Day 1,000
Day 1,000
Now ain’t that a kick? 1,000 days of writing this blog without missing a day.
95 more days before it becomes three years of counting.
Now that’s a streak.
I’ve talked about the power of streaks, but going to do so again in the topic below.
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The Day
Got to the office around 2 p.m. and then went off and did errands, then walked with two other writers, getting back to the store around five.
I worked until about 7 p.m. in the new store, then home to cook dinner.
Then assignments, getting that done around 11 p.m. and taking a nap before going to watch some television.
Then worked on some business stuff, then went back to reading Kris’s new novel. Finished it and it’s wonderful. You Diving Universe fans are really going to be happy to see this one.
Needless to say I didn’t make it to my own writing.
Tomorrow.
Bundles… Counting Down
The writing bundle has less than two days left, folks.
The novel bundle for the Not Only Humans books only has 19 hours left (from 5 a.m. west coast time). Information and links to both at the top of my page on the right column. Just click on the images.
Folks, these are both great bundles. Going away quickly. Tick, tick, tick…
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July Workshop Schedule
All July workshops have room. All are limited to five writers max.
And for those thinking of starting into these workshops, take the Depth workshop first.
All details at www.wmgpublishingworkshops.com
Class #1… July 5th … Author Voice
Class #2… July 5th … How to Write Thrillers
Class #3… July 5th … Adding Suspense to Your Writing
Class #4… July 5th … Plotting With Depth
Class #5… July 5th … Character Development
Class #6… July 6th … Depth in Writing
Class #7… July 6th … Advanced Character and Dialog
Class #8… July 6th … Cliffhangers
Class #9… July 6th … Pacing Your Novel
Class #10… July 6th … Teams in Fiction
Classic Workshops and Lectures are also available at any time.
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Topic of the Night: A Streak
I can’t begin to say how surprised I am that this streak of blogs every night has hit 1,000 nights without a miss. Close a few times, mostly because I had internet problems here on the coast. And I did a lot of placeholder blogs, especially on weekends.
But no telling how many topics of the night posts I have done. I hope to go back through many of them, bring some forward, do audio versions on youtube for others. Get links to the ones that hold up. Just need some time getting that started.
But to the power of a streak.
The key is getting one started. Once you have a decent streak going, then the streak has the power to keep you going. I think it was somewhere around the third month when this streak took on the power to make me keep going.
I have seen many writers do streaks for short stories, streaks for writing every day, and so on. Kris has a stunning streak of writing essay/blogs going every Wednesday. Years of them.
As for me, I have gotten five or six writing books out of this regular blog, and I hope to do a few more books. Stay tuned.
And the wonderful supporters on Patreon are an amazing source of motivation to keep me going simply by saying this blog is worth a few bucks a month. Can’t begin to tell you all how much I appreciate that support.
THANK YOU!!!!!
Some tricks to streaks
Trick one… Do something that is possible to do regularly and that will help your writing and career.
For me, for this streak, my reason was Smith’s Monthly. I wanted to show in public how a professional writer could write regularly (even with jobs). But to show that, I needed to put the work, the novels and the short stories, into a regular magazine that people could actually get to see what I was writing. Of course, I am now putting together issue #32 of that magazine and working on the novel for #33.
Mostly because of this blog streak.
Who knew one person could fill a monthly 70,000 magazine every month? Another stunner.
Doing this blog was something that I thought was possible for a while and then when the desire to not break the streak started to overwhelm my desire to not do one some nights, it just kept going.
Trick two… When you feel the desire to not break a streak, use that feeling and give it more power. Make the desire to not break the streak almost an obsession. No, not almost, make it an obsession period.
Trick three… Don’t look back like I am doing now. Just click along and ignore how the numbers are adding up.
Trick four… Reset your own goals at times to keep the streak valuable and refreshed. Those who have followed this for the last 1,000 days know I have changed the form of this a number of times. Got a hunch I will change it more as I go along.
And I am changing my writing focus as well in the next month or so. That will be fun.
So today, with this blog, I hit 1,000 days in a row of doing this.
Thanks for all the support and the great comments over the years. It is really appreciated, especially those of you who subscribe to Smith’s Monthly to see what I am writing and also support on Patreon. Thank you all for following along.
See you tomorrow night for blog 1001.
The craziness continues.
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The Writing of The Taft Ranch: A Thunder Mountain Novel
Day 1… 1,050 words. Total words so far… 1,050 words.
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Totals For Year 3, Month 11, Day 14
Writing in Public blog streak… Day 1,000
— Daily Fiction: 00 original words. Fiction month-to-date: 25,300 words
— Nonfiction: 00 new words. Nonfiction month-to-date total: 00 words
— Blog Posts: 800 new words. Blog month-to-date word count: 8,300 words
— E-mail: 24 e-mails. Approx. 1,500 original words. E-mails month-to date: 231 e-mails. Approx. 16,200 words
— Covers Designed and Finished: 0. Covers finished month-to-date: 2 Covers
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You can support this ongoing blog at Patreon on a monthly basis. Not per post. Just click on the Patreon image. Extra stuff for different levels of support and I will be adding in more as time goes on. Thanks for your support.
Or you can just toss a tip into the tip jar with a single donation at PayPal. Either way, your support keeps me going at these crazy posts.
And thanks.
If you would like to leave a tip just hit Paypal.me/deanwesleysmith (Goes to WMG Publishing account, but I’ll get it just fine.)
13 Comments
Mike
Couldn’t agree more with you, Dean. Starting up a streak of writing days in a row was the key to get me doing it regularly and not just wishing I was doing it. Now I can’t imagine not doing at least a little writing every day.
I would add another tip also: if and when a streak dies, immediately start again. Don’t miss two days in a row. This won’t always be possible, but it’s a great goal. You’ll be surprised how much resistance you’ll encounter after letting a streak lie dead in the dirt for a few days.
Thanks so much for this website, the writing courses, your books/novels and for setting a great example. You’ve broken a lot of myths here with both your ideas and walking the walk. Invaluable stuff and can’t wait for the next 1000 days!
dwsmith
Good tip, Mike. I agree. Sometimes the feeling down about a streak breaking can hurt, but if you just fire back up again and don’t think about it, the power returns.
Vera Soroka
Congratulations on hitting the 1000 days! I know the power of streak with my own blog. For the past five years I have posted various things for readers to read. I ‘ve written serialized novels, flash fiction and short stories. This is only once a week though, not every day. This year I changed things up a bit and write flash fiction and a short story every week. My last short story however turned into a serialized novel. Oh well. I’ll get back to the short stories after it’s done.
I wish I could take this power of the streak towards my writing. But right now I’m working on edits of past things I’ve written. It’s taking a lot of time. And yeah, I have to read through them. I do have a first reader that seems to be working out. I’m quite excited about that but I haven’t gotten brave enough to just hand it off to them to read. I have to go through it. Oh well, maybe in time.
But again congrats to you and Kris on your streaks!
Annemarie Nikolaus
I’m with you. I also have a lot of old stuff to get ready to publish.
But I made it a habit to write new words each day nonethelsee. And I try to get clean first drafts that don’t need (much) editing. I’m not there yet, but I’m getting nearer with each new work.
Writing new words while there is older stuff to get publish-read, at first glance looks like only accumulating, but it helps to let the creative voice stay alive. What in the end makes for better eiditing.
Michael Bracken
Streaks can be unintentional as well as intentional. I’ve had one or more short stories published each and every month for 156 consecutive months, but I was five years into this 13-year streak before I realized it was happening.
I can’t control editors and their production schedules, but I can control how much I write and submit, and I can, to some small extent, write with publication schedules in mind. For example: I write and submit a few Christmas-themed stories every year to ensure a December publication.
dwsmith
Wow, cool streak, Michael. I like that one. And you are right, streaks often start in an unintentional manner. Thanks.
D J Mills
Thank you for taking the time to write this blog. 🙂
I read every one of those 1000 blog posts, and appreciated the information in each one. Every blog has helped me on my writing journey. And it was the wonderful information in these blogs that lead to me taking courses with WMG Publishing. 🙂
So, continue with this blog as long as you can. I will return each morning to absorb another snippet of relevant career writing information, before I undertake my daily word count and fun fix, 😉
Thank you. 🙂
A J
Thank you Dean for your inspiration. I am now dedicating time to write; regardless of my busy schedule.
Mark Kuhn
Dean, I started following your blog about 2 years ago. You offer help and knowledge to writers at every level.
So on your one-thousandth day, I want to say thank you for everything you do for us. Thanks to you I learned how to write without an outline and that it was okay to do so!
I had suspected the existence of Critical Voice for many years and figured I just didn’t have the drive to write anything. Now I know that Critical Voice is a real thing, that the fear he thretens holds no quarter in writing, and I’m learning how to control it while the child who is the Creative Voice guides my hands over these very keys. He’s a warm kid who loves to tell stories, who revels in revealing cool things.
I wish you all the best as you enter your next 1,000 days on this blog!
Jack Giannis
Dean,
Congrats on the streak! Thanks for everything you do.
Bought the writing bundle, gave you writers 95% and SB 5%. Fing LOL ::grin::
Great stuff,
Jack
Annemarie Nikolaus
Streaks are great indeed. I started mine nearly two years ago after a summer I did nothing else than editing and rewriting (buuh!).When I realized I had a word count of 0, I had to do something …I found a wonderful thing called “The Magic Spreadsheet”. There are groups around it at Facebook and google+ to help each other to build the streak. (Google it, if you are interested).
It has two great elements to help build the writing streak: First, it begins with shy 250 words to write each day to get the streak going and who want it can stay there. But every month challenges to add 50 more words per day .. so it helps first to build a streak and second to get more and more done.
Oh, and then you are rewarded with points, the higher the longer the streak gets and the higher the word count. ;-). If you break and restart the streak, you restart with 2 points. but the old ones aren’t lost, even if you return after a year or so. That is nice too, because it motivates to try again and again, till there really is an ongoing streak.
For me it was a tremendous help. I really d recommend it to everyone who struggles for daily writing. To get into the habit of writing 250 words each day is not that impossible.
Meanwhile I write 1,200 words each day. Now I only have to get rid of that rewriting crap 🙁
Sean Monaghan
At the start of 2012 I took on writing every day. It was around that time I’d started reading your and Kris’s blogs. I’ve written now every single day four and a half years. Some days it’s been on the low side (about 150 words), other days much more productive. Several times I’ve flown across the International Date Line and gained, then lost a day – I still made sure I wrote extra sessions then, on a plane, laptop crammed up on my knees.
I track my wordcount in a spreadsheet and it works to push me – monthly goals, annual goals. Each year I’ve written more words than the previous. In the last four and a half years I’ve written more than in the previous (harumph) decades in total. But there are two main things I find from this streak:
First, I’m selling more. I’ve made more money in each of the last few years than in those (harumph) decades total. Of course. The more I practice, the better I get, I suppose.
Secondly: I’m having way more fun. If nothing else that’s worth having a streak.
Thanks again for your inspiration and encouragement.
Jim Johnson
Congrats on the streak and thank you for the inspiration!