My small but mighty fan club and updates!

It is a beautiful snowy day here in Boston, and I’m savoring my coffee. I took today off from work, not because I have anywhere to go, but because I’ve maxed out my vacation. Hence, it looks like a long day of writing!

It has been an exciting and productive few weeks. First, I had a lovely experience last Friday. My sister is an activities director at an assisted living facility. On a whim, she started sharing posts from the “My Life in China” series with her residents, and they seemed to enjoy hearing about my experiences (latest post here). She asked if I would we willing to join them through Zoom to read one of my posts, answer questions, and discuss my time in China. How exciting! It seems I’ve developed a little bit of a fan club! Anyway, it was great fun, and they had some very profound questions, ones that I had to stop and think about before answering. The picture above makes me look like a dystopian talking head or perhaps a cult leader with that heavenly background (my wife took that photo just down the street), but I promise I’m not brainwashing the masses. Anyway, it was a great time and I’m thrilled that a group with so much life experience still find value in what I have to say. It is the greatest compliment. Thanks, sis, for organizing and a shout-out to my fan club!

Secondly, I’ve been writing like crazy! As I mentioned here, I started a new fantasy project. It is my first attempt in the genre, and it is completely uncharted waters for me. At that point (February 3rd), I had put down 15,000 words. It’s been two weeks, and I am now at 50,000. That’s a whopping 17,500 a week or an average of 2,500 words a day! If you’re not a writer, most consider a double-spaced page to be about 250 words, so I am writing ten pages a day. It might not seem like a lot, but I’m delighted with my progress, considering I also work full-time. Ninety to one hundred thousand words is a standard book-length. With this story being a fantasy, it will probably come to a bit above that, but I’m around the halfway point. My working title is Dawn of the Lightbearer, and it will be part of a series.

I have never written so much so consistently. Why the change? Well, I think it is because I’ve been using the set of writing tools I created (available here). These concepts are not new, but they have helped me organize everything in one place, and the structure they’ve provided has ensured that I focus all my time on writing. And boy, has it made a difference in my productivity and flow! I’ve set a goal of at least 2,000 words a day and keep track in my writing log– having this mission has forced me to write, even if I didn’t feel like writing. Did I make the goal every day? No, but I generally make up for it the next day. Usually, the snag is just trying to get a section right, not because I am not writing, and I’m ok with that. Why 2,000? This is a daily writing goal of Stephen King. Say what you will about his stories, we all know he’s a prolific writer. With being able to put out roughly four books a year (often best-sellers), no one can contest his success.

Is everything planned? No, the tools just help me build a world and characters, and set down a very general framework. I only write down a few notes as a rough plan, chapter by chapter. I also have an idea of the endpoint, but I have no clue how my characters will get there. In the past, I tried to plan everything. I set hard story details and tried to fit the writing into the structure. It all seemed a lot like work, and I got bogged down trying to make things fit into my frame with wit.

Writing is a profound dichotomy between torture and bliss. When you can sit down and just let the story flow where it wants to go and then be pleased with where it ends up, it feels like real progress! Sure, it may be crap when you go through it again, but that’s something to worry about during editing. With this new approach, I now look forward to each day. Like my future reader, I have a sense of awe and wonder, everything is mysterious, and I don’t know where the characters will end up next. Sure, I may have a sense of where the story will go, but, I too, will be surprised and exhilarated when things don’t go as I’ve foreseen.

Cheers!