Day Eight: Let's Mix Things Up

One week of writing down, three more to go. In today's picture (on the right), I am holding up one of the writing prompt cards that come with the kit. There is one card per day, some with very practical tips to help you with your writing, while others have inspirational ideas to get you in the writing mood. One of favorite cards thus far, whose advise I am trying to take to heart each day, says the following:

"Writing a novel is like working with clay. You first create a rough shape, then massage that shape into something beautiful, such as an ashtray or a fearsome army of worms. Unlike potters, though, who can simply buy clay at the art supply store, novelists have to pull off the supernatural feat of creating their clay with their minds. It's an amazing accomplishment, really, and it's also why postponing judgment of your work until the end of the first draft is so important."

What this means to me is I need to make a lot of literary clay. Therefore, I am making the executive decision to push my daily word goal up to 2000 words a day. I get the feeling that these four weeks of writing are like blasting my way into a mountain side, fashioning serviceable tunnels, and mining as many words out of my head as I possibly can. After that, when the editing process comes along, I'll be doing some old fashioned river panning, sifting through the dirt, looking for the gems to build around. Ha! Something like that. Today's word counts are:

New Daily Goal: 2000

Daily Word Count: 3062

Surplus/Deficit: +1062

J.W.B.: 3241

Today's excerpt:

"He really needed to try him some of that therapy he kept hearing all about. But this was his therapy, and had been for years, and this big old truck everyone told him he needed to ditch was his very own therapist. They would ride and talk for hours, she’d listen to him sing songs he had no business singing, she’d wait patiently when he did not say anything at all for hours, and to her it was not strange when he would find a conservative preacher on the radio station, hack and scoff at much of what was said, but still leave it on for long periods of time. She did not find it strange that there in that truck was where he most believed in God, where he tried and did talk to God most often. He would not abandon that truck until she abandoned him, and when that happened, though no one would understand, and he would not ask them to, he would miss her. She took him to the good times and to the bad times, and took him through them all."

And a special treat since it's Friday.