Since starting with 500 words may seem like too much for some writers, here’s a different approach.  I can’t remember where I heard this particular game, though I know I’ve heard it used by a number of successful authors.  It’s really quite simple:

You just have to write 25 words a day.

That’s it.  That’s your quota.  If you hit 25 words, then you give yourself permission to quit.  I reached that in the first paragraph, so you can see how ridiculously easy it is.  And that’s the point.

See, most of the battle of overcoming our natural resistance as human beings to doing anything that requires discipline is just getting our butts in the chair. Once your butt is in the chair, the word processor is fired up, and the first couple words are typed, you’re already well on your way.  Most of the time, you’ll actually find it hard to stop at just 25 words.

But not always.  Maybe you’re down with the flu, maybe you’re out late partying with Jay-Z, or maybe the creativity center of your brain is just coming up empty, and if that’s the case, give yourself permission to stop at 25 words.

The key is keeping a streak alive.  Creating momentum is one of the most powerful ways to boost your productivity.  Once you’ve got a streak of even a few weeks going, you’ll find you don’t want to miss.  Try it out.  You might be amazed after a couple weeks how the pages have added up.  It’s also a great game when you find yourself suffering from a long dry spell.  Because no matter how bad your writer’s block is, you can always write a couple sentences, right?

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Note to self:  Dipping into the comments section in most political blogs is a good way to lose faith in humanity.  Worse, if you dip into the comments section of your local newspaper, you’ll not only lose faith in your fellow human beings, you’ll realize they live next door.

Somehow it’s easier when I can tell myself that all the crazies live somewhere else.  Albuquerque, maybe.

So the supposed 60-vote filibuster proof Senate majority didn’t last long, did it?  Personally, I found it depressing that the voters in Massachusetts would replace Ted Kennedy, a man whose life purpose was to bring universal healthcare to one of the only democracies in the world without it, with a Republican who will now most assuredly walk in lockstep with a political party that made the calculation at the beginning of this year to use the filibuster more than any congress in history to oppose, delay, and obstruct the Democratic agenda in any way possible.  But that’s just me.  (And I could be wrong about Scott Brown, but I don’t think so.) 

What I found more depressing, however, was the immediate capitulation on healthcare by weak-kneed Democrats who are doing their best to reinforce the stereotype that Democrats are spineless. 

Look, healthcare reform may not be popular right now, but either was Social Security or Medicare when they were enacted.  Today you have even rightwing crazies spouting nonsense like “Don’t let the government take away my Medicare.”  Just goes you how far the pendulum can swing; history proves again and again that people like good government social programs once they get used to them, and conservatives know this, which is why they fight them tooth and nail. 

I’m also willing to make a prediction:  the Democrats don’t pass some kind of meaningful healthcare reform, they’re going to be slaughtered in November at the polls.  They might be slaughtered anyway — it’s just the way history works, the party in power during bad economic times get punished even if they weren’t the cause — but they’re guaranteeing that they’ll get slaughtered if they buckle under the pressure.  

The Republican line if healthcare doesn’tpass:  “You spent a year dithering on healthcare with nothing to show for it and we’re still in a recession!” 

The Republican line if healthcare doespass:  “You spent a year dithering on healthcare and passed it and we’re still in a recession!” 

The second line of attack might still have some traction, but at least it gives Obama and the Democrats a chance to sell the reform.  No reform, nothing to sell, that’s all she wrote.  You think we’ve got gridlock now?  Oh boy, just wait.

Think of it this way:  If 100,000 people voted differently in Massachusetts on Tuesday, I doubt some of these Democrats in Congress would be talking about scrapping healthcare reform.  So are 100,000 people going to decide the fate of 300 million?  If it was such a good idea a couple weeks ago when both houses of Congress passed sweeping healthcare reform bills, it’s now not a bad idea because 100,000 people in Massachusetts say so.  And honestly, we don’t even know that’s what they were saying.  It’s far more likely that Martha Coakley was just a terrible candidate.    

So buck up, Democrats. Show some spine.  Don’t reinforce the steretype.  Don’t be swayed by the madness of crowds.  If you do what’s right for the country, history will prove you correct every time.  

That’s it for the soapbox today.  Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Games Writers Play #1: The 30/500 Rule

I’m starting with this one because it meant a lot to me.  When I finally got fed up with my low productivity not many years ago, when I was so self-critical of my own writing that it was nearly impossible to squeeze out any words at all, I decided that I needed to do something to get out of my own way.

1.  Get yourself a countdown timer.  An electronic egg timer works well, but most digital watches have them.

2.  Set the timer for 30 minutes.

3.  The goal is to write 500 words or for 30 minutes, whatever comes last.

The emphasis is important.  If the timer goes off and you still haven’t reached 500 words, keep writing until you have.  If you reach 500 words and the timer’s still going, keep writing at least until the timer goes off.

4.  Do this every day.  You can always find thirty minutes.  If you do, you’ll have written at least the equivalent of two novels over the course of a year.  All with thirty minutes a day.

You’ll find out very quickly that one of the reoccurring themes of improving one’s productivity is to do so by creating limitations. It’s paradoxical, really.  You’d think that have no boundaries would make you more creative and more productive, but it’s often exactly the opposite.  Too much freedom and writers often just freeze up.  There are too many possibilities.  If you limit the time or the subject matter, you’ll often find your creativity unleashed and the words flowing.

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Most writers play games.  They might use other words for it — challenges, mental tricks, techniques — but the purpose is always the same.  The point is to find ways to put the butt in the chair and get the words flowing; to trick the mind so that the critical voice, the one that tells you that you’re no good, that you can’t possibly write even a decent sentence much less a whole story or novel, gets out of the way.

I’m a game player myself.  Like a lot of writers, I’ve got more than a few personal demons that would like nothing better than for my keyboard to fall silent.  Over the years, I’ve collected a number of these games, some from other writers, some from books, and many simply from my own experience, and I finally decided that other writers might benefit from them too.

So here’s the deal.  Every Tuesday, I plan to post a new game — some Jedi mind trick that’s meant to help writers produce more words.  Why write more?  Well, I’m assuming you’re a serious writer, somebody who’s either already writing for publication or hoping to get there someday.  And if you are, then I’m also assuming you accept the principle that the rate of your success is directly dependent on the level of your productivity.

Sure, you have to try to get better.  Sure, you need to watch your said bookisms, your use of adverbs, your tendency to tell rather than show.  That’s a given.  But that’s not the focus of these posts, although you might get a little bit of that along the way too.  No, the focus of these posts is to give you games you can play to unlock your creativity, destroy writer’s block, and get yourself to produce more words.

More words = more success.

If you don’t believe that, you’ve come to the wrong place.

There’s no particular order to these games.  Some will be general principles, others will be specific challenges or techniques.  Not all of them will work for any particular writer.  Like me, you might have to try a few on for size before you find some that work for you.  Remember, the whole point is to get you to write more. If it’s not working, try something else.

How long will I keep it going?  As long as I can.  I’m obviously working on lots of other projects and this is just something I want to squeeze in now and then — something that helps me, too, because I’m always looking for ways to boost my own productivity.  When the project’s done, I’ll most likely put out a print on demand edition, so those of you who want a hard copy will be able to buy it.  I’m hoping it’ll end up as a nice resource when you find your well running a little dry; just open the book (or go back to the Internet) and look for a game to help you get going again.

I’ll be maintaining a table of contents, and I’ve taken out a domain that will take you straight to it (http://www.gameswritersplay.com) so you can bookmark it for easy reference.

You’ll also notice something at the bottom of the posts that I haven’t done on this site before:  a donate button.  If you find these posts useful, if one of them really clicks and helps gets the words flowing, I’d really appreciate it if you “tipped your waiter” a few bucks.  One of the things I decided at the start of this year was to be more active with my own website, but it’s hard to justify the time unless there’s some monetary compensation involved.  I do write for money, after all.  Even a few dollars really does help.

If you can’t donate — and hey, I understand, we’re in a recession here — then please help spread the word.  Write a blog post pointing people here.  Retweet my Twitter posts.  That helps too.

And if you have a game you’d like to share, drop me an email by using the Contact Page.  Type “Games Writers Play” in the subject line, and make sure you give me your website.  I can’t promise you I’ll use your particular game — and I won’t copy it verbatim, because that would obviously be copyright violation — but if I do, I’ll make sure to give you a “hat tip,” which will mention your name and a link to your website.

With that, let the games begin.

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Although I certainly didn’t plan it this way, I’m going to have two short story collections published this year.  At this point, I’m not exactly sure which of the two will be available first, but one of them has a cover and is now available for preorder:

In these six provocative tales, Scott William Carter takes the reader on a journey to places where love and loss intersect. A limited edition from the very prestigious small press, PS Publishing. [Learn More] Pre-Order Today: (Less than 500 copies available!)

Looking over the galleys recently, I was really happy with these stories.  Not only do I think they’re some of my best work, but I think they hang together thematically very well.  The collection contains four new stories and two reprints, and the two reprints only appeared briefly online, which is one of the reasons I wanted to include them in the collection.   You can buy the signed, jacketed hardcover for $40, which when you consider that it’s limited to only 100 copies, is a pretty darn good deal.  Or you can buy the unsigned jacket-less hardcover (which still has Glen Chadbourne’s wonderful cover illustration) for $19.20.

The collection contains the following stories:

“A Web of Black Widows”   . . . A grieving tattoo artist makes a cross-country trip with a pregnant woman on the run from her disturbed husband.

“The Woman Coughed Up By the Sea” . . . A mysterious artist finds a woman washed up on the beach and feels compelled to paint her.

“She’s Not All There” . . . A young man who made a disastrous choice in wife is forced to crash weddings with his ghostly bride so she can remain on Earth.

“Black Lace And Salt Water”  . . . A poet suffering from writer’s block  moves to the Oregon coast and finds inspiration from an unlikely source.

“Static in a Still House” . . . A lonely man who makes his living scouting thrift shops and estate sales finds a mysterious baby monitor that changes his life.

“Front Row Seats” . . . A widowed mathematician suffering from an unusual malady seeks relief in the movie theater — and finds more than he bargained for.

I can’t promise these will be uplifting stories, but I hope you’ll find them both moving and thought provoking.  Think of them as October Valentines.  Though my first novel will be published in a few months, this book actually marks the first time that my work has appeared all on its own, not in anthology or magazine surrounded by other writers.  And if you could show your support by buying a copy, I’d be much obliged.

You know, there’s days I wish I wrote on a manual typewriter.  Then when I’m frustrated with something I could, with a great flourish, rip the page out of the typewriter, crumple it into a ball and toss it in the fireplace.  Then my wife could dig it out of the fireplace and claim it’s the best thing I’ve ever written, forcing me to mail it to publishers who’d very quickly write me a check with lots of commas in it.  It would be read by millions and then I’d be on Oprah with a great story to tell about The Masterpiece That Very Nearly Met a Fiery Doom.  But computers?  It’s hard to hit the delete key with a flourish.  And of course, there’s also nothing for my wife to rescue from a Fiery Doom.  What is she supposed to do, use Norton Utilities?  What kind of story would that make?  “You see, Oprah, I deleted the file with a great flourish, and then my wife, fearing I might do such a rash thing, used her computer skills to rescue it from my Recycle Bin before I emptied it . . .”

So really, you can see how a computer might be holding me back from being a bestseller.  Technology does have its price, you know.

Our town’s local magazine, Salem Monthly, just ran a brief interview with me about my first book. If you’re interested, check it out.

As I sit here on New Year’s Day, the kids playing with their cousin on the floor beneath me, my wife baking in the other room, a hot cup of coffee on the end table, a computer on my lap, and the sound of the rain outside as I sit here comfy with my feet up on the recliner — I have to think, you know, this is a pretty darn good life.  Of course, all that baking will mean a pile of dishes to do later, but hey, I really can’t complain.  Well, I could, but I don’t imagine I’d get a lot of sympathy points. 

 As far as writing productivity goes, 2009 was a decent year.  Not a great year, but at least back to where I was when I decided to get serious about being a writer about eight years ago — with two new novels finished, another novel started, and five stories out to editors.  As far as publications go, it was pretty quiet, with just one short story seeing print (“The Bear Who Sang Opera” in Analog), but you know, for the most part the publication process isn’t something I can control. 

 Still, 2010 should be an even bigger year when it comes to productivity, far exceeding any year before it.  I made some changes to my work habits the last third of 2009 — mostly just being much more strict about adhering to regular daily word counts — and it paid off in a big way.  So I’ll be sticking with the daily regimen.  Plus I’m doing a short story a month while I’m doing the novels and that’s helped my productivity too, allowing me to switch from one project to another when I find myself stalling a bit.  More than anything else, I measure my success in terms of productivity, so just plain writing more has been intensley gratifying.

And that’s just the beginning.  I’ve got big plans for the website too.  I’ve done a lot of thinking the last few months about what it means to be a writer in the twenty-first century — especially a fiction writer — and you’ll see a lot of that thinking turned into action around these parts in the near future.  No need to say more for now, but it’s going to be fun.  Work, but fun. 

This year will also see the publication of my first novel, as well as two story collections, so it’s already set to be a banner year. 

I’m not big on posting all of my goals and plans publicly (though I’m actually very big on the whole goal thing pesonally), but I will say that my main focus this year is being smarter with my time.  As productive as I am, I’m often aghast at how much time I fritter away.  Since I want to crank things up a notch this year — in all aspects of my writing — it’s not something I can let myself get away with any more.