I don’t like to blame Real Life Things for my lack of productivity here, but I will say the last two weeks of January were pretty intense at my non-lewdite job. I’m glad they’re over and that I’m back on my writing tracks.
I’ve been able to set aside time for a few intense writing sessions this week: about 400 words of really good material during several two- or three-hour coffee shop visits. That’s pretty, pretty slow compared to many of the professional and semi-professional authors I follow—@sammynona wrote 46,000 words in the month of January!—but it’s a good start for me.
Aside:
The usual recommendation I’ve heard is to “just write” and get as many words out as you can, not stopping to edit until the first draft is complete. But I’ve never been able to get that process to work for me. I’ve always envisioned my writing as bricklaying, or forging a chain—each part builds on what came before and sets up what will come after. Cadence and flow are important to me, and that means always having a good idea of where the story is and where it is going. It’s not as though I demand each sentence be perfect, but I don’t want to build too much of my stories on unfirm foundations.
Furthermore: as much as I want to increase my writing output, I don’t want to use words like “efficiency” and “productivity” when it comes to my writing—the fell power of capitalism’s invisible hand is not welcome in these here parts. I might need to simply accept that, at this point in my writing hobby/career, I write about 1,000 good words a week, that that number is going to go up slowly, and that there’s no Youtube video shortcut that will show me how to quintuple my productivity overnight.
On the other hand, one of my favorite adages is “lose your first one hundred games of go quickly”—the idea being that, as a novice, you really don’t have the skill or knowledge to have deep, constructive thoughts on a matter. Maybe I’m fooling myself into thinking that my “slow and steady” approach is beneficial!
These writing sessions let me finish up my first commission, a story of a hapless corvid birdgirl transforming into a demonic futa harpy, commissioned by corruptivespirit! The story has been sent off to @jilldoesprompts for illustration, and it’ll be posted publicly later in the week!
Next up on the docket: a story for @sapphomet, about a meek waitress becoming a very, very bad demoness. I also want to take a little time for myself and knock out a special Valentine’s story, inspired by @saltyteafutas‘ frequent holiday prompts.
Last but not least, I received this email in my spam box this morning:
If, in the next few days, I and other lewd blogs fall off of your dashboard, you’ll know why. Please turn your Safe Mode back off!