Another solid R.A.M.P. day today, though the season change is definitely affecting me. Hard to concentrate this evening for some reason.
For reading, I read some more urban fantasy short stories as well as a few poems by William Blake. Why, no idea. Just felt like reading some poetry.
For data analysis, no work.
For marketing, I booked another podcast interview. I also received the demo from my audiobook narrator for an audiobook I’m working on. Everything sounded great, and he’s going to start full production tomorrow. We should be done by Thanksgiving. I’m really excited to announce that book when it’s time.
For production, I hit my quota today and am sitting at 2750 words almost exactly. But I’ll likely be higher than 2750 because I still need to walk my dog one more time and I need to clean my kitchen. That’s a recipe for a good night, my friends.
THE ULTIMATE WRITING CHALLENGE
I started thinking last night about what the ultimate writing challenge would be. In other words, what is the craziest challenge that a writer could do?
“Crazy” means attainable, but something you’d have to work hard at, and something that most people would not be able to do.
In my city there’s a restaurant called Jethro’s. They have a sandwich called the Emmenecker. The “Emmenecker” is a monster sandwich, that is described by the restaurant as: a Spicy Pickle ‘ Bun ‘ Pork Tenderloin ‘ Buffalo Chicken Tenders ‘ White Cheddar Sauce ‘ Fried Cheese Cubes ‘ Texas brisket ‘ Applewood Smoked Bacon ‘ Cheese Burger ‘ OH YEAH….AND A POUND OF WAFFLE FRIES
Yikes. Oh, and you only have 15 minutes to eat it.
Every time I go to Jethro’s, someone invariably tries the challenge and fails. But there are a brave few who succeed.
Anyway, my challenge doesn’t involve pork tenderloins or waffle fries, but it does involve a lot of elbow grease.
I present to you the Ultimate Writing Challenge. It is actually four challenges wrapped into one. You must do all of these in 365 days…
#1: Write 1 million words in 365 days. This means that you must write 2,750 words each day…on average, minimum.
#2: Write at least 12 novels in 365 days Or, NaNoWriMo every month. If your average novel is 50,000 words, that’s 600,000 words.
#3: Write 52 short stories in 365 days. Or, one per week. This is one of the Ray Bradbury Challenges. As Ray says, it is impossible to write 52 bad short stories. If your average story is 5,000 words, that’s 260,000 words.
#4: (This one is the killer) Follow Heinlein’s Rules to the letter. Robert A. Heinlein was a golden age science fiction writer who said: 1. You must write. 2. You must finish what you write. 3. You must not rewrite unless to editorial demand. 4. You must put your work on the market. 5. You must keep it on the market until sold. This means that when you finish your novel and stories, you must ship them immediately to your editor, and you must publish them. That’s right—no rewriting. One draft, clean writing. Like I said, that’s the killer…
But, if you could complete this challenge, here’s what you would have:
- Over 1 million words of fiction, 12 novels, and 52 short stories. In one year, you would be one of the most prolific authors on the planet.
- You will learn so much about writing craft through repetition and exploration of new stories that it won’t even be funny. The more you write, the better you will get.
- You will have a consistent writing habit.
- All of those books you wrote will be published, and the stories will be out to magazines or self-published.
Is it possible to write 52 bad short stories? I don’t think so.
Is it possible to write 12 bad novels? Maybe, but I think at least a few of them would be pretty good.
Just imagine what could be on the other side of a challenge like this. Sure, you might fail. Sure, you probably won’t become a bestseller. But think about all the stories and worlds you’ll get lost in. Think about all the things you’ll learn, both about your craft and yourself. It’s the ultimate exploration of what it means to be a writer in my opinion.
So that’s the Ultimate Writing Challenge. Very, very difficult to do, but it could be a game-changer for some.
Have a good night.
YTD Word Count: 180,150
Plan: 1,252,000
Words Left to Write 1,071,850
Words Over/-Under Plan: 37,150
Days Ahead/-Behind: 13.51
Projected Annual Word Count: 1,264,514
Projected Decade Word Count: 12,645,144
Deadline: 12/31/2023
Days to Go Until 12/31/23: 439
Word Count Average: 3,464
Average Pulp Speed: 2.0
