I just looked it up, but concretia is not actually a word. Or, not in any real english dictionary. It is, apparently in Urban Dictionary, which of course I immediately clicked on, because I’d rather knowingly use some dirty sex term than unknowingly use one. Urban Dictionary explained that it’s a rather tame term for anywhere that has no open fields or forests or anything natural to speak of. Parts of Los Angeles, therefore, are decidedly concretia as far as the eye can see. But that’s not strictly what I was thinking of.
Tonight, I am thinking about concrete-ness when it comes to my writing goals. For a few months now, I’ve focused only on setting a routine for myself. no page or word counts, no deadlines, only the promise that I would sit my butt down in my chair at the same time each day – the idea being that I can build that routine for myself.
Well…that’s worked to a certain degree. The perfect discipline eludes me, but I can actually say that I am now PROGRAMMED to write at a certain time every day, and for a certain length of time. I wish that I had more of that perfect attendance…but nevertheless, I’m looking at the end of the year coming, and I have shit that I want to have done. And I’m not far enough up that mountain. So…we switch gears.
I was also musing today about what I’d write if I were to ever take the sum of this daily journaling when it came to writing and what I’ve learned. It would appear as thought I’m constantly having “epiphanies,” and at first blush, one might be inclined to think that because I am constantly switching up my methods, that each of those “epiphanies” is really a load of bullshit…and that might be true…but there is something I realized tonight in thinking about all that, and that is that I *do* have solid advice from my travels these past three years figuring out how to be a writer:
If it’s not working, switch it up.
Boom. That fucking sums it up folks, at least for me. If it’s not working…switch it up. For me: I want this second draft of my first novel to be done by the end of the year. It’s a major, major goal, and it’s one that is ABSOLUTELY doable. I just need to diligent about hitting that goal…and right now my pace is too slow. So I have to switch it up.
Connecting this immediate instance to the pattern that I see in the larger view of my winding journey, it’s that life has thrown me several curveballs and obligations and twists and turns…and because of that, I’ve had to adjust how I mentally approach my writing, which is always at threat to be shouted down by the other noises in my life. And let me be clear: most of those other “noises” are amazing, incredible, wonderful things…so I wish I had another word or metaphor for that, because it sounds negative and it’s NOT…in fact, that’s in a nutshell why those other things can be so good at edging out my writing…but this is a journal entry at the end of my day and I’m tired, so fuck it 😛
So, yeah. If it’s not working, switch it up.
My new goal is 50 pages a week. I’ll be done with THIS phase of the rewrite, which I hope to god is the longest of what’s left, ie- the rest will fly, in 6 weeks. 350 pages done.
Then I type all that in.
Then I read/note the manuscript for copy editing (spelling, punctuation, etc.)
Then I type those in.
Then I sleep forever because gawdam that’s a lot of work.
That’s all I have left. I can do it. I just need to up the expectations of myself, and really fly during my writing hours. Yes, hours! Two of them every day. I can better…
Good night.
Artwork tonight is from Jesse Santos…and I am gonna COLOR THAT SHIT YOU BETTA BELIEVE DAT. Excited 🙂