Monday word count: 1,400
Tuesday word count: 1,700
Wed-Sat word count: 0
Since my goal for each week is to write an easy 2,000 words, I definitely did a great job this week. But as the breakdown shows, I succeeded only because I did a whole lot at the start of the week. Hopefully next week I will be a bit more consistent.
(Sorry... that's all I have to say for now. It has been another difficult week, with my brother still in the hospital, and I am worn out. I think next week will be much brighter.)
P.S. Late Saturday Night Amendment: I just sneaked another 800 new words into my WIP, which means I'm about halfway through scene 12. That puts my total word count for the WIP at 40k, and I am about a third of the way done drafting it. Neat. Super neat.
(3,500 words this week!)
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Weird Week
What a weird week.
Monday was a normal day. Good, even. I got three things checked off my home-remodeling to-do list, and managed to squeeze out about 750 new words. It was going to be such a great week.
Tuesday morning I got up feeling strong and inspired; a real take-on-the-world attitude. Then I looked at my cell phone and read a text message that sent my whole world spinning sideways. There had been a medical emergency in the family on late Monday night.
The next three days were a blur of tears and prayers, and talking and driving. It was hard to sleep. Even though I was physically with my family the whole week, I feel like I wasn't really here. Mentally I was consumed by the news and events unfolding with my extended family.
By late Thursday afternoon, I needed a break. A real break. An escape. So when I put my daughter to bed for the night, I turned to my novel. I sat down and wrote and wrote and wrote for about three hours, ignoring the need to pee and any other thoughts. By the time I was done (aka too exhausted to continue), I had written some 3,700 words. It was unreal.
Friday morning I wanted to write, but had to wait until the afternoon. Saturday afternoon I got a bit of time, too.
By the end of the day yesterday, my word count total for the week was more than 6,500. My WIP is nearly 37,000 words long. The first 9 scenes are written; I'm halfway through scene 10. (There are 36 in all.)
It was a difficult week, but I'm grateful that I was able to hide away in the comfort of my very own make-believe world for a little while.
Monday was a normal day. Good, even. I got three things checked off my home-remodeling to-do list, and managed to squeeze out about 750 new words. It was going to be such a great week.
Tuesday morning I got up feeling strong and inspired; a real take-on-the-world attitude. Then I looked at my cell phone and read a text message that sent my whole world spinning sideways. There had been a medical emergency in the family on late Monday night.
The next three days were a blur of tears and prayers, and talking and driving. It was hard to sleep. Even though I was physically with my family the whole week, I feel like I wasn't really here. Mentally I was consumed by the news and events unfolding with my extended family.
By late Thursday afternoon, I needed a break. A real break. An escape. So when I put my daughter to bed for the night, I turned to my novel. I sat down and wrote and wrote and wrote for about three hours, ignoring the need to pee and any other thoughts. By the time I was done (aka too exhausted to continue), I had written some 3,700 words. It was unreal.
Friday morning I wanted to write, but had to wait until the afternoon. Saturday afternoon I got a bit of time, too.
By the end of the day yesterday, my word count total for the week was more than 6,500. My WIP is nearly 37,000 words long. The first 9 scenes are written; I'm halfway through scene 10. (There are 36 in all.)
It was a difficult week, but I'm grateful that I was able to hide away in the comfort of my very own make-believe world for a little while.
Saturday, July 6, 2013
I Rock(eted) This Week!
I finally started writing my novel this last week, after six months of outlining. (That sounds really dramatic until I confess that I only sat down to outline maybe six times during the first four months; I didn't get serious about it until early May.)
Having hit the fabulous milestone of being done with the outline, I rocketed into writing this week. My goal is to write 2,000 words a week; this week I write more than 4,900! And that was all done on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday!
The downside of this unexpected plethora of words? I was sick of writing by the time Thursday rolled around. I didn't want to touch my WIP or even think about it anymore. So I've ignored it for three days, and I will continue to ignore it tomorrow. I'm pumped to start writing again on Monday, when I will launch into scene 4. It has a very detailed outline so I expect the writing to be smooth.
My other writing-related accomplishment this week was a bit of numerical analysis. My outline is long, but when I was initially outlining I also did a bit of scene writing. So I wasn't sure how my word count breaks out if you look at outline vs. actual writing...
It turns out that the outline is 12,700 words. The finished scenes (1-3) and partial scenes (10 in all) add up to 28,400 words. (Yowza!) I estimate that I have written maybe a quarter of the novel. If that's accurate... 120,000 words when it is done?*
I'd be okay with that.
Happy writing to you all this week. I owe Anna Stewart a post about outlining; one of my goals for the coming week is to write it. (Anna, I have a feeling we are going to be good friends! :o)
*As a frame of reference: Pride and Prejudice is about 122,000 words. Lord of the Files is 60,000 words. War and Peace is 600k.
Having hit the fabulous milestone of being done with the outline, I rocketed into writing this week. My goal is to write 2,000 words a week; this week I write more than 4,900! And that was all done on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday!
The downside of this unexpected plethora of words? I was sick of writing by the time Thursday rolled around. I didn't want to touch my WIP or even think about it anymore. So I've ignored it for three days, and I will continue to ignore it tomorrow. I'm pumped to start writing again on Monday, when I will launch into scene 4. It has a very detailed outline so I expect the writing to be smooth.
My other writing-related accomplishment this week was a bit of numerical analysis. My outline is long, but when I was initially outlining I also did a bit of scene writing. So I wasn't sure how my word count breaks out if you look at outline vs. actual writing...
It turns out that the outline is 12,700 words. The finished scenes (1-3) and partial scenes (10 in all) add up to 28,400 words. (Yowza!) I estimate that I have written maybe a quarter of the novel. If that's accurate... 120,000 words when it is done?*
I'd be okay with that.
Happy writing to you all this week. I owe Anna Stewart a post about outlining; one of my goals for the coming week is to write it. (Anna, I have a feeling we are going to be good friends! :o)
*As a frame of reference: Pride and Prejudice is about 122,000 words. Lord of the Files is 60,000 words. War and Peace is 600k.
Monday, July 1, 2013
ROW80 Round 3: My Goals
Last week I was chatting with author-friend JR Pearse Nelson about our ROW80 Round 3 goals. She was feeling a little bit stressed about balancing writing goals and life this summer, and I spouted some classic Brookeish "all things in moderation" wisdom. In retrospect, JR might have been looking for a cheerleader. Unfortunately I'm feeling the "hey man, it's summer" vibe, so I wasn't going to recommend mountain climbing.
That said, as I was pondering my goals this weekend, I ironically decided to take on a slightly more intense goal this summer:
2,000 words a week
I know that's not a whole lot, especially compared to those of you who can pop out 2,000 words a day. But it's almost double my goal from last round, which was 1,200 words a week. I usually achieved that goal; sometimes I even blew it out of the water.
Last week, for instance, I actually wrote 6,5000+ words. Wowza!
Last week, for instance, I actually wrote 6,5000+ words. Wowza!
I finished up most of the outline for my WIP during last week's writing sprint. There are a couple of scenes at the end of the story which are still just skeleton outlines, but they are the we're-in-love-smoochy-smoochy scenes, so I'm not worried about how those will flow; I can outline them whenever the mood strikes. Or just write it pantser style.
I was so motivated by finishing my outline last week -- it totals about 22,000 words -- that I worked on the opening scene of the novel. I added about 4,000 words to it. Hopefully today I will finish that scene and move on.
So there you have it! A moderate goal for this round. I'll be checking in once a week and making my way to other blogs when I can. May you all ROW well (and live)!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)