Only around 400 words written today, between 8am and 8:30am, but I’ve got today’s Future Jeff cartoon to draw before heading to my normal/real life job. The good news is, as you can see from the photo, I’ve hit the 30,000 words mark. Go me! Until next time… keeeeeep writing or reading or both.
Something just occurred to me. A great first draft of a novel is like a really poorly played game of chess. I’ve never been any good at chess. I never plan ahead, and I always just hope for the best when placing my pieces (I’m mostly hoping the person opposite me is as clueless as yours truly). This makes for a disastrous game of chess, but a brilliant and spontaneous first draft. You place all the characters where you think they might like to go (I often plan the first few chapters, but no more than that) and then see where they go from there. Let rip with your pen or keyboard, and enjoy the ride. You’re the first reader of your story, after all, so this time will never come again. Until next time, keeeeeeep writing (or reading, or both. Whatever you’re into, I won’t judge).
Jot down the first thing that comes to your mind.
Many things come to my mind, all at once, all the time. I occasionally make sense of them and manage to manipulate and compile them into a sentence, but a lot of the time, my mind works in a higher gear than my mouth, and sometimes I forget that the person I’m talking to doesn’t have all the background context that’s just flashed through my brain. I suppose that’s why I’m a writer, so I can get my ideas across in my own sweet time.
If you could have something named after you, what would it be?
I’m not sure I care that much about having something named after me (I named a couple of stars after my ex. She feels further away than both of those stars now, even though we both still work in the same building), but I’d like to think that I coined the term ‘stripisode’. Obviously, comic strips have been around a long ol’ time, but I wanted a term for one of my comic strips ‘Still Life’, which is longer than a standard newspaper strip, but shorter than a full page strip in the Beano, so the term ‘stripisode’ was born. It’s not in the Oxford English Dictionary yet, but I’m working on it.
Just a quick update. I’m getting on pretty well with the first draft of ‘No Way Back’, my relationship breakup/time travel novel. Thanks to my accountability buddy, Caroline Herbert, all the way over in Canada, my work rate is better than ever. I’m up to just over 10,000 words now, after only a few weeks. I think I’ve finally found the best method for me, which is a little bit of writing every day (with time off for good behaviour on a Sunday). ‘Infectious enthusiasm’ is an overused term, but in this case, it most certainly is not. Caroline’s passion for her writing and novel (‘The Things We Find in the Apocalypse’) has spurred me on to get back into my own writing, so I just wanted to acknowledge that in this post. Thanks for listening, and keeeeeeep writing ✍️
JOHN D. PAYNE IS WRITING 