion - something not all writers are comfortable describing - because I assume they're worried that their particular experience of heightened emotion seems so personal - even private.

But that's the point. Readers want to know what other people's heightened emotions are like!

They want to experience the thrill of adventure, danger, risk, marriage, death, murder and the myriad of other BIG emotions any one of us may fall victim to.

It's important not to shy away from the challenging - in life and your writing. 

Challenging yourself makes you grow - gain wisdom and lead a more fulfilling life.

You don't have to drive Speedway cars to describe the thrill of it. You can use your imagination - that's what it's for - and describe what you feel for the benefit of readers.

In a sense that's your job - to give a reader the experience of 'being there' without them having to leave their armchair.

You owe it to your readers to confront the big scenes.

As an exercise, try writing JUST big scenes - especially if you're a little afraid of them. I think you'll find that they're very satisfying to complete, even if they might take just a little longer to get right.

Get straight into the action. Keep the sentences relatively short and describe ONLY what is happening.

I'm sure you'll benefit - and so will your readers.

Keep Writing!

© Rob Parnell

Writing and New Year Beginnings

I don't know what happens in your part of the world but here, in Australia, January is to be dreaded and feared - it is a time of drought (intellectually and literally) and of waste (creatively and literally). But what brings about this most tragic and frustrating of times?

Gah! The school holidays.

For reasons unclear and lost, society has deemed that children cannot concentrate for long periods. They apparently have difficulty on a day to day basis, consequently their working days must be kept inconveniently short. But this inability to stay focused apparently also dictates that they get 12 to 16 weeks of holidays a year - much to the chagrin the parents that end up having to look after them.

Far be it from me to suggest that this situation is perpetuated and encouraged by teachers - who just coincidentally benefit from these arrangements - when the rest of us are lucky to get a measly two weeks in the sun. I wouldn't be so mean to suggest that teachers as a race would deliberately want to burden parents. No, that would be unkind. Teachers do a very good job - ahem, when they're doing it!

During periods not assigned to school holidays, we have this bizarre situation where working people have to either:

1) leave work early to pick up their kids (thereby losing pay or incurring the boss's wrath on a daily basis) or,

2) put them in after hours care where they invariably sit and watch TV for two hours, waiting for their parents to finish work.

Wouldn't it be better for everyone if the school day was 9 to 5? 

I'm sure the requisite amount of 'lack of concentration time' could be built into this system - and make everybody's lives easier.

Teachers, too. who always complain they have extra work to do (welcome to the reality of everyone's modern workday) could perhaps use this extra time during the day to mark that homework and assist with childcare - thereby making everybody happy.

(Just a thought - I'm jesting of course. Teachers really do a very, very good job...)

But I guess all this is academic for Robyn and I, who don't have 9 to 5 jobs. 

No, we work from home, which means, you guessed it, when the kids are on holiday, we get precisely nothing done.

The boys, bless them, go back to school eventually and Robyn and I finally get some time to catch up on work that has been on hold for the entire six weeks of the summer vacation (it's summer here over Xmas in Australia remember?)

So we've been making lists of stalled projects, things to do and wish lists - trying desperately to make up for this creative hole in the year.

We're not doing too bad. At least the break gave me time to realize I need to re-prioritize some of my work. That fiction writing and mentoring are probably more important activities than mindless web surfing, for instance.

That, even if one screenplay has been stalled by liars and thieves masquerading as film producers, then that's no reason to stop putting together other film projects (we currently have another five in development between us).

That allocating my time more efficiently is probably the best way for me to catch up on email, writing lessons and creating new courses. Oh, and being far more organized about my Writing Academy newsletters - which always seem to fall behind in the great scheme of things called "My Life and Other Dilemmas".

What about you?

Are you getting to grips with the things you want to do this year?

It's important to stay focused. It's too easy to get caught up in the day to day stuff and forget you have a duty to propel yourself forward - physically and creatively.

If you don't consciously force yourself to plan, make time and work on your goals and dreams, it's effortlessly simple to let them remain dormant and at the end of the decade, wonder where all the time went.

At least there's one good thing about an enforced break (which in reality is what the school holidays become.) When it's over, I find myself raring to get back to my normal life - one where I can take back control of my days and do something worthwhile.

We love them of course but children really are the greatest time wasters, don't you think?

I suppose we did get to go to the beach often, play lots of fun games and catch up on numerous episodes of Ben 10.

But, let's face it, we'd sooner be writing!

© Rob Parnell