Day: November 13, 2013

Ray Bradbury Quote About the Necessity of Quantity

Lynn

“WD: You’re terribly prolific, but a lot of writers produce one book in a lifetime. Would you advise young writers to spend all their time polishing one piece or to go for quantity?

BRADBURY: It simply follows that quantity produces quality. Only if you do a lot will you ever be any good. If you do very little, you’ll never have quality of idea or quality of output. The excitement and creativity comes from a whole lot of doing; hoping you’ll suddenly be struck by lightning. If you only write a few things, you’re doomed. The history of literature is the history of prolific people. I always say to students, give me four pages a day, every day. That’s three or four hundred thousand words a year. Most of that will be bilge, but the rest … It will save your life!”

I came across this quote used in Quantity Produces Quality – A NaNoWriMo Post. The interview excerpt is from a February 1976 Writer’s Digest interview with science-fiction writer Ray Bradbury.

Day 13 of NANO 2013

Lynn
Every day is a chance to do better than yesterday.
Every day is a chance to do better than yesterday.

I’d like a big gain today but I’ll settle for reaching my daily goal without too much drama. What am I doing here? I’m recording my progress on NaNoWriMo 2013—it’s fun! I’m finding the process more useful than I expected when I started and … it’s my website; I can do what I want. ;)

8:01 am: 8,195
10:37 am: 8,682
1:49 pm: 9,107
2:46 pm: 9,575
5:02 pm: 9,628

Between 8 and 10:30 I wrote, then I napped—I have no idea why I needed a nap this early but I assume it had to do with thoughts about my book congealing in my head. I had numerous ideas solidify while I drifted in and out of sleep over a thirty minute period. Then I had tea and stared at the beautiful sunshine through my window, wishing it weren’t just 39°F outside! I live in a mild part of the country and this is not my favorite kind of weather. I prefer a brisk 60°–65° over close-to-freezing any day of the week.

Between 10:30 and 12 I allowed myself to get distracted. Too many browser windows open! I’m shutting off the browser until I get something done. I lose track of time without the clock in my browser bar dinging but I’m just going to have to deal. Maybe that’s what’s causing me to get distracted. I don’t mind losing track of time if I’m actually writing when I do it.

Between 12 and 1:49 I made a bit of progress. I wrote about an hour and fifteen minutes during that time.

Between 1:49 and 2:46 I wrote! Not much else to say. I haven’t moved out of my chair or taken my fingers off the keyboard during that time. I know I’m slow. I write how I write, and that is apparently very, very slowly. Until I’m not. But apparently “I’m not” isn’t happening today.

Between 2:46 and 5 I did a lot of stuff that wasn’t writing. I probably got in about 30–45 minutes of writing. Ouch. That’s like 1,433 for the whole day so far.

It’s 10:06 p.m. and I’m bummed. I thought  I would have some more writing time tonight but stuff happened, and all that imaginary time disappeared into the ether. I’m calling it a night and trying not to feel bad about my progress today. I have to have a few good days soon or I’m going to be in real trouble. I’ve got a book I’ve need to finish asap. ASAP.