A Writing Proposition

[penmage]

When I went to hear Terry Pratchett a bit ago, someone asked him for advice for aspiring writers. He said a bunch of things, but one thing that lodged itself in my brain was that for the last 6 years, he's written 400 words a day. Every day. If he knew he was going to miss a day, he'd make it up in advance; if he missed a day without meaning to, he'd make it up the next day. 400 words, about anything. Just make up characters and have them talk to each other, if you have nothing better to write. The idea is to keep constantly writing, to keep in the habit, to keep the words flowing.

I'd like to try this summer. To write 400 words a day, every day. Is anyone interested in doing this with me? If there's enough interest and someone's got a spare code, we can make a community, maybe have it be a different person's job to suggest a loose topic each day.

Anyone interested?

Comments

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

How many pages do 400 words occupy? (on average, single-spaced)

[dhole.livejournal.com]

It depends on the font you use. A good rule of thumb is that a double spaced Courier (12 point) page is in the neighborhood of 250 words. Single space Times New Roman, 400 is probably less than a page.

[tabbyclaw.livejournal.com]

I actually pulled 400 words out of the piece I'm working on to check. One 400-word block in single-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman with 1-inch margins all around is approximately 4.75 inches.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

So we're talking less than a page. That sounds doable. (I usually do two pages a day of journaling; I guess the trick is to do something story-like.)