Writing in Public: Week 18
A Simple Trick That Helped Me Write Over 8000 Words Last Week
Welcome to Week 18!
Hi there,
Welcome to Week 18 of the Writing in Public Newsletter.
This past week was all about playing catch-up. I pushed myself to write as much as possible. Thankfully, I had plenty of motivation and rest to help me pick up the pace.
Although sayings like “Slow down to speed up” can come acoss as cliche, it was refresing to find out that they are grounded in some truth. Taking an unintentional two-week break from writing turned out to be just what I needed to nourish my creativity.
This week, I also took a quick inventory of my progress and was thrilled to discover that I'm still on track, at least in terms of word count(55K words)! Structurally, I ended up taking more of a zigzag route rather than a chronological one.
Goal: Write 4000 Words
Progress: Completed ✅
I'm happy to say that I not only met my ambitious goal of writing 4,000 words, but I exceeded it and was able to write over 8,000 words*! This was especially gratifying following the longest gap in writing since the start of this project.
I’ll share a bit more about what helped with this in the ideas section below.
*Each sentence still painfully reminds me that quantity does not equal to quality.
Despite my steady progress, self-doubt continues to linger. Often loud and persistent.
I've been contemplating why I write, and while I'm still processing that question, another one keeps surfacing: do I have what it takes to write?Or more accurately, do I have what it takes to write well?
Do I have what it takes?
The short answer is, I don’t know, and the real answer is probably no, but there's no way to know without trying. I'm incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to try. If I ask myself what I would want to do if there was no one asking, if the ego didnt need the constant boost, if there was no baggage of sunk cost, etc., it would be to imbue my life with literature, reading and writing. So, in that sense, I owe it to myself to at least try and give it my all - to make it a big part of my life. At the very least, to give it an hour or two a day and to keep trying, to complete stories, to edit them, to share with others, to get past the insecurities, and to give it my best shot.
With that, I am willing to keep trying
Ideas I was trying to incorporate.
Narrating to an audience:
I had forgotten about this, but when I was around the age of ten or twelve, my younger brother and other cousins his age used to ask me to tell them stories. We did not have books to read from, so I used to make up stories to narrate to them.
On humid summer days, we'd sit on the brick stairs at the back of our house overlooking the mango trees. I'd sit on the top step, and my keen audience on the lower two steps would listen intently, occasionally interrupting to express their surprise, saying things like "Really?" and asking "Then what happened?" I don't have a very clear memory of that time, but I recall it being a fun and fairly easy experience. There was no pressure. All I had to do was keep moving the story forward. My gullible audience believed everything I told them about the giant underground kingdom where monkeys lived or the fairy who worked tirelessly all summer to replenish mangoes and lychees, so we always had plenty.
This week, I attempted to replicate some of that easy approach by putting myself in the shoes of, or rather the muddy bare feet of, that young child who told stories without worrying about whether something made sense or if it fit a particular format. I wrote as if I was narrating the story to a captive audience. This approach gave me more creative boost than anything else I had tried. Maybe this is what Kurt Vonnegut meant when he said, sound like yourself and pity the reader. I am still working on his other advice about not rambling and having the guts to cut.
Ideas from previous weeks:
Goals for this week
Write the next 2500 words.
As always, thank you for following along with my writing journey. Until next time, keep writing and stay inspired.
What are you writing this week?
P.S.- If you are new here, you can learn more about the project and find the previous week’s updates here.