Four pages a day

Frederik Pohl wrote four pages a day for some insanely long time. I want to say fifty years but I think I am making that number up. He had trouble with his program when he quit smoking. For decades he would sit at the typewriter, and then later the computer, and “deface four sheets of paper” with words. Some he kept, some he trashed, and some went into projects he didn’t really plan on at the time he was writing but no matter what he wrote four pages a day. He’d write, take a sip of coffee, write and then take a drag of his cigarette.

When he quit smoking it blew his system all to pieces and left him at sea. He’s finally getting back into the swing of things but it has taken him a very long time.

I’ve been looking for some minimum standard of writing for a long time. I used to write a thousand words a day. Then I just wanted to write every day. I’ve been all over the place with my goals. I like four pages a day as long as I can count crap towards that total.

I’ve been hitting that goal, and more, since I saw Mr. Pohl last Saturday. Today I am once again feeling wretched. I was up sick until four or five am and then woke up around eight. Then I worked all day. Fridays are my busiest day as I do the BrokerWire and then the Daily Briefing and then put the Weekend Edition together. Plus of course take care of all the tech support needs of everyone at BrokerUniverse.com. When I finished working I thought that is it. I can’t possibly do my four pages. I even was very halfhearted about seeing vorpal this weekend in my reply to him. I haven’t seen him in person in ages but I am afraid I will throw up on him if we hook up. That would never do.

I guess I will hit my goal but it will be oh so very hard and it will take much more willpower than I think I have.

I wonder how Mr. Pohl handles editing. I think maybe you should have a different standard when you are writing your second draft. Oh sure sometimes you are writing pages of new material but sometimes you aren’t. I am sort of kind of working on Angels but I keep thinking about Bluer than the Night Sky and Devil May Care and this romance I started a long time ago and a bunch of new ideas. It’s almost like I need an external editor who says hey now, work on Carnal Fear. And finish that damn Santa story would you? But then again some of these projects are so painful I don’t know if I am brave enough to finish them even if someone said I really should.

Four and a half pages today. I wonder how I managed that.