I’ve been using Instagram stories to track my daily word counts. I like the idea of having some level of accountability by posting my word count each day.
I’ve been doing it for about a week so far, and I’ve hit 2k (my goal) or more each day. I tend to hit that goal in about 4 hours, much quicker than I used to. I guess it helps that I’m nearly done with the book now. And that my writing habit is fairly well established.
I stopped about 40 words shy of 90k today. I forced myself to stop because I’d already written over 2,500 words. It was right in the middle of a scene that I could have easily finished, but I stopped.
I like beginning my writing days anxious to get started because I already know exactly what I’m going to write and how I’m going to write it (usually). I refer to Hemingway on the idea of stopping while you’re ahead.
Always stop while you are going good and don’t think about it or worry about it until you start to write the next day. That way your subconscious will work on it all the time. But if you think about it consciously or worry about it you will kill it and your brain will be tired before you start.
-Ernest Hemingway
And also to Murakami, who references the above quote, too.
Sometimes I run fast when I feel like it, but if I increase the pace I shorten the amount of time I run, the point being to let the exhilaration I feel at the end of each run carry over to the next day. This is the same sort of tack I find necessary when writing a novel. I stop every day right at the point where I feel I can write more. Do that, and the next day’s work goes surprisingly smoothly. I think Ernest Hemingway did something like that. To keep on going, you have to keep up the rhythm. This is the important thing for long-term projects. Once you set the pace, the rest will follow. The problem is getting the flywheel to spin at a set speed—and to get to that point takes as much concentration and effort as you can manage.
-Haruki Murakami
Keep the momentum.
Some of the best advice I’ve found on writing.