Howdy,
“5/22/17
It’s been forever since I’ve done a free write. Like forever. Since 5/4/17. Okay, so it’s been this month, but still I’m impressed that I haven’t had to lean on this format in quite awhile to get my words and stay up with the word count pace I’ve set for myself but played out in public.
At the same time, I am happy to be back—just going for it! It’s a nice give and take and support to my process, I suppose. The knowledge that I can hit the FREE WRITES file for a session of quick—quicker!, because I’m starting to get faster, which is so nice and such a blessing and makes this whole commitment and experiment, experience, more than worthwhile: eye-opening and promising—writing and a gathering of words and catch-up against the ever-moving, fast-flowing word count pace that is a monster if you fall behind: but is also a catalyst for achieving so much more than I ever really even thought through or considered realistically. It was just a big number when I started this journey, when I think of it now. That’s what it was: a shot in the future for a number that I didn’t even know how to hit, but I’m using the willingness to work and the working toward consistency to my advantage instead of again falling of the moving wagon and getting abandoned to the dust with my parched projects withering in the waiting.
And I now know that I can move faster still. I know, know, know, this because I just timed today’s words above, and, thinking I was moving fast, was surprised to only have 232 after five minutes. In a sense that’s a lot if you keep up that kind of pace with meaningful words for a significant quantity of minutes, so I’ll consider it maybe it isn’t so slow, but I think this current paragraph has been even faster. There’s an endurance of focus that it takes to keep up the pace, to keep moving, to push faster and further for longer than one is accustomed to, which is endurance, right?
As I’m writing, I’m thinking that I may be able to use a good chunk of this free write—if not the whole thing as an example of what I do when free writing and just going for it, chasing words and sometimes finding thoughts—as an entry for my blog today.
Funny thing is, I planned to write today about an incident of my fly being down (with a twist on the whole “You afraid of heights?”), and I was trying to decide if I should be writing a draft post or a free write, since the topic of a “zipper” being down sounded more like an episode of free write fodder than any serious writing, regardless of where it were done. But I wanted to free write, and I figured I’d goof around a bit about the whole open fly thing and maybe find something to craft into a “respectable” post.
But, instead, here is my free-written post, and you’ll just have to wait to read about the modern contemplations of catching a glimpse of that gap and thinking, “You afraid of depths?”
Thinking like a writer, and thinking there’s something to be written.
Let it breathe.”
—Billy
Reading. Writing. Living.
P.S. If there’s anything that sounds hubris to you, please remember this is me thinking to myself—rambling high thoughts … Not that kind of high: lofty. In my mind.
Word Count: 119,142 / On Pace: 119,900 / Year’s Goal: 200,000
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