500 words a day
Oh, hi friends!
I saw a group of kids playing hide and seek yesterday.
Remember that?
First comes the countdown and the scatter.
Then, if you’re the seeker, you have the pressure. It’s your job to find everyone. You evaluate avenues everyone else might explore, and keep going. The game stops when you stop.
if you’re hiding, you have a different job: Don’t be found.
When you’re hiding, you can’t control the seeker. You can’t control how good they are or how long they’ll keep looking.
You can only control yourself: choosing the perfect spot, staying quiet, and holding out longer than everyone else.
So before you start the game, the biggest question is: Where are you most comfortable?
Do you trust yourself to plot and hide and hope your plan is enough?
Or do you want to be on your own, trying to catch everyone else?
There are times to seek and there are times to hide.
Which one is right for you right now?
"Daily writing practice helps improve my skills. Setting a daily word goal forces me to make space amid everything else for this practice. A violinist wouldn’t (or shouldn’t!) complain that playing her scales wasn’t leading to anything. Or that she wasn’t inspired to play the scales....And so the 500 words per day continue. It doesn’t take much time, but it’s about making sure this time does exist in my life amid all the parts of a writing career that don’t involve writing.
Found some inspiration in this old post from Laura Vanderkam on her habit of writing 500 words a day. I used to love a daily word goal (I counted by pages). Maybe time to revisit!
Editing Is Everything
Calling all fans of the Before Sunrise/Sunset/Midnight trilogy. Here is a sweet two-and-a-half minute film featuring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, created by Rob Stone and set during lockdown. Even without dialogue, it will make you think about the power of images and music to construct atmosphere and a sense of longing. You might look at your own Zoom calls differently, too. (h/t Chris Thompson)
And if you haven’t seen the Before movies, I highly recommend them! Here’s where you can rent the first one.
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Thanks, as always, for reading.
Love, Kara