This topic could not be more relevant. If you’ve been here for a while, you know I’ve been struggling with consistent writing production. At the same time, making timelines and motivations and development all jive has been equally difficult. Suffice it to say, consistency is hard. So, we’ll get into it below.
My updates in this blog are going to be a little sparse. I took a little vacation for Independence Day and had a great time. I got too much salt and sun, but just enough food and friendship. It was a great time and I hope to do it again next year. I hope yours was exactly what you wanted it to be. On that note, here are the updates:
Drawing from the Well
Surprisingly, I DID get some writing done. It’s on the front of my mind and I aim to put increased, concerted effort into it. I’m almost done with this last additional chapter. That should put some wind in my sails, I think. It even got a title now (apart from its working title which was far from great). Hopefully I’ll have milestone news next week.
Pages 329 (+1)
186,965 (+777) Words
Filling the Well
I’m just further behind now than I was last week. I finished nothing, though I made some progress on FantasticLand. That book is bonkers crazy. I can’t wait to see where else it goes.
Hopefully, better news next week.
47/100 for #ProjectBookworm2024
Well Chat
About consistency…
We’re going to talk about two different kinds today and I’ve already mentioned them both in the opening of this blog: work ethic and internal consistency. Each is crucial to creating art of any kind. Novels are the epitome of this idea rather than the exception. If you don’t work hard, you won’t have a book. If you don’t pay attention, whatever book you have will be an incomprehensible mess.
There, blog over.
Just kidding. Work ethic is critical to creating anything at all, but also to having it be good. Some authors say write every day. That doesn’t work for everyone, but writing regularly definitely works for everyone. I feel like if you go more than a week without writing a word, you’re losing momentum. Momentum is this magical feeling you get when you work on your art a lot. Your brain is chewing on your story often enough that it starts doing it even when you’re not writing. Some people call this taming their muse. Whatever you call it, it allows you to write faster when you finally sit down to write. Your subconscious mind has been working on something behind the scenes and now all you have to do is bring it out. Regular writing through some sort of schedule and consistent work ethic lead to this magical phenomenon.
What about internal consistency? Well, work ethic helps with that too. Because your mind is always working on your story, it has a tendency to hold onto more and more details which makes fact-checking your own work that much faster. It also aids in ideation, but I digress. Working on internal consistency is its own beast apart from work ethic, though. We already talked about Calendars last week, but there’s more to it than that. You have to look at the order of events, relationships between characters, magic and technology when it applies, backstory, and on and on and on. That’s why editing is so important to the quality of your book. It’s also why I’m taking so long on this one. There is a lot going on in disparate parts of the world. I have a LONG list of what needs checking and fixing. All that to keep a reader from stopping reading and asking, “Wait a minute, wasn’t that different before?” As soon as the reader stops reading because of a problem on the page, you lose their connection to the story.
So, you have to work hard, often, and specifically to publish the highest-quality book you can. If your art isn’t books, how do you approach quality and consistency in your work? Sound off on social media. I’ll see you next week!
May the tide carry you to safer shores.
BSG