March 19, 2015

Success (Of One Kind Or Another)!

Lately, I've been measuring my writing successes in seriously small quantities of product. You know, the quality over quantity nonsense, aka I-rather-have-perfection-than-gibberish. This week, we managed to accomplish both: quality of writing was good and the quantity was surprisingly moderate. Plus, I managed to sneak a bonus for good measure.

1} Quality.

The quality of my writing was roughly 3/4 of what I like to call my high standards. I was quite happy with it because not only did it actually make sense, but it was germane to the plot at hand, and (this is really important for me) no weird swerve was inflicted on the story.

I have a nasty habit of experiencing S.I.S.S (Self Inflicted Story Swerve), which can be fatal to writers with less than five years of experience or less than three books published. This particular S.I.S.S. often works hand in hand with the other S.I.S.S. (Self-Inflicted Stupidity Syndrome).

Basically, for a refreshing change of pace, I managed to stick with the program, found a good rhythm, and churned out quality product. Three cheers, a tiger and a rim shot for me, I did good.

2} Quantity.

For three days (3/14-15, 17), I managed to churn out roughly 1200+ words, which equals about 5 pages of new product. What helped me churn out that amount was two things: didn't use the Dragon software and raised my butt an extra five inches from the chair (aka, added another pillow). The software is a bit of a crap shoot right now, and until I can work out the kinks (aka mental block), it will stay on the sidelines. As for the extra five inches, I'm a bit weird in that I like sitting in small chairs. Good for being closer to your work, but seriously bad for your posture and potential carpal tunnel. So I added an extra pillow and presto!, proper height for typing and not having my hands hurt (for those who are new readers, I suffer from this). So I is one happy camper with my keyboarding skills.

3} Bonus.

While I was running a few lunchtime errands this past Tuesday, I got to thinking about the 800lb gorilla that's preventing me from moving forward with this, aka needing-a-new-title-because-the-old-one-don't-work. So I let my mind wander around during breaks in driving (aka traffic lights), and during one of those driving breaks, I spied a sign in our town advertising a local eating event called "A Taste of Newington".

I thought about for a few seconds, then like the V8 commercial, it got knocked to the forefront of my brain: the perfect title for my novella. Not necessarily the actual phrase that you see in the last paragraph, but this:

A Taste of Pain

I think this title dovetails quite nicely with the major plot points of my novella: revenge, heartache and redemption.

It is my sincere hope that by solving this thorny problem, it will unclog the logjam that has been surrounding my writing for the past several months.

(c) 2015 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

8 comments:

  1. That's a great title.
    Raising yourself five inches in the chair? I might have to try that.
    Glad you had such a productive week.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks.

      Yup, it seemed to do the trick. I have a weird table that my old computer is on, so quite frequently I was typing upwards (aka, sitting a little lower than the keyboard), which in turn created a world of problems with my hands.

      Delete
  2. When it makes sense, that is a good thing. :)

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  3. I worry a lot about the pain you put into your writing. Have you ever thought about getting drunk before you sit down to write?

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    Replies
    1. Sadly, taking four shots of insulin a day prevents me doing any kind of drinking. Years ago though, when I was only taking but two a day, I tried doing drunk writing.

      Didn't work.

      Delete
  4. Well done! A good title is important.

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