Howdy,
I’ll try not to talk too much about word count today — chose/find a topic instead — but I am excited to say that with the to-the-side, off-the-books free write that I’ve already done today, I only need a post of about 300 words to have a 2,000-word writing day, which is real progress on cutting into that word-count deficit that I have running right now.
The good news for you? You may only have to read a 300-word post. (Or so.)
Short posts are nice sometimes, for all of us. Like those books with short chapters. Finish a chapter and start the next one.
John Maxwell (author of many, many leadership books at this point) tells the story of being a beginner at writing books. He says that one of his early books, maybe his first, had lots of short chapters, and one day a lady at a conference came up to him and told him how much she loved that book.
She just loved how he had decided to employ such short chapters, making it easier and more enjoyable to read. The lady was excited to be able to let the author know her appreciation for that choice.
Maxwell says that he told the lady thank you, that he was pleased to hear she enjoyed the book, and also that he couldn’t take too much credit for the choice of the short chapters. He says that back then, at the start of his book publishing career, he didn’t know what else to write to make them longer. He’d start a chapter and when he couldn’t think of anything else to add, he’d close that chapter and start another one. All short.
Short chapters turned into many books for Mr. Maxwell.
We’ve talked about this being a journey. With what you do, today, write a short chapter.
And keep going from there …
—Billy
Reading. Writing. Living.
Word Count: 82,201 / On Pace: 90,750 / Year’s Goal: 200,000
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