My Targets in 2016

My Targets in 2016

In December 2015 I decided to try and write ONE MILLION WORDS by the end of 2016.

I wanted the personal challenge, I wanted to find out what was possible, I wanted to be an example to Boot Campers and anyone else who might take an interest.

I started December 7th 2015 and in December wrote 86,667 words at an average of 3,467 words per day. January started with a rush but then in the last third of the month I wrote

0
859
997
131
1036
507
0
4270
1227
0
2392
1032

and I felt something was wrong. February was a disaster and I wrote less than 20,000 words in 27 days but managed a "save" with 11,000 for the last two days.

I had been quite ill for 6 weeks but now, today, the last day of March, I am a few hundred words short of writing 140,000 words for the month.

My total is now 341,359 words and I am scheduled to reach the 1,000,000 mark some time in November.

113 Flashes

054 Poems

039 Stories

Many articles, lots of writing about writing (and this process)

It is really tough. I have sore eyes, sore fingers. I have to go for walks and go to the gym every day to make sure my body doesn't seize up. I've lost weight.

But I'm showing myself what can be done, and there is NO FALL OFF IN QUALITY.

Far from it. When I am in the zone the quality INCREASES. I have written already, the equivalent of 3-4 novels, a few books of shorts, and the standard remains close to my best.

Always aim higher.

March Prompts 6926-6950

Thursday, March 31st, 07:15

6926 This is the last time, or the time but one

6927 We are almost there, but now be there dragons

6928 The clouds that still remain

6929 Will you enter the caves with me?

6930 It is a washed-out town, colours drained to grey

6931 You, skin electric-tight, breathless

6932 TINKER

6933 The city calls down the bomb

6934 You’re having a bad time?

6935 What is over the next hill, or “What’s in the fridge?”

6936 You make a choice. The important thing is deciding.

6937 And in your mouth, a foulness

6938 TAILOR

6939 The Bayonet-Polisher’s Apprentice

6940 This is what dying feels like, a disappointment

6941 It was too delicate, a dream, light smoke

6942 SOLDIER

6943 When once the world was so much larger

6944 BISHOP

6945 But not the children from the terraces

6946 The machines chug outside, eating garbage

6947 A bowl of fresh strawberries, a little too much cream

6948 Let me do this. I got this.

6949 Picnic

6950 Those of you who do not sleep, attend!

March Prompts 6901-6925

Wednesday, March 30th, 08:30

6901 Why the oldest friends should never sleep together

6902 There is something vulgar about all this

6903 A kind of Karma, or God balancing out

6904 But, by chance, not Kokura. Think about that.

6905 Orange Juice for Nana, but Nana sleeps

6906 The cyanide secreted in his vest

6907 Three bluebells, plucked by a child

6908 Commit this to forgetting.

6909 The All-Clear Sounds on a cloudless day

6910 There is nothing of note here

6911 North-West of Iwo Jima

6912 Stare at a dark ceiling. Do not close your eyes

6913 Press, then withdraw promptly. DO NOT RUN

6914 Let’s waste time, do more of nothing slowly

6915 Above, cold stars, here clouds, below flimsy buildings

6916 In case of problems they will divert 

6917 Make Love. Fuck. But copulate?

6918 We could try singing?

6919 It is a long dark tunnel. You will need to be resolute

6920 Men will doubt you, but so will dogs.

6921 Remove the plug marked “DO NOT REMOVE”.

6922 The sweetness of the small things

6923 Hyacinths.

6924 The moon is not interested

6925 A small white bird, God choosing

March Prompts 6876-6900

Tuesday, March 29th, 07:30

6876 Imagine if you stopped me. Whose victory would that be?

6877 The gleam, the smell, the air of the right three words

6878 April Fools

6879 The sun through my window, glory rising

6880 Whatever you do, don’t lie in today.

6881 Nevertheless, I went. I do not regret it

6882 If this is how it is, we must endure it

6883 Just Don’t Do It!

6884 And what if they succeed, the children of the damned?

6885 What would Jesus have done?

6886 It wasn’t what I had imagined, but it was OK

6887 I suggest you exit forthwith, Sir

6888 Cheques and Balances

6889 The most beautiful, beautiful, home-made chicken soup

6890 Imagine you were a nice person. What would you do then?

6891 This isn’t death, but it is a kind of death

6892 There are other ways this could be, be not narrow in your thoughts

6893 Pocohontas

6894 A thin layer of leaked thoughts on the bedroom floor

6895 Hearts to not creep, they bound even off a cliff

6896 Listen! Someone, somewhere is trying to help you

6897 I saw old people, one a former wife

6898 SHARP!

6899 She talks out of the corners of her eyes

6900 Leave the bottle, shower, sleep

March Prompts 6851-6875

Monday, March 28th, 06:20

6851 Let’s start afresh, deep breath, head up, forward!

6852 I wake up, still not knowing

6853 Costa Encounter

6854 Maybe fifty years ago, when I was 79

6855 Something Churchillian, Bull Baffles Brains

6856 Before we were lost, this was beautiful

6857 The Clapham Omnibus

6858 Twats in sunglasses and Hawaiian shirts

6859 I have friends from Tibet, but none living there

6860 The wind whistles round the house

6861 The fire has gone out

6862 The dark deep rumbles of the gut

6863 The obscene cost of every square foot

6864 That’s the thing with sound effects

6865 For Spring and Summer, Winter

6866 We are on a runaway train. This doesn’t end well

6867 Confucius, he say

6868 The memory is too strong, too bright

6869 Newcastle Brown

6870 Certain noises gave her migraines. She hated the sound of chewing

6871 Let’s just whisper that we are done and drink our coffee

6972 I have dreamt of the wrong things

6873 CLOVER

6874 This is the only poem that matters

6875 This is not the end, or the beginning of the end

March Prompts 6826-6850

Saturday, March 26th, 14:00

6826 England Awaits.

6827 The Joy of Sacks

6828 Various incidents in Delhi

6829 The Great wall of Texas

6830 I’m sorry. I know I’m rushing, but…

6831 Mary Mary Quite Contrary

6832 The Chinese girl I almost loved

6833 Prozac Central.

6834 When you meet someone who met someone

6835 Under a Coolabah Tree

6836 Beatles, Stones, Simon & Garfunkel…

6837 Complete, unadulterated, honest

6838 Fucking Kangaroos

6839 I was thinking about Churchill. He was fat.

6840 It all is building to a cracking finish

6841 As he said, like a patient on a table

6842 Play an anthem, salute the fucking flag

6843 In Lanzarote, I believe

6844 Sometimes there is something missing

6845 What she keeps in her old brown tin

6846 Ma-Ma, Hu-Hu

6847 It sounds better in Chinese

6848 Second is better but first is OK

6849 PLUM

6850 Play something that surprises me

March Prompts 6801-6825

Saturday, March 26th, 06:05

6801 There will be a great silence, sound only imagined

6802 Devils Birds, the cries of fruit

6803 The dogs sense this

6804 I am old, but I am not waiting

6805 I am not expressing myself that well

6806 The gas fire sputters

6807 You must hold something real, feel the heft of things

6808 As the plane was crashing the farmer was thinking of his crops

6809 No, it is worse

6810 I have this overwhelming urge to close my eyes

6811 My son is arguing: these are the best times

6812 Mary is making toast

6813 Pillow, Blood

6814 There are windows open all over the world, music

6815 I am on the floor and they won’t let me up

6816 They have taken so much away and replaced it with bad jokes and music

6817 Hammer, Nail, Ointment

6818 It is more, far more than your statistics

6819 I know what I know, not how to say it

6820 Nye Bevan, Foot, Benn

6821 Do you really believe that shinier means better

6822 I feel devoid of the weight of what should matter

6823 This rash, these headaches, are real

6824 Show me something amazing

6825 When in 1947 they said, “No matter what, it shall come about.”

March Prompts 6776-6800

Friday, March 25th, 16:35

6776 I think it is time for one of us to sleep

6777 They are coming. There is nothing you can do.

6778 Popular Mechanics

6779 We were lovers. We just didn’t have sex

6780 A Good Day in the Field

6781 The graph is slowly downwards and so am I

6782 A dark against the candles

6783 The History of the British Empire

6784 TRENCH

6785 If I liked you, Sir, I’d be pleased to see you.

6786 Try this. If you don’t like it there’s no downside

6787 Beano

6788 Every spring they painted the house the pink of their cherry-blossom

6789 A dark old dog, limping

6780 In 1953, there was a great gale.

6791 No, that’s one place I have never been

6792 The Eagle

6793 Imagine it’s 2016. Try.

6794 When the water breaks upon the shingle 

6795 There is something dark here. I cannot stay

6796 Hold me. Let me imagine what it’s like to be loved.

6797 Exchange & Mart

6798 We both have pain but your will end

6799 Let me make some tea and then we’ll talk

6800 If I should be buried in a sunken ship

March Prompts 6726-6750

Friday, March 25th, 06:15

6751 For a change, let us start at the beginning

6752 Today the cross would be recyclable

6753 Between these things there is love and slaughter

6754 My feet are hot, my eyes and cheeks are burning

6755 This time we will finish at the end

6756 You may be dying in a fire

6757 Jesus’s Sister Amanda

6758 Here in the fiction mine, working with goblins

6759 Or maybe crack a joke, or say, “Did you hear that?”

6760 When the customers are the same as yesterday, and so are you

6761 “The Devil has all the best tunes”

6762 The Imperious Machine

6763 A woman who lives in the forest, shits behinds trees

6764 You will have to dig to find the writer, hopefully alive

6765 Men of Harlech

6766 Name that Tune!

6767 How the numbers fall and rise again, and fall

6768 You may think words are just word

6769 I ache, wife.

6770 The bombers last remarks. Are they silent in the taxi

6771 Hi, this is me, your second victim

6772 What we spoke of earlier

6773 You might be a poet but you won’t wake up a poet

6774 Your alternate world where you are dead and live of old age

6775 We have been activated a day or two early

March Prompts 6701-6725

Wednesday, March 23rd, 19:35

6701 Whenever, wherever 

6702 Venus, bright as a distant planet

6703 It is what it is

6704 The view from the mountain is not the valley

6705 Play some old sad songs

6706 Keep Calm and throw out your Keep Calm Posters

6707 Not defeated, never cowed

6708 The night dies at 03:30

6709 Banana Moon

6710 There may be something coming

6711 Oh, love, and you so far away…

6712 JOY!

6713 Fat yes, but not as fat

6714 We go on, limping

6715 She had walked into a door. Called Frank

6716 She bent down to tie her shoelace

6717 TELEPHONE

6718 I need a cheap room, as dirty as possible

6719 Eurovision, the cultural Icon

6720 Unwashed knives, crust forks and a rancid spoon

6721 My lover is worn out. May I borrow yours?

6722 There is more to come

6723 It’s not the cough that carries you off

6724 Insensitive Care

6725 Coughing into a bucket

March Prompts 6651-6675

Wednesday, March 23rd, 07:45

6651 My mirror talks, no biggie

6652 We are doing our best here, Sir!

6653 Pale nights, a TV buzzing, old soul records

6654 I exclaim. Because I can! Twice!!

6655 Hey why don’t we order a take-away poem?

6656 It has come to my attention

6657 Workmen in the street

6658 Fuck This. Fuck That. In fact fuck fucking.

6659 Walls lined with skin, art so dark like the Devil’s Diary

6660 Bring it on! (But not ‘till next week…)

6661 I should buy right new bedding and a few loud CDs

6662 Tea. TEA. TEA!

6663 Brought up by wolves, but later barbarians

6664 I have a seat at the head of the table

6665 I was twenty-one, she nineteen

6666 The axe swings. So?

6667 A high-chair once

6668 It will be eight o’clock, soon. What then?

6669 Will you be my lover?

6670 When the faintest whiff of tweed or “snowing down south”

6671 The Executioner plays with his children

6672 I have no use of this. Do you want it?

6673 Under the castle, water

6674 One day I was on patrol, when in aisle 17, I…

6675 This, I should counsel you, would be ill-advised

March Prompts 6601-6625

Monday, March 21st, 16:37

6601 For every flower, a worm

6602 What sounds a little like music, drifting in the trees

6603 A quiet, leafy island, a small shingle beach

6604  A heart, a firm hand, time for each other

6605 This is a little too solemn for me

6606 Queen of our alley for sure

6607 I’m broke, but I can knock you off a poem…

6608 Just kids running, voices like bells

6609 That “tread softly” thingee

6610 Back before I’d ever had a broken heart

6611 He came towards us, a huge setting sun at his back

6612 DIXIE

6613 One of us to die, one of us to choose

6614 MARIA

6615 Aw, lovey, run it under a tap

6616 I’m going to fuck off and build a cabin on an island

6617 His old brown shoes, his old brown dog

6618 When you are middle-aged and turning fat

6619 I am ready!

6620 I am just trying to stay dry, that’s all

6621 Let me call you brother. Let me feed you.

6622 FIRE AT WILL!

6623 The Mad Flannery O’Driscoll

6624 WILL! DUCK!

6625 When the car is still shiny

:

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March Prompts 6576-6600

Monday, March 21st, 06:17

6576 Walking there, towards gold windows, possibility

6577 A mug of hot, sweet, tea

6578 Like the snow disappearing from the hills

6579 When the ambulance waits by the cliffs

6580 The air in my chest at the gates

6581 How can I deny it any longer?

6582 Hubble Fucking Bubble

6583 A quiver of rough arrows on my back

6584 He came across as real, a man, no spin, just a man

6585 No, I’m just tidying up a bit

6586 It’s that way! Start swimming!

6587 The Fool is the luckiest man

6588 I am slowly disappearing

6589 Does “cunning” come from…?

6590 I am jealous of myself

6591 You’re dressed to the eyeballs, to go shopping?

6592 A small boat, a huge ocean, a big heart

6593 If you go, I’ll go

6594 Love hot, death cold, the first does not last like the latter.

6595 As we near the end the road gets steeper

6596 The lines and circles, the space between

6597 This will do

6598 The clock is ticking, the water runs out

6599 The politics we don’t see, dictators in pairs

6600 Owl, Bat, Toad, You.

:

March Prompts 6551-6575

Sunday, March 20th, 09:12

6551 We should open with something beautiful

6552 When it’s too cold for poetry

6553 Spanner

6554 The Zen of Shitting

6555 What will you do? What will you do?

6556 Now be patient. Plants. Will. Grow.

6557 We may dispense with profit for the good of our society

6558 Four miles at nigh across dark bogs

6559 If there must be painful times, disperse them

6560 I have heard your species mates for life

6561 A dozen messages, pended by the machine

6562 The Magic of Waitrose

6563 Do not wait for the bugler. Rise up and he will follow!

6564 Egg White for the glaze

6565 That is not your book. This is your book

6566 I hear the click of the bathroom door

6567 Sleep’s borders are different in the day

6568 We step out into the dark, or heads into the mouth of the lion

6569 Cinnamon!

6570 I am sorry. I feel weak this morning

6571 A small shudder as my core shifts

6572 No exclamation marks! Are you kidding?!!!

6573 The sorrow is about what might have been, not what was lost

6574 Something soft, a sleeping baby of an idea

6575 Imagine! Milton Keynes!

March Prompts 6526-6550

Friday, March 18th, 07:17

6526 It is hard to find romance here; not impossible

6527 And I would float upon your oceans

6528 Colours to make a man cry

6529 As the lovers step from the trees, buzzing softly

6530 I should start a huge project and throw myself in

6531 I close the door slowly

6532 When the Barrista barrists

6533 Children looking for eggs

6534 A white-white, a black impossibly black

6535 I came at words differently then

6536 Just once, for the experience

6537 I am old, my house is old, my thoughts are old

6538 In that amazing ‘plane, weightless, different

6539 Joe, not that young, one of those who saw the meteor

6540 I the view to your liking or should I change it?

6541 British Bulldog, the way the Scout Leaders liked to tumble

6542 It is a good day for killing

6543 Can I borrow your tomorrow? I have extra days next month

6544 The skill of egg-blowing

6545 There is something angelic, magical about fog

6546 After the Scout Party, in a Sweet-shop

6547 It is after sunset, the time God likes to show off

6548 Musical chairs, the impossible moments sitting on a lap

6549 How we cut down trees and sold the wood

6550 This could be good, better than good.