- I’ve written 1000 words per day every day on my WIP and am now up to 46k words! You might think that means I’ve written every day for 46 days in a row but it’s actually 78 days (because I’m also doing revisions on another project).
- I’ve formed a good habit!
- I’ve actually formed a good habit. Wow. (I have lots of other less-than-stellar habits so I’m basking in the glow, people.)
- This morning I finished another round of revisions on my humorous boy book.
- I’ve had the plague since last Tuesday.
- Today I’m dressed in real go-out-into-the-world clothes for the first time in days.
- It should be noted, however, that flannel jammies can be very fashionable; it all depends on the attitude.
framed
Stuff and Other
Yesterday I finished the draft of my WIP and set it aside for at least one week but probably two!
Met online friends in person this week and enjoyed myself very much both times! Hooray for Jennifer, Robin, Stephanie, Ingrid, Jean, and Sarah!
Cannibalized (with her permission) one of Robin’s throwaway comments and this morning used it as a jumping-off point for 1k words! Have no idea if it’ll go anywhere but it was nice trying to get another voice/story going while the WIP simmers in the background!
Visited R in nursing home this afternoon and for the first time in weeks ( ! ) I witnessed him up and walking (with a walker). He’s gained 4 pounds and the PT says this week has marked a real improvement in R’s strength!
Tomorrow I’m taking Zebu and friend plus Wildebeest and friend to Elitch’s amusement park. (I can’t bring myself to use an exclamation point for that news item). Wish me well.
So Here’s a Question…
How do you decide a draft is done?
I’ve been working on the fourth draft of my novel (at least, I think it’s the fourth draft but it’s probably only like a 3 1/6 draft . Keep reading and you’ll understand why I’m not even sure what qualifies as a draft). For the last couple days I’ve focused on the final twelve pages or so, trying to get them whipped into decent shape before calling this draft complete. Well, today I’ve realized all sorts of stuff I need to change (lots of minor details but also rewriting several scenes). And now I’m not sure how to proceed.
I can’t decide whether to
A) finish messing with the final pages and then start a whole new document for my next draft or
B) finish messing with the final pages AND go back to make minor changes throughout entire ms before starting a whole new document for the next draft
Is there a compelling reason to choose one approach over another? How do you handle this? I’m wondering whether I’ll lose stuff I might end up wanting if I make all those changes yet I also think if I call this draft complete, then I’ll, what? I’m not really sure what I’m worried about. All I know is neither approach is screaming out to me. Man, I’m some kind of confused right now.
And here I am asking for advice on a Friday afternoon in July.
Help! Anyone out there?
Endurance
Today I continued with my final pages.
I worked and worked.
Took a break to eat and then worked some more.
I’m getting my writing muscles back.
I don’t get out of breath so easily.
My thinking remains lucid for longer periods.
Today I didn’t feel quite like a marathoner
but a half-marathoner
maybe.
Visualize This
Last night I printed out the final twelve pages of my ms and read them again. I felt cold dread. Something was off. So I went outside and hooped without music as I talked aloud (to myself and the occasional finch or robin) about my story. And I realized I needed to use highlighters to, well, highlight the different plot and character interactions in those pages to get a handle on the situation.
Today I highlighted and wrote on sticky notes and scribbled in margins and crossed out paragraphs and basically had a good ol’ time ripping those pages apart. The cold dread has now warmed to a tentative optimism.
I wanted to post a photo of my efforts because it felt good to make that kind of progress but also because the results were rather colorful and festive.
Alas, I cannot locate my camera. Perhaps Zippy took it to British Columbia.
If you’d like to humor me, close your eyes and visualize yellow, pink, orange, green, and blue lines scattered with pale yellow sticky notes and illegible blue ballpoint scribbles.
Oohs and aahs optional.
Getting Closer – Clarification
I appreciate the congrats on the progress I’m making but feel I must clarify my word count goal. Not because I’m neurotic (well, I am, but not in this instance) but because if I read about another writer churning out 1k words/day, every day, I might feel a bit intimidated if I was already in a shaky place.
Now, I know plenty of you out there produce many words every single day, but I’m not one of those writers. I’ve learned that if I write too many words in a session, I’ll often get off track and then have to spend lots of time just getting back to where the story is solid again. I prefer the slow, steady route. When I had the great fortune to study with Marilynne Robinson for three weeks, she advised me to write two pages a day. Two good pages.
For me, two good pages are often much more difficult than ten or fifteen marginal pages.
But back to my clarification: I’m working on about the fourth draft of this book and while I had to trash a bunch of stuff that ended up serving as placeholder words (hat tip to the wise![[info]](https://i0.wp.com/p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
idaho_laurie for the perfect term/concept) and write all new stuff, the closer I got to the ending the more I was able to utilize from the previous draft. So in that context you can see I haven’t cranked out anywhere near 22k words. However, I’ve moved 22k words closer to the end of this much more solid version of my story. And that makes me very happy.
Getting Closer
I’m in the home stretch on this draft of my WIP. I’ve written at least 1000 words every day for the past 22 days which makes my heart go pitty-pat. Or something like that. Oh drat. An unintentional rhyme.
Ahem.
Not only do I feel better about myself as Writer but I think Zippy, Wildebeest, and Zebu have a different perspective now, too. They ask if I’ve done my words for the day and are very respectful of my Writing – Please Do Not Disturb sign on my door. It’s so much easier for me to write when I do it on a daily basis; the continuity definitely lubricates my brain. Plus, I make sure to start each session with my figure eights so as to kick-start my left and right brains.
Apologies if I sound a bit evangelical it’s just that it feels good. And for far too long, it wasn’t feeling good.
Note: This morning the critic started up in my brain so I rephrased the criticism in R’s raspy voice and LAUGHED. I swear, R’s given me the best damned gift!
If you haven’t done your writing today, please make the time to get it done. Set a realistic goal and do it! You’ll feel good, I promise.
Revolutionary Progress
I’m making progress on a couple fronts:
Number one, thanks to the revolutionaries who responded to yesterday’s post regarding LJ Overwhelm, I’m determined to wash that angst right out of my hair. Thank you, friends!
Number Two, thanks to Wildebeest and Zebu being at camp for ten days I’m getting serious about my revisions. So serious, in fact, that for the last two days (um, that’s counting today) I haven’t turned on my desktop until late afternoon when my writing work was done. What a concept! No internet play until the work is done! Revolutionary!
I can’t read any journals now, though, because I’m off to visit R, but you know what? Even though I’m doing a drive-by post, I don’t feel any guilt at all! Now that’s progress!
And here’s hoping you’re all making headway in your lives and work, too!
Fueled by Guts
I’m working on the intimidating middle section of my book.
Feeling overwhelmed. Full of despair.
Gave myself a pep talk and told myself I could do it.
Gave myself permission to write crap.
Wrote.
Quite possibly crap.
Nonetheless, relieved to write for two days in a row.
Celebrating the baby steps.
Gotta keep digging deep and gutting it out.
Ugh.
Friday Feel-Goods
1) Yesterday I sent a letter to the editor in support of paper ballots and hand-counts. Today the Denver Post published my letter but edited out several key sentences (my letter was over the word count). I called the letters editor to let him know I was unhappy with what he cut and that I would’ve preferred cutting the letter myself. He offered his direct email address for submitting future letters and said he’d let me see edits before publishing my letters. Then a couple minutes later I received an email from him letting me know that he’d restored my letter in its entirety for the newspaper’s online version. Plus he let me know he’d like more letters from me regarding verifiable voting because it was an important issue, one of great concern to the Post. I’m so glad I took the time to call.
2) Today is sunny and warm. For the first time in forever, I’m going out on the trails to run. It might be muddy in places but I’m willing to risk running in 15-pound shoes just to get off the streets and into the open space.
3) Revisions are moving slowly on my middle-grade but I’m making progress. I’ve read the opening pages about a billion times and whenever I read a certain line on page four, I crack up. I might be the only one who thinks it’s funny but for the time being, I consider it a good sign.
4) My shoulder and back muscles are sore because last night I did circuit training for the first time in about three weeks. Sore is good because it reminds me I did all those push-ups.
5) Wildebeest wasn’t turning in assignments so now has to have a weekly progress report signed by all teachers. Last night he checked the online portal to make sure he had everything done but discovered a science assignment incorrectly marked “missing.” He immediately wrote a note to himself and stapled it to the blank progress report so he’d remember to straighten out the no-name mix-up with his teacher. Believe me, that’s a big WOW coming from him.
Here’s wishing lots of feel-good moments for everyone this weekend.
JoNoWriMo+1.5: FINISHED!!!
I’m pleased to announce the completion of draft #2 on a middle-grade novel (working title FRAMED). The first draft was written and completed during last year’s JoNoWriMo+1.5. That draft was pretty stinky. This one has a bit of an odor to it, also, but nothing a little airing out won’t fix. I mean, we’re not talking rotting cabbage or anything. I hope. We shall see in a couple months when I pull it out and read start to finish.
Thank you, thank you to
![[info]](https://i0.wp.com/stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
for spearheading this community effort again. And thanks to my LJ friends who cheered me on along the way. It’s really so wonderful taking this journey with all of you.
I wish each of you happy writing as you forge ahead with your projects and deadlines.
Mad Dash for THE END
I’ve finished writing the draft of my MG for JoNoWriMo+1.5 and am currently plugging holes in the ms (I use BLANK in the text and then go back later to fill in the character’s last name, or the food item someone was eating, or whatever I hadn’t yet figured out at the time I was writing) before making my official announcement that I finished.
But I wanted to share what I discovered about those 3000 words I cranked out last week in one sitting. Those words were in the last big scene of the book which I knew pretty well since I’d written lots of notes and could visualize it. Today as I moved around the document plugging holes, I realized that the last big scene slipped from past tense into present. It read like an announcer at a horse track calling out the race. You know, that neck-in-neck kind of stuff.
Anyway, it made me laugh.
Waste-Not Wednesday tip
A MIND IS A TERRIBLE THING TO WASTE.
That’s what I wanted to post late this afternoon. It was the only thing I could handle posting because although I had all sorts of ideas for today’s environmental tip, I couldn’t wrangle the words. I just could not wrangle words into a coherent paragraph. I felt like the world’s worst writer.
Then I forced myself to leave my family for the evening and head to the library with my laptop.
Guess what? I wrote about 3k words and am now past my JoNoWriMo+1.5 goal of a 38k-words middle grade novel. Don’t worry, I realize that exceeding my word count goal is about as meaningful as still having checks in my checkbook when there ain’t no money in the account. But I’m a helluva lot closer.
I understand I’ve got to keep writing until The End. I’m just grateful I didn’t waste this Wednesday.
Beating its wings in my face
I’m still working on my JoNoWriMo+1.5 project. Despite being ahead of schedule, I’m experiencing almost daily bouts of Help, my book has fallen and it can’t get up!
Last night I felt the need to take a break from children’s literature so I started reading Edith Wharton’s THE GLIMPSES OF THE MOON. The Nick Lansing character is writing his first novel, and Wharton begins her seventh chapter with this:
Of some new ferment at work in him Nick Lansing himself was equally aware. He was a better judge of the book he was trying to write than either Susy or Strefford; he knew its weaknesses, its treacheries, its tendency to slip through his fingers just as he thought his grasp tightest; but he knew also that at the very moment when it seemed to have failed him it would suddenly be back, beating its loud wings in his face.
Ain’t that the truth.
I’ve fallen WAY behind on updating my word count but am so pleased with my progress that I just had to share:
|
|
|
28,014 / 38,000
(73.7%) |
I think I’ve definitely established a writing habit. I set a goal of 400 words per day but usually write a few more EVERY SINGLE DAY! (Well, I didn’t write one day this week but I did story mapping so I was working. Really. Truly).
How’s everyone else doing with their goals?
Please tell me I’m not the only one . . .
I’ve been adrift in my WIP but this morning felt a renewed sense of purpose about the book. I realized it was time for the dry erase board so I could visually map out the story. I gathered all my materials in one place and started talking aloud because that’s how I process best. I decided to start by mapping out the big ending scene because while I’ve had a general idea about it from day one, I needed more details so that I could understand characters’ motivations as I continue writing earlier scenes.
I uncapped a stinky marker and started listing the things I already knew about the big ending scene. It wasn’t a whole lot so I referred to my legal pad to check for other details I’d missed.
Oh my.
I’d completely forgotten about this. On September 20 I wrote three pages of notes, the majority of which concern the big ending scene. I wrote details out the wazoo but somehow, somehow, I’d managed to forget them.
Has this ever happened to you? Please tell me I’m not the only one. I mean, I know I’ve killed some brain cells over the years and that I’ve been under some Wildebeest-induced stress these past weeks but right now I’m feeling embarrassed and somewhat alarmed.
Days Fifteen – Nineteen: JoNoWriMo+1.5
It’s been crazy around my household this past week. In spite of the various ups and downs, I kept to my word goal although I won’t vouch for the quality of anything written. This might possibly be the suckiest draft in the history of the world but I’m forging ahead. At this point I’m writing scenes out of order. I never do this. Maybe once or twice in other books I wrote one scene out of order but not the way I’m doing now which is to basically fend off that icky brain-creep paralysis by writing whatever it takes to get me to my word count. So while it might all be dreck, I’m at least establishing a habit by writing each and every day. That part does feel good.
But man oh man, this writing gig can really take it out of a person. Yesterday I realized it’s already October which means I’m nearing the end of yet another year in which I didn’t sell a book and then I think about January 1st and how I’ll soon be staring down that whole hopes and dreams and goals routine for the new year wherein I continue to flail about wondering if I’m incapable of producing anything anyone wants to read, and the whole situation makes me want to curl up in a ball and disappear.
May I just say “Shit on a stick!” and “Crap on a cracker!”? (And feel free to share any of your favorite expressions so I don’t feel too juvenile.)
Anyway, I’m posting my stats here so I can at least remember that I’m honoring my word count goal while I battle the demons in my head:
Day 15: 321 words
Day 16: 511 words
Day 17: 516 words
Day 18: 440 words
Day 19: 739 words
|
|
|
20,733 / 38,000
(54.6%) |
Days Thirteen and Fourteen: JoNoWriMo+1.5
Day Thirteen I eked out 360 words while at the Rockies baseball game. I wasn’t all that surprised to read them today and discover that all but maybe 34 of those words stink. But hey, I was trying to keep with the program.
Day Fourteen went much better and although I was practically in tears at one point, declaring that I hated my book, I kept writing and exceeded my goal. Who knows how many of those are keepers, though. At this point, I don’t care. I stopped at a good point so I’ll have momentum tomorrow and I can only hope that momentum doesn’t steer me right into a slag heap. Or the literary equivalent.
|
|
|
18,206 / 38,000
(47.9%) |
Day Twelve: JoNoWriMo+1.5
Had to fight some doubts today as I wrote my word count. The words of idaho_laurie echoed in my head. Specifically, those she’d written regarding the economic and elegant style of A CROOKED KIND OF PERFECT by lurban.
To quote idaho_laurie: Why must I blather so?
|
|
|
17,221 / 38,000
(45.3%) |
Day Eleven: JoNoWriMo+1.5
Too tired to post this last night but got my words written before the carriage turned into a pumpkin.
|
|
|
16,781 / 38,000
(44.2%) |
Day Ten: JoNoWriMo+1.5
Probably only half these words are any good but I consider them all gold at this point because I’ve fulfilled my promise to myself and this project despite being quite tired from the hours of busting sod today plus the drive to Boulder for a summer camp reunion/potluck for Wildebeest and Zebu plus the knowledge that in about ten hours I’ll be headed back to Boulder for my weekly appointment.
Last week I saw two bald eagles circling just as I hit the Boulder city limits. Maybe they’ll be there to escort me tomorrow, too. A woman can dream.
And that’s what I hope to be doing very soon.
|
|
|
16,324 / 38,000
(43.0%) |
Day Nine: JoNoWriMo+1.5
Not only did I achieve my word count today but also made great progress on my sod-busting project in my front lawn. I reached the sidewalk! It was dark by the time I got there which helps explain why I didn’t notice where I was stepping. My nose figured it out pretty quickly, though; a little treat left by some dog. Those shoes are spending the night in the garage.
|
|
|
15,970 / 38,000
(42.0%) |
Day Eight: JoNoWriMo+1.5
I’m happy with today’s words but am a little leery of what’s coming tomorrow since I didn’t leave myself in the best jumping-off position. Maybe the Fairies of Enlightenment will pay me a visit in the nighttime. If you see any fluttering nearby could you please send a few my way?
|
|
|
15,386 / 38,000
(40.5%) |
Day Seven: JoNoWriMo+1.5
I’m especially proud of these words today, not because they’re extraordinarily good (although I guess there’s a chance they are) but because my running/honking/walking experience earlier today left me with an enormous headache. The good news is it subsided (all hail the neti pot) and I was able to look at a computer screen long enough to create some new stuff.
Hope all the rest of you are making progress, too.
|
|
|
14,709 / 38,000
(38.7%) |
Day Six: JoNoWriMo+1.5
Did it again. Feels good to have six days of work behind me. This disciplined approach works pretty well.
I should send Jo chocolate or maybe coffee. Didn’t she recently join the ranks of the coffee addicts? HA.
|
|
|
14,188 / 38,000
(37.3%) |
Tracy Abell 