Re: Git Gud

[rynling]

ON THE OTHER HAND. I'm probably never going to be "good enough," so honestly, I might as well just do what I want and make sure I'm taking care of myself in the process.

I know myself well enough to know that I don't have any innate talent, so the important thing is to sit down and do the work. At the same time, I don't want to push myself too far, because I know there's not going to be any payoff for going the extra mile. Slow and steady might not actually win the race, but it has a significantly lower risk of injury.

For me right now, this means that I work on both writing and art every day for at least ten minutes each. I know ten minutes doesn't sound like a long period of time, but I've begun to realize that I will never really have free time - I have to be aggressive and make it for myself. If I'm lucky, I will start working and magically be filled with inspiration; but, since there's no reward for sacrifice, I think it's also important not to push myself too far out of my comfort zone.

Comments

[lassarina]

Starting with small, doable pieces is really important! And making sure not to push yourself too hard and burn out is a great way to stick with small/doable.

You can do it!

[rynling]

Thanks! It's a little embarrassing to post 1,000 word chapters, but...

...but I've been re-reading some of the early Stephen King books, and I now realize that all of the subchapters in his giant novels are probably the product of one sitting. Sometimes you sit down and 5,000 words magically appear, and sometimes you only get 750 words at a time. I always felt like I was weird for being so inconsistent, but if I'm working at (sort of) the same rate as Stephen King on cocaine, then I think I'm doing okay for myself.

Speaking of which, it also occurred to me that A LOT of fanfic writers produce work at roughly the same rate as Stephen King. That's wild, right? If only kudos made us rich and famous too...

[lassarina]

If I could make money off fandom.....sigh.

Some fanfic writers produce at rates that make my head hurt, speaking as someone who consistently breaks 100K a year and usually 200K.

[rynling]

You know, I've been thinking about people who have incredible annual word counts a lot during the past few weeks, and I've been asking a few acquaintances in fandom and the publishing industry about it. Like, how do people do this? Especially while paying the rent? The consensus seems to be that super productive writers aren't working. Apparently, a lot of 300k+ writers are very young (sometimes as young as fifth or sixth grade), and others have something like a chronic illness that prevents them from doing much of anything else. Based on my own experiences with fandom, I suspect that some people also suffer from manic episodes. This is all just hearsay, of course, and in any case I don't think it really matters all that much in the end, but it's interesting to think about.

[lassarina]

No, that tracks. I know that writers who are doing it full time are usually generating at that pace (I think of Elizabeth Bear, for example, who once said something to the tune of "every month is nanowrimo around here"). I'm not sure even if I could write full time if I could produce like that, though. I think my hands would fall off, for one, and my brain would call it quits.