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On Writing, Word Counts, and Motivation

I am not an author. What I am is an aspiring author, someone who has hopes of having a career as an author, where people pay me money in exchange for my stories. Right now, what I have is a completed novel that has so far earned me .45 cents and some outlines of stories in various stages of completion.

And you know what? That is completely fine, Rome was neither built nor burned in a day. What I am trying to chart on this blog is the path that I follow on my way to whatever success I eventually wind up with, and to be an encouragement to anyone else out here who is trying to get off the ground, same as I am.

Currently, I am an S List novelist, based on Larry Correia's Offical Alphabetical List of Author Success, which he defined as:

S List – The Struggling
Authors who’ve written something, but haven’t had any luck selling it yet.
Authors with the most incredibly frustrating job in the universe.
The Future of Writing.

That's actually very encouraging because it gives me a target and a measure of what levels of success look like. And I always like a target to aim for. Right now my aim is to crawl up the list to M Level, hopefully skipping a few steps on the way.
M List –  I AM THE KING OF THE WORLD!  =$$
Authors who’ve published a book or something.
Authors who sit in front of their computer, compulsively hitting Refresh over and over to see their Amazon ranking like one of those perpetual motion bird toys. Peck. Peck. Peck.
Authors who collect royalties sufficient to eat out once in a while at a restaurant. Okay, maybe Applebees, but they can’t get appetizers.
Author on the panel who can’t help but flog their books to the trapped audience with every comment.

 I do love me some Applebees. Affordable AND tasty...and appetizers are half off after nine so maybe I could afford those too once I reach M level.

Anyhow, what I want to talk about briefly today is motivation, writing, and word counts. It's hard to keep motivated sometimes when you are trying and trying to learn the craft of writing, but have little to show for it in the way of success (yet!). So here are a few things that I have picked up that at least work for me.

First of all, know what you are writing. I am mostly an outliner, although I am experimenting with writing to a far more tentative outline on my current project than I did on Rise to Revolt. It keeps me on course and helps avoid writer's block...or at least avoid it from occurring more often.

Second of all, listen to music while writing. My brain works best when I have intense music, like trailer style music from Audiomachine playing. I can't listen to anything with words or it breaks my concentration.

Third of all, have goals set for daily word counts. Maybe your goal is five hundred words a day, maybe its one hundred words a day. Whatever it is, have a goal. And while you have a goal, allow yourself one or two days off a week to relax. I personally can hit around 2500-3000 words a day when I am in full flow, but it can take me quite some time to get the writing project to the point where I can sink into it and just write like that regularly.

Right now I am averaging only a few hundred words a day on my newest work (trying my hand at urban fantasy) but the important thing to do is to get progress of some sort done every day. Or failing that, get something done more days than not. Every bit helps.

Fourthly, read other aspiring and successful writers' blogs. I love going to the Mad Genius Club to get some motivation and read up on some new thing to keep in mind or try in my writing. I love the nuts and bolts threads they do on writing, covers, marketing, etc. Whatever it takes to keep you in that chair writing and working.

More than anything else, just keep working. I got noticeably better thanks to finally buckling down and finishing Rise to Revolt and I know that with each new thing I write, that trend will continue.

Now back to work on my new urban fantasy book, where the late 70s, the fae, the Altair 8800, and North Korea all come together. Hopefully ;) I'll be posting excerpts from it soon.

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