A Word Is a Word Is a Word
Not a Rose or a Pipe
A while ago I set myself a goal: write 1,000 words a workday, 5,000 a week. Some of you may remember it from an earlier post. Yikes! What a dreamer I was. How naïve!
Though I’ve made the 1,000 a few times, I’ve only once hit 5,000 for a week. And that’s as an old retired guy who really has nothing else to do but get up, shower, have coffee, [write], and then get downstairs by lunchtime. Even so, I’ve mostly missed the mark. This is a bit of a downer.
It does all have to happen in the morning, since the afternoon and evening are fully taken up by after-lunch nap, neighborhood stroll, heat-up/order-in/otherwise-secure dinner, and then TV till bedtime. Yes, I know, sounds like a thrilling life, doesn’t it? But in defense of my with-it reputation, I’ll mention that I sowed my “wild oats,” as they used to say when I was a kid (I remember it being said about one uncle in particular, and I’m pretty sure he was not a farmer), with drink and drugs and discos till dawn – and other things, which are mostly just blurry memories now (due to the drink and drugs, etc.) – I sowed them aplenty, or at least enough, back in the day. So I make no apologies for embracing the “old duffer” stage with gusto – or as close to gusto as my old duffer self can muster. Still, I don’t want to be only a place-holder, even now. With no grandchildren to dandle, that’s a real possibility, since an old guy like me has to be really careful who he dandles these days.
Hence the goal. You’d think it wouldn’t be too much to crank out my daily 1,000 by noon; my 5,000 by naptime Friday. But apparently you’d be wrong to think it. I begin to understand where Gertrude Stein was coming from, and I’m tempted to emulate her: A word, is a word, is a word, is a word, is a … GENIUS! How many words is that? Where’s the “repeat 1,000 times” key?
I know there is a potential hazard in this. A “word” is not a “rose” (nor a “pipe” either, but that’s another story entirely), so I don’t feel that I should be accused of plagiarizing from Gertrude (or René). But these days you never know. Some literary troglodytes may not be capable of grasping the subtle, crucial difference, and may accuse me anyway. Besides, even Stein had some trouble engaging her audience, so I suppose I’d best not follow her method too closely if I hope to keep YOU reading, and reading, and reading ...
Even though I’ve fallen short of my word-count goals, I’ve managed some success I feel good about. Last fall I started my Substack space, Recollections, Reflections, Fantasies, Fictions, after a number of rejections by publications I didn’t read, but thought I should try to get published in anyway, to be a “real” writer. (Really, I wonder who does read them? But I suppose that’s sour grapes!)
I decided I was too old for more rejection, that life is too short for it – and at my age it really is too short! I’d heard about Substack, so I decided I’d just start “publishing” my stuff there – self-publishing in the internet age. I reached out to you, and, to my delight, you subscribed. With you in mind, I started posting (publishing!) pieces on a variety of topics, twice a week. I hoped that some of you would find some of them worth reading. And to my amazement, joy and gratitude, some of you have, and have let me know.
Publishing twice a week, even short pieces, turns out to be a bit of a challenge, for those of us who are not in the writing business, anyway. But I’d set myself a schedule, and I was determined to keep to it if I could.
Substack tells me that this is my 86th post since I started, not quite 6 months ago. Some of the pieces were written before I joined Substack, and posted later, but all, except for one or two, are from the last year. In a moment of candor – or exasperation? – one subscriber said to me recently, “You’re writing A LOT!” As a subscriber yourself, you’re probably aware of that. At least they didn’t say “TOO MUCH, TOO MUCH, TOO MUCH” – didn’t say the words, anyway, though body language perhaps said, said, said something different.
If it’s too much, and even I fear sometimes it may be, then I thank you for your tolerance in staying with me. I hope that some of it, at least, has been worth reading. For me, it’s been fun and liberating.
Eighty-six Substack posts. Say they average a thousand words each – I think they do – that’s 86,000 words! An average novel’s worth, so Google tells me. Wow! Not bad, eh? Just imagine what the count would be if I’d been reaching my goal. And many of them are even different words. Not all, but some.
With that wind of words in my sail, maybe I’ll even up the goal. 1,500 a day? That should be enough for THREE posts a week. Are you ready? Am I? Too much, too much, too much? (Don’t answer that; it’s purely a rhetorical repetition.)
And now it’s probably time to say, The end, The end, The end.
Keep writing. But THREE a week?
Always on my list!