Medium Pimping

I’ve recently started writing again in earnest. My goal is to put down at least 300 words per day. While the number is small and arbitrary I think it is a sound approach.

I recently read On Writing by Stephen King and Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott; both writers cited writing every day as a key component to becoming a good writer.

My mother Marie gave me King’s book several years ago but it wan’t until recently that I made it all the way through it. Lamott’s book came to me by way of an episode of MacBreak Weekly where Merlin Mann and Leo Laporte sung its praises.

In addition to those two books I’m rereading Strunk and White’s Elements of Style. This little book is full of practical insights into writing with style. If I’m lucky the combination of the three books will somehow work their mojo on me over the next year and my writing will improve. If nothing else sheer volume should do the trick.

It makes sense that to become good at anything you have to do that thing. So I’ve settled on 300 words as a very approachable daily goal. I’m sure that on some days I’ll get 1000 words. And I’m sure that on some days it will be a very difficult thing to accomplish.

I am not working on a specific fiction project right now but hoping to develop something along the way. So the writing will commence. It may be on one of my bogs, in a private journal, or on a fiction project. But regardless of the outlet the key is to crank the word count. 300 words a day isn’t a lot but that adds up to 109,500 in a year.

As a matter of course one of the projects I will undertake is to rebuild this blog. Folks that have stopped by frequently may have noticed that that the name has changed back to Medium Pimping. I realize this is a silly name but as this isn’t a commercial venture I am happy with it.

Other spots you may see my 300 words pop up are:
www.slidetounlock.com
www.talkingfitness.net
www.plinthandchintz.com

By my count I’m off to a solid 379 word count. Don’t want to overdo my first day.