For some reason, audiobooks bring a story to life for me. I usually have an even of 20ish textual and 20ish audio books every year, and the audiobooks are the ones I remember. A good narrator is crucial though - i'll often find myself distracted for hours of a poorly narrated book. Richard Armitage's narration of David Copperfield is the best I've ever heard - most of Dickens and other literary classics have great narrators.
I think the 750k word goal is the best one. It's a lot, but the best way to get better at something is to spend as many hours doing it as possible. I can't remember the exact quote, but in his book 'On Writing Well', William Zinsser said something like: "I became a professional by writing (and cutting) millions of words."
There are 2 audiobooks I've listened to where the narrator brought it to life, Harassment Architecture by Mike Ma and narrated by Shazam Watkins, and Conan the Warrior by Robert E. Howard and narrated by Jeff Halberstadt. Beyond that they've been fine to poor. Really struggled to find a narration of the Illiad, I gave up in the end and found a paperback instead.
Yes, the word goal is the important one and part of it is trying to recapture the fast improvement I remember when I started writing fiction 6/7 years ago. At the very least I will, hopefully, become better at thinking and quicker at generating ideas.
From my perspective, these goals seem ambitious, to say the least, but they are your goals and not mine. I believe that you will achieve them! I’m struggling to build a habit of writing. Struggling to focus long enough to finish a three-part story. Well, maybe focus isn’t the right term. It’s more of a struggle to find the right organization and planning method to make the writing process both efficient and organic. I’m very detail-oriented, so I’m trying to find the right balance of planning and writing so that I don’t suffer too much from analysis paralysis.
Ambitious, yes. Just enough of a stretch to be hard but not impossible.
I understand the planning problem, especially for long projects, but the plan can (and parts will) be destroyed on impact once writing. New ideas will crop up, old ones will age like milk. It cannot be avoided.
For some reason, audiobooks bring a story to life for me. I usually have an even of 20ish textual and 20ish audio books every year, and the audiobooks are the ones I remember. A good narrator is crucial though - i'll often find myself distracted for hours of a poorly narrated book. Richard Armitage's narration of David Copperfield is the best I've ever heard - most of Dickens and other literary classics have great narrators.
I think the 750k word goal is the best one. It's a lot, but the best way to get better at something is to spend as many hours doing it as possible. I can't remember the exact quote, but in his book 'On Writing Well', William Zinsser said something like: "I became a professional by writing (and cutting) millions of words."
There are 2 audiobooks I've listened to where the narrator brought it to life, Harassment Architecture by Mike Ma and narrated by Shazam Watkins, and Conan the Warrior by Robert E. Howard and narrated by Jeff Halberstadt. Beyond that they've been fine to poor. Really struggled to find a narration of the Illiad, I gave up in the end and found a paperback instead.
Yes, the word goal is the important one and part of it is trying to recapture the fast improvement I remember when I started writing fiction 6/7 years ago. At the very least I will, hopefully, become better at thinking and quicker at generating ideas.
From my perspective, these goals seem ambitious, to say the least, but they are your goals and not mine. I believe that you will achieve them! I’m struggling to build a habit of writing. Struggling to focus long enough to finish a three-part story. Well, maybe focus isn’t the right term. It’s more of a struggle to find the right organization and planning method to make the writing process both efficient and organic. I’m very detail-oriented, so I’m trying to find the right balance of planning and writing so that I don’t suffer too much from analysis paralysis.
Here’s to a fantastic year of writing!
Ambitious, yes. Just enough of a stretch to be hard but not impossible.
I understand the planning problem, especially for long projects, but the plan can (and parts will) be destroyed on impact once writing. New ideas will crop up, old ones will age like milk. It cannot be avoided.
To a fantastic year of writing!