50K: Mar 31
Three cheers! I did it!
At the stroke of midnight, I did a word count, and to my delight (and surprise), I more than doubled my quota for the 50,000-word challenge I had set myself in late February. From the first of March until the 31st, I added up all the words I wrote—unedited, and mostly unpublishable, I am realistic enough to realise—but all original. Written by me. J
Needless to say, I am over the moon. Thrilled to bits. Almost (but not quite) speechless that I actually made it, “it” being merely a first draft. Ahead lies the more arduous task of seeing if anything is worth salvaging from among the ruins of my often rambling thoughts. I’m treating this as my “composting” phase: pile up the words in the order in which they first appear, without structure or form (all the things I tell my students not to do in research writing). Get it down on the page. Say what you want to say. Deal with the niceties of grammar and spelling later….
And that’s about as many clichés as I can manage in one midnight missive.
Speaking of missives, I’m currently compiling my annual Easter Epistle and I hope to pop it in the mail by mid-month. Maybe I’ll do what I did several years ago and include a return envelope in each letter … ensuring a good supply of snail mail during the long(er) days of summer.
EMP,
still smiling as I head off to bed—happy in the knowledge that
I. Am. A. Writer.
