One Thousand Words

I must be doing too well with this Rib Eye thing, because recently a few of my loyal readers have asked if I’m going to quit writing altogether.

It’s very gratifying and encouraging to know that my readers look forward to my writing. Uppity Rib is, of course, just another rock orbiting the vast blogosphere, and its wonderful to know it’s made somebody’s blogroll when there are so many others to choose from.

Believe me, I would write way, way more than I do if it weren’t for one significant obstacle: my job. To bring home the bacon, I sit in front of a computer eight or nine hours a day, five days a week. I get up from my desk as much as possible during working hours, making roughly 87 trips per day to the kitchen and bathroom. I’ve even gone so far recently as to join a gym down the street from my office so I can lift weights on my lunch hour. Nonetheless, I’m pretty burned out on the ol’ ‘puter come quittin’ time.

Which is really too damn bad, because I am more inspired than ever to write. I recently read two really useful, inspiring and entertaining books on writing: How to Become a Famous Writer Before You’re Dead: Your Words in Print and Your Name in Lights by Ariel Gore, and Making A Literary Life by Carolyn See.

Gore’s book is one of the best books I’ve ever read on the DIY perspective of writing and publishing. She’s funny, intelligent, and unpretentious, not to mention a living example of how you don’t need to kowtow to the Literary Establishment to be successful in the industry. Her book has single-handedly restored my faith in the idea of writing for fun and profit without losing your soul in the process. Seriously, I love this book so much I wanna marry it.

Like Gore’s, See’s book is also excellent, also unpretentious (can you tell that is a big deal for me? Stick that in your New Yorker and smoke it) and very, very useful to the aspiring published author. More on this to come. (See, foreshadowing! Literary devices! Can I learn, or what?)

Thus I have quite the quandary. I’m burning with desire to write, but the idea of plunking my ass in front of a computer to do so is a total buzzkill. What’s a desk-jockey to do? Barnes & Noble would probably take me, but I don’t know that I could take the pay cut. Construction pays well, but it’s hell on my nails. (Ok, I don’t have nails. It’s just funnier than ‘but I can’t drive a forklift.’) I guess I could sell crack but I only have one strike left.

So here’s a thought: One of the suggestions See gives in Making A Literary Life is to write one thousand words a day. Just any thousand words. Anyone can write one thousand words, See opines. Just write ‘em - then you can check it off your list for the day. (And it better be at the top of your list, because as Ariel Gore says so sagely in her book, no one ever does the last thing on their list.)

Well, I am not sure I can crank out a full one thousand words each and every day. I mean, I could, but they would not necessarily be worth reading. Just what I’ve written here tonight so far is 550 words and they’ve taken me half an hour in front of this computer to write and my eyeballs are about to fall out of my head they’re so dry and it’s ten-thirty at night and I have to get to bed so I can get up and go to work and sit in front of a computer for eight hours.

But I really, really like the idea of at least giving daily writing the old college try. So here’s my compromise - Making An Uppity Literary Life, if you will: five hundred to one thousand words per day.

And now for the fine print:

I’ll write ‘em, but blog ‘em only if they are at least vaguely presentable. Don’t worry, I won’t be overly picky in my definition of “presentable.” (Why start now?) I will continue to share my thoughts on those things nearest my heart (feminism, human rights, cranky geriatric tomcats), and probably those not quite as near such as my overflowing dryer lint screen. But I draw the line at posting five hundred to one thousand words of stream of consciousness blather. At least, not until my first book wins the Pulitzer.

My friends and family will need to accept that five hundred to one thousand words every day will necessarily cut into my already meager, indeed, nearly non-existent, email correspondence. What email you do get from me is likely to be furtively composed in a few stolen moments at work and may suspiciously resemble a form letter. But just remember, I’m doing this for you!

Finally, I can’t say for sure yet, but I may end up needing to ditch Rib Eye if I want to write every day. Or maybe not ditch it entirely but rather scale it back to, say, Rib Eye Tuesdays. (Eesh, that sounds like a meal at Denny’s.)

And on that note, 905 words, and 70 minutes, I bid you good night. Nine hundred and five words… so close, and yet, so far.

Technorati Tags: writing, Ariel Gore, Carolyn See

Filed under Bibliophile, Writing |