Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Slow Progress

Today, so far, I have written one word in a story. One word. And I didn't even increase the word count of that story. I changed a word.

I changed "quietly" to "suspiciously."

It's an adverb for God's sake! Adverbs are second-rate words in the first place. Who the hell needs adverbs anyway, especially dumb, pulpy adverbs like "suspiciously!?"

I'm already thinking of going and deleting it. At least that would double today's progress-- sort of.

Saturday, October 22, 2005

What to Write, What to Write

Ah, yes, nothing is probably the correct answer. If I just write whatever crap comes into my head when I have a free moment you will just get a rambling stream of crap.

Deciding what to write seems to be the hardest thing for me. Make that second hardest. The hardest thing is dealing with the ongoing doubt that whatever I finally decide to write is a worthy topic to write about. This wouldn't be much of a problem if I was in the swift tribe, but I am not. It takes me a month or two, maybe three, to write a few thousand words. During those long weeks, every time I sit down to try and write, the nagging doubts come to visit: Is this really worth writing? Do I really want to keep writing this? Maybe if I did something else it would be easier.

Luckily, although I pretend to be morose, I am a terrible optimist. I can usually convince myself that I want to keep writing. Which is what I am doing now (not with this post, but with a story I'm trying to write).

In other news, I believe I have discovered a use for blogs: They can be used to keep writers from writing books about writers who can't think of something to write. Instead, the writers can write about not writing in their blogs, and save us all the trouble of reading about how writers can't write. Unless you read writers' blogs, but then it's your own damn fault now isn't it?