pilgrim's progress

Day 4. how's it going?

warning: flashing gif at the end

Hello, readers! When I checked my stats on SubStack for my last newsletter, I saw that I had a 61% open rate on my last newsletter (on drafting, if you recall.) That seems to me to be a good number!

Before I dive into the meat of this week’s NaNo content, I wanted to do a small celebratory yell about the Justice Department denial of the Penguin Random House purchase of Simon & Schuster. This is unequivocally a good thing for authors, for various reasons—the merger would have meant less competition between houses (leading to lower advances) for one, the absolute certainty of layoffs and imprint consolidation for another. We were seeing layoffs and consolidation as a result of the Penguin Random House merger as recently as last year, and that happened in like 2012. I am very sure that PRH will appeal this decision but I’m hopeful. Do Amazon next, Uncle Joe!

This week, I thought I’d talk about strong starts and how they can be both a blessing and a curse. Mostly because I myself had a strong start that promptly derailed itself yesterday when I had to do my other job and didn’t have time to sit down and write. Day 1? Nearly 2500 words. Day 2? Nearly 4600. Day 3?

43.

I’ve picked up a few shifts at a local coffee shop for extra cash, so I was on my feet from eight in the morning until three in the afternoon and when I sat down with my laptop and a pilfered pastry to add words I just couldn’t get my brain to cooperate. I added some words, to be sure. 43 isn’t zero. But it’s not 4600 either, or 1667, the number you have to write daily to make sure you hit 50k in one month.

It would be very easy for me to look at my laptop today and say “I didn’t hit count yesterday, which means I won’t win NaNo, so it doesn’t matter if I write today.” I’ve certainly gotten to that point in previous years’ attempts at participating in NaNo. Day 4 or 14, it’s easy to pack it in. Tempting, even. Even as a high word count can be a carrot, the lack thereof can be a pretty brutal mental stick.

Rather than concentrate on the words I didn’t write, I’m choosing today to celebrate that I did write. 43 is better than 0. Sometimes there will be zero days, too. All writing advice is repetitive, but even as NaNo is a sprint, it’s also a marathon. There will be days you have to take it very slow in order to make sure you reach the finish line.

This is where I also like to remind you—and myself—that this is meant to be at least a little bit fun. The act of sitting down to write isn’t always fun; sometimes it’s agonizing, sometimes it’s boring. If you’re finding it’s more agonizing than enjoyable, are you working on the right project? Are you starting in the right place? Are you in the weeds of the details, trying to pick the right thing for your hero to wear? Sometimes the 43-word days are good for airing out your brain, a chance to absorb new stories or revisit old ones. (For my part, I’m rereading one of my favorite Barbara Tuchman works and it’s providing beautiful fertilizer for my brain.)

If you’re participating, how’s that going for you? Are you stuck or are you on a roll? Leave a comment or reply to the newsletter and let us know.

HOUSEKEEPING

WriteTrack: If you’re someone who finds word counts motivating, my good friend Aarthi introduced me to a tool called WriteTrack. Basically, you put in your word count, and you can set it so that it tells you the number of words you need to hit per day based on your planned schedule. I have it set so that on Thursdays and Saturdays I’m not writing a word, because those are the days I’m at the shop. As you write, it adjusts, so that if you’re ahead of your word count, it fixes the daily averages accordingly. It’s free to sign up!

This is what mine looks like—I set myself a slightly ludicrous goal, and note that I haven’t hit it even once, but I’m finding it useful as a visual aid.

Back to School special: I believe I have sent everyone critiques that participated in the query + first ten pages back to school special. If you have not yet received your materials, please send me a reminder email at jsudden@gmail.com

IG Live: Rebecca Heyman and I are going to be on Instagram Live on Monday at 1pm ET to discuss our first week of NaNoWriMo, so please join us for that! We’ll be talking about the joint special we’re going to be running in November—details to come this weekend.

Discord: We’re still feeling our way around Discord, but there are more than five of us in there now! My friend and former client Mur Lafferty has sent me a guide to setting up a sprint bot, so hopefully those will be up and running over the weekend or next week.

THIS WEEK IN HOCKEY

The World Series is 3-2 in favor of the Astros, and between that and the upcoming election I’m basically a ball of nerves. My sister and I aren’t allowed to watch the games live beyond occasionally checking the score, because we are terminal bad luck in the post-season, but best believe I have added Justin Verlander & co to the prayer list at church.

READING: The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War 1890-1914 by Barbara Tuchman
WATCHING: Trainwreck - Woodstock 99
LISTENING: Yet to Come by BTS
WORDS WRITTEN THIS WEEK (so far): 7401

This has been A Faster No, a dispatch on publishing, writing, books, and beyond. Is there something you’d like me to talk about? Leave it in the comments or reply to the email! You can support the newsletter here. If you purchase a book from any of the links to Bookshop.org I get a small commission at no cost to you. I am available for developmental editing and editorial assessment services via Reedsy.