Pedal to the Metal—or—Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Day one 3500

Day two 4000

Day three 3000

Day four 3800

Day five…oops that's today. And I'm writing this before…today. So, assuming I continue on tomorrow at my current pace (Saturday is going to be tough-busy day-but I'm going to try) I'll have 17,500 words written on my book by the end of BIAW. Normally, I'd have 5,000 total.

That's me. Slow and Steady Wins the Race. Yeah, I know, the tortoise, same body type as me. Yeesh.

But this week, I've been trying it a different way. Volume, volume, volume. No, I can't quite manage to turn off my internal editor. I just can't. In that I seem to be The Little Train That Couldn't.

Another fairy tale reference. Maybe I'll get to Sleeping Beauty eventually.

It's that kind of week I guess, I'm everything that is literary thanks to my glut of writing.

So what's the RIGHT way to write? The longer I'm in this writing game, the more I finding out that there are a LOT of ways to write a book. I talked to a lady once who wrote her book from the middle out. I know lots of authors who write scenes then switching those scenes until they’ve got a story laid out. This amazes me.

I start at the beginning and write through to the end. How dull. How linear. I am mostly a SOTPs author (seat of the pants) but I think a lot of the terms we have for writing styles is an attempt to put into words something that's really HARD to put into words. We're always trying to teach classes or write books on the craft.

But how do we explain exactly how to set a scene?

How do we explain why we picked a character for a POV scene?

It's just hard to explain is all, because there are so many different ways to do it, and a lot of times I think the WORDS we use to explain are different but the meaning is the same. So we get in these little debates about Seat of the Pants versus Plotting. But honestly, I think most people plot their books out at least somewhat beforehand. And I think most plotters often abandon their plots and follow the story if it leads elsewhere. So plotters or pansters? More alike than we want to admit.

Is your book character driven or story driven. Well, to me, the two are so intertwined you’ve just got to have both. So it’s BOTH driven. No one is teaching that class.

Internal and external conflict. Your story needs to have both. But to me internal conflict is character. External conflict is story. So those words aren’t exactly accurate either.

So this week on Seekerville, we've been trying to encourage everyone to go along for a wild ride and really WRITE THAT BOOK. We’re not talking about HOW to do it. The CRAFT of doing it. We’re just saying DO IT. WRITE!

And in the end, that's what it all boils down to. Write and keep writing. If you want to be a writer…write. I heard someone say once that of the people who say they're writers, only about 20% ever actually finish a book. None of that here at Seekerville of course. We've got serious writers hanging around here.
Well, except I write comedy, but serious except for the jokes.

But if that statistic is true, then just writing, hitting those keyboards, finishing that book, puts you ahead of 80% of the crowd. YAY!

I can't tell you how many people come up to me and say, "I think I've got a book in me." "I want to write a book someday." Or some variation on that. I had someone—an older man, tell me once he had this great story he always told to his kids at bedtime. And he was going to write it one of these days and it'd fund his retirement. No, I did NOT laugh in his face. I said, "Write it and let me have a look. I can tell you where it fits in the market and where you could send it. Get some addresses for you."

He said he would. I don't think he will.

A writer writes and this week, all you wonderful Seekervillians, all you gung ho SBIAW participants, have been writers.

THANK YOU FOR BEING PART OF SBIAW.

Now, don't let up. All this writing…we want to hear how it came out. The books you've pushed toward completion, the books you've started, let us know. Let us cheer lead. Tell us today in the comment section what you've gotten done this week… YOU ARE ALL A BUNCH OF BIG SHOT WRITERS, YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.maryconnealy.com/