After trying all sorts of approaches to writing and failing miserably and therefore being miserable (a daily word goal of 1000 words; sitting at the desk for two hours morning and afternoon; writing a page of gibberish before writing “the novel”), I decided that my only obligation was to type one word per day. Just one. The beauty of this goal is two-fold. First, the requirement is so insignificant that it is not worthy of the procrastination monkey. Secondly, it is hard to fall short. All I have to do is open my laptop and type one word. It will take a minute, maybe two, and then I am permitted to close my laptop and watch Netflix. But it’s like telling someone who is avoiding exercise that all they are required to do is put on their runners and take one step out the door. Once your runners are on and the door is open, walking is easy. Similarly, once the laptop is open and you’ve typed that first word, the next two or three just tumble out and before you know it you’ve written 100 words, maybe 200 words, sometimes 300 words – at that point you are as good as Virginia Woolf and any more words would be an overachievement.
Pip Williams in an interview with Daryl Maxwell for the LAPL Blog and printed in the endnotes of The dictionary of Lost Words
Tag: The Dictionary of Lost Words
“Words are like stories, don’t you think, Mr. Sweatman? They change as they are passed from mouth to mouth; their meanings stretch or truncate to fit what needs to be said. The Dictionary can’t possibly capture every variation, especially since so many have never been written down -”
Esme to Mr. Sweatman, in The Dictionary of Lost Words, by Pip Williams
“Words change over time, you see. The way they look, the way they sound; sometimes even their meaning changes. They have their own history.”
Da to Esme, in The Dictionary of Lost Words, by Pip Williams
“Never forget that, Esme. Words are our tools of resurrection.”
Aunt Ditte to Esme, in The Dictionary of Lost Words, BY Pip Williams