It was interesting to see how sharply my zero-drafting output fell off when I decided to publish on the equinox. Besides the seasonal and symbolic value of that choice, the idea was that I would be giving myself time to establish some form of queuing, going from zero-draft through necessary edits and rewrites and then getting the piece ready for publication. I didn't want to be riding the ragged edge of disaster. But it hasn't worked out that way.
Well, tough shit. During the whole process, I made up some rules for myself for the next phase of this project, and I'm going to work awfully hard to not break them.
The current rules:
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Zero drafting every workday (Monday through Friday). 5,000 words per week, which points to 1,000 words per day, but by thinking of it as a weekly quota, it allows me to catch up if something unexpected comes up, and to get ahead when something expected (e.g. ski day) will be coming up.
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Publishing every workday. I initially had planned on also publishing 1000 words/day, but that would mean that every zero-draft word got published. That's a bad idea. The whole idea of the zero-draft is to not worry about the quality. And sometimes that means that you write some really low-quality stuff, and when you do, you shrug and delete it during edits. You certainly don't ask an audience to read it.
So, Day 2 of the new process? Check. Still showing up.