Daily Archives: July 9, 2014

DAY 9 AT CAMP NANOWRIMO – NEVER SAY “I CAN’T!”

Sand Castles

As any of you folks who have been following my progress you know that I am attempting to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of July.

That isn’t all that unbelievable. I know a lot of writers who do this sort of thing. In the indie writing world it is an ASSET to be able to write quickly – just so long as you aren’t just pumping out crap.

So I am not going to pretend that I am breaking some sort of a Guinness world record in novel writing here. In fact, I wrote faster many years ago when I took part in the 3-Day Writing Contest in which I wrote a 30,000 word novella in three days flat. My wife kept me fed and supplied with strong black coffee and proof-read and edited each chapter as I wrote them.

However, this is the fastest that I have written in the last year – and that is very important to me. I was getting bogged down and letting life’s stress get in my way.

This month I intend to break that habit and get myself geared up for future books that I intend to write.

Why?

I have published over thirty e-books in the last couple of years. They are available at Kindle and Kobo and I sell maybe one copy a day – which just isn’t enough. I want to turn these e-books into a good side-income because I have bills to pay and I am hungry for new readers. I have been trying a lot of approaches but I have decided that I first need to teach myself how to write more productively and then once I have created a steady flow of my products – that is my e-books – I intend to begin trying to figure out a more productive way of promoting them.

So – for me my goal this year is improved production.

Next year my goal will be improved promotional techniques.

Which is why I am writing at Camp NaNoWriMo.

Still, I am surprised when I hear some of the NaNoWriMo writers that I have met saying “I CAN’T” about some of the writing they are trying to do.

My wife and I both really enjoy watching America Ninja Warrior on television.

I just watched this fellow compete – several months after breaking BOTH of his ankles and severing BOTH of his Achilles tendons in a gymnastic incident. Don’t try and tell me that gymnastics isn’t tough.

🙂

Take a look at this guy’s recovery and think about it the very next time you say “I CAN’T!”

Never say I can’t!

Today I wrote 1700 words on my novel – only 100 words past the quota – but I still have some writing time left this afternoon.

I am currently at the 21,700 word mark. That’s the result of nine days of dedicated writing and is an average of 2400 words a day.

I would like to do better.

And you know what?

I can!

yours in storytelling,

Steve Vernon