500 Words

You may have a question from my post yesterday, why 500 Words a day? If you look at a book from the perspective of an architect, like a building, a book is built from the ground up. An idea grows and morphs into a completed project. Unlike a building, a book is built of words, this is why the 500 words is so captivating.

To say a builder builds houses, can distract from an important truth. They actually lay foundations, raise framing, lays floors, hang drywall, joists, and build roofs. Much like a writer produces more than a book, they write words which become sentences, paragraphs, and chapters.

When you write 500 words a day, you are building both your book, and your writing muscle. A builder doesn’t evaluate every board when building a house. I would encourage you to avoid doing the same with every word. Every piece of writing, whether Shakespeare, Hemingway, or Dickens was edited, none were perfect at the beginning.

This means that you should not be evaluating your writing as a finished project, but a work in process. I would encourage you to avoid editing while you write, that can slow down the process of adding words. Once the words are written they’ll be plenty of time to edit, for now I would encourage you to write 500 words a day.

If you do this, by the end of 5 days, you’ll have 2,500 words, in ten days 5,000 words, and so on. You are well on your way of becoming an author, as you are building towards it with each word you write. Tomorrow, let’s look at two more questions, why do we desire to write, as well as what is the purpose of writing a book? Let’s talk more about that in the morning, I don’t want to take too much of your time after all, you have writing to do.