Saturday, January 14, 2017
Gischler's first blog post of 2017
So I'm pulling together some thoughts from a previous blog post and some stuff I was talking about on Facebook ...
I mentioned before that I'd created a lot of stress for myself by not saying NO to offers of work. I mean, when you pay the bills as a freelance writer, you never know where that next paycheck is coming from, so you take all the work you can get. The result is that there was a time I was juggling a lot of comic book and novel projects and just simply burning myself out. I felt pretty frazzled. I'm at the point now where I'm doing less, balancing things better, and this situation has led me to be more disciplined about sitting down every day and routinely hitting my word-count goals with seeming ease.
The appropriate reaction to the above revelation is "No shit, Sherlock."
I guess hindsight really is 20-20 because I find myself wondering why I haven't been doing this all along. It's early in 2017 and I have a thriller due in March. There was a time I might have been worried about that. No longer. At a thousand words a day (the minimum goal I've set for myself ... I write more if the flow is good) it's not a problem, and I know it's not a problem because the math is so simple even I can do it. I've built in a certain number of "life gets in the way" days, but other than that the strategy is ridiculously simple, sit down and write and do not stop until you get those thousand words. Period. Well, yes, I can get up to go to the bathroom or make another pot of coffee, but you know what I mean. In the swirling chaotic vortex my life had become juggling so many deadlines on multiple projects I'd forgotten this simple process: Sit down at computer. Write. Wake up the next day and repeat.
The most embarrassing thing, I suppose, is that I'd forgotten the advice I'd given to so many others. A pal of mine made a spreadsheet to keep track of our words during an informal NaNoWriMo contest. The simple act of looking at the small word count each day but then seeing how it all added up at the end of the month made me rediscover the cliche but true bumper sticker advice that slow and steady wins the race.
So when I turn in my novel in March, I'll probably give myself a week of beer swilling and TV binge watching and generally not writing. But then I'll be right back to work, a thousand words a day. If I can't knock out two more novels in 2017, then I'm not doing it right.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
First comment!
Setting a goal and achieving it are two separate things. And it’s true that we put ourselves in stressful situations sometimes for nothing. Good luck for your thousand words a day
STOCK EXCHANGE GENIUS AND VERY BRAVE CIVIL HERO MICHELE NISTA (MICHELENISTA6@MAIL.COM PH NR + 44 (0) 7939508007)! HE GET IT RIGHT ON WORLDWIDE STOCKS, CURRENCIES & COMMODITIES ALWAYS! ABOUT 5000 PREDICTIONS ON INTERNET SINCE 9.2007: 5000 SUCCESS! 100% SHOCKING WINNING SCORE!!! GENIUS, KING MIDAS, CIVIL HERO MICHELE NISTA (MICHELENISTA6@MAIL.COM PH NR + 44 (0) 7939508007)! ADVANCED IN EXTREMELY PERFECT WAY THE CONTINUOUS WALL STREET CRASH OF 1987 ( AND HE WAS, MORE OR LESS, JUST 20, AT THE TIME)! AS THE ONE OF 2007, 2008 AND BEGINNING OF 2009 WITH "JUST" 1 AND HALF YEAR OF INCREDIBLY WINNING FORETASTE! GENIUS, KING MIDAS, CIVIL HERO MICHELE NISTA (MICHELENISTA6@MAIL.COM PH NR + 44 (0) 7939508007)!AVDANCED IN EXTREMELY PERFECT WAY, THEN, THE MORE OF DOUBLING OF WALL STREET, SINCE 3.2009! HE PROPHESIED ALL THIS ON INTERNET, AGAIN, WITH MONTHS AND MONTHS AND MONTHS IN ADVANCE! ALL AT FANTASTIC LIGHT OF SUNSHINE!!! ALL PROVABLE AND VISIBLE STILL NOW!!! GENIUS, KING MIDAS, CIVIL HERO MICHELE NISTA (MICHELENISTA6@MAIL.COM PH NR + 44 (0) 7939508007)! WAS "ONE OF THE NUMBER ONES" OF ITALIAN STOCK EXCHANGE, IN THE 90S, PRODUCING OVER 10 MILIONS OF EUROS OF COMMISSIONS OF THE 90S ( SO, 15 MILIONS OF NOW), FROM BELOW ZERO: WAS THE ABSOLUTE IDOL OF GOLDMAN SACHS, MERRILL LYNCH, AND NEARLY ANY "FOR GOOD" INVESTMENT BANK IN THE WORLD! THAT'S WHY EVERYONE WAS GIVING HIM AND STILL GIVE HIM THE NICK OF KING MIDAS! INGENIOUS HERO MICHELE NISTA HAS A GREAT HEART TOO, "NOT JUST" A SORT OF INVINCIBLE INTUITION! HE DEDICATES, SINCE HE WAS 17, ALL HIS GIFTS OF HEAVEN HE HAS TO POOREST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD, VOLUNTEERING AND NOT ONLY, FOR MANY ORGANIZATIONS SAVING OR IMPROVING SUFFERING LIVES IN LATIN AMERICA AND AFRICA. HE IS CERTAINLY A CIVIL INCORRUPTIBLE HERO TOO! IN THE LAST 21 YEARS, IN MILAN, WAS THE MOST TENACIOUS MAN HUNTING TO DESTROY THE ASSASSIN DICTATORSHIP OF MAFIOSO, MEGA MAFIA MONEY LAUNDERER, EXTREME NAZIFASCIST, LIAR, MEGA THIEF, CORRUPTING PIG, PRINCIPAL OF HUNDREDS OF MURDERS AND SLAUGHTERS, VERY ASCERTAINED PEDOPHILE SILVIO BERLUSCONI! FOR ALL THIS, THERE WERE FOUR ATTEMPTS OF KILLING HIM, ORDERED BY BASTARD SANGUINARY, AS WELL AS METASTASES OF THE ENTIRE WORLD: SILVIO BERLUSCONI!!! AND HIS FATHER LOST LIFE ON ORDER OF NAZIFASCIST AND COSA NOSTRA'S BRUTAL, VICIOUS, CRUEL, FEROCIOUS PRINCIPAL OF KILLING SILVIO BERLUSCONI ( MAKING SHREWDLY TO PASS, VIA HIS PRIVATE OR PUBLIC NEW "OVRA, GESTAPO AND DINA" AL HIS ABSOLUTE REPELLENT HINDREDS OF HOMICIDES FOR FALSE ACCIDENTS, FALSE SUICIDES, FALSE ILLNESS, ALL THE TIMES)! AS A MATTER OF FACT, GENIUS, KING MIDAS, DEMOCRAT HERO MICHELE NISTA (MICHELENISTA6@MAIL.COM PH NR + 44 (0) 7939508007) " DECIDED TO EMIGRATE" TO LONDON, ON 2003, TO REMAIN ALIVE!! BUT GOD, IF HE'LL CONTINUE TO DESERVE SO, WILL MAKE HIM WIN!!! GROUP OF FRIENDS AND CLIENTS, EXTREMELY GRATEFUL TO THIS KING MIDAS, TO THIS INGENIOUS AND CIVIL HERO OF OUR TIMES (MICHELENISTA6@MAIL.COM PH NR + 44 (0) 7939508007)!
Post a Comment