My last post was practice makes progress. Today’s is of a similar nature. Some goals seem unachievable, when viewed from a distance. Writing a book is a daunting task. But if you write five hundred words a day, let’s say four days a week, then in just under a year you will have written one hundred thousand words, which is a big book. You’ll have to put it away for a while, then re-write it, but it’s still a big achievement. You achieve it step by step.
In the spring of 2019 I walked the Camino de Santiago, or at least most of it. I walked four hundred miles, and climbed 17,420 feet in twenty days. At times it really is a question of putting one foot in front of the other, thinking only of the next stop, step by step. When you find that you’ve passed your chosen hostel and have to backtrack three miles, only to find that it’s closed and then have to walk another eight miles to the next one, that’s dispiriting. But we have to take knocks in all walks of life (no pun intended). In writing we may have to ditch a scene because it doesn’t fit the plot, however beautifully crafted it may have been.
On the Camino you have those moments when you reach the summit of a mountain and see the route ahead, stretching off into the horizon. It’s the same with writing. With historical fiction I have a documented background to set my story within. What will Sir Anthony Standen think and do within the known set of historical events? I craft an outline and plan for each chapter, but really only know what I’m going to write next when I take in the view from the scene that I’ve just written. Progress comes scene by scene, word by word, step by step.