So this is how I'm doing this book. I owe this technique to Jerry Seinfeld. I forgt where I read this. But apparently Jerry Seinfeld said that if you wanted to do anything big and difficult, you had to get a calendar and start. Then every day you have to have a goal, achieve it and put a big X on that date on the calendar. Then, and I quote, "Don't break the chain!"
Can't you just see Seinfeld saying that, with his trademark intensity? That's how he got to be a great comic, by working on his jokes every day.
So, I figured, if I'm ever going to be a great writer, I have to start a chain and not break it. I got the goal from Tom Wolfe. He became a great writer by writing ten triple-spaced pages of prose a day. So I determined to write 2000 words, approximating ten typewritten pages, triple-spaced, a day.
I find I can do this. I've kept the chain unbroken now for 32 days, even though I did not come up with the 2000-word quota until a couple of weeks ago. September is going to be the real test. If I can write 2000 words a day for the 30 days of September, that will be 60,000 words, or, counting 500 words per page, 120 pages. I plan to start the Bismarck saga as it relates to 1870 on this Sunday, September 1, 2013, so we'll just have to see if I can get 120 pages by midnight, September 30.
Wish me luck!
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