Ira Heinichen's Blog, page 281

Day 1,738: Chipping Away

Do less more often.

I’m not much for catchphrases, or one-line life-hacks, but that advice was really a mentality shift for me. It’s from someone who used to do coaching for actors on the business of the business, Dallas Travers. Now, I think she’s broadened out to entrepreneurs in general. In any case, that stuck with me.

Do less. More often.

Just chip away at it. If you keep chipping away for long enough, you’ll find yourself staring at a sculpture where there used to be stone, and in less...

Day 1,737: The Wall

I hit a wall today. Smack. I was tiiirrreeed when I woke up, despite a full night’s sleep, and I sat down to write and all that came out was drivel. Just under 1,000 words of it.

So, I stopped writing, and I took a break…that lasted for the rest of the day.

I feel better already. Honestly. And having this unscheduled day “off” is actually totally fine with me. I’ve written my ass off for the past two weeks. This was just fatigue. I know that now. And the way to deal with the fatigue is to do...

Day 1,736: Da Coco

My dog, Coco…she is pressed up against me so hard right now. Uuuuggghhhh. It meeelllttsss meeeeee.

*the part of Ira will now be played by a puddle*

Puddle Ira here. Solid Ira wrote a lot of words today, another 4,000 which was his goal. But, to go on and on about such things is tiresome, and since I am not solid Ira, I won’t bore you to tears.

So…what’s new? Beyond this adorable pup that is currently pressed up against a puddle? Trick question, there is nothing beyond that adorable pup. She i...

Day 1,735: Woah Train

So, I am the proud owner of 16,000 new words. That’s how many words I wrote this week. Holy CRAP. I love it

Day 1,734: Saturday

It’s past 1 already, so I’m going to make this a quick one I think

Day 1,733: Aaaahhhhhh

What a week, you guys. What a week.

I’m not quite done yet, but I’ve already written more this week than I think I ever have, ever. 14,500 words. A quarter of this rewrite. Done.

I definitely hit a little bit of a wall today, but I actually think that wall was more *story* related than it was fatigue. I actually feel quite good. Some neck soreness and some leg soreness from the way that I’m sitting…but I can adjust those.

Man, that is the next thing to try and figure out: working out. Taking...

Day 1,732: Not Perfect

One thing I’ve learned about being a writer, or a creative person in general, is how important it is to not be perfect.

For me, it’s especially important when it come to my scheduling. I cannot schedule my day down to the minute. It’s impossible, and it leaves me frustrated, and with things not done in the end.

I was just writing a post in a writers group on Facebook that made me think about that, and looking at my word count for the day. The person was asking about what they can do to up the...

Day 1,731: dayoff

I feel remarkably gassed for having had a day off. That worries me a bit, considering I have two full-on writing days ahead of me to cap off the best writing week I’ve ever had…but I won’t be deterred.

If I’m tired tomorrow, so be it. I can keep going.

I’m reading The Left Hand of Darkness right now and really enjoying it. Le Guin’s writing is super fun and pretty easy to read, except for some stretches where she really packs in the big thesaurus words. They’re always apt, those fancy words,...

Day 1,730: Eight Thousand

I’ve written eight thousand words on my rewrite in the past two days. TWO DAYS. It’s a minor miracle. No, it’s a major one. I could not have DREAMED of doing this even…two months ago. For context, that’s about 32 pages, or 1/10th of a full-length novel. In two days. Ten sets of that 2 days’ of output, and I’ve written an entire novel.

Writing a novel in a month is very, very doable. At least the first draft

Day 1,729: Old Photos

How do you feel when you look at old photos?

To be honest, until this blog came about, I’ve always preferred to look into the future as opposed to the past. I know that’s part my innate personality, and part insecurity.

I look at old photos, and I feel awkward most of the time. I feel like I used to look like a fool, like ‘that’s someone who didn’t know what they were doing.’ I find myself criticizing my hair, my glasses, the clothes I wore, or the pose I struck. I remember trying to be cool....