Didn’t write much last night. Figured it was some weird end of project blues. Felt somewhat out of it this AM. Still went to workout but left before workout actually started-felt worse during the warm up. Now I feel awful and am sick. Too sick to write even. Some kind of cold. Blek. I had hoped I wouldn’t get sick again this year. *sigh* I won’t finish the novel by Sunday. But I will finish it next week.
Posted via LjBeetle
Just finished plotting out chapters 13, 14, and 15. Figured out part of the problem with the messy middle is too much reacting and not enough trying. End is a whole bunch of try-fail with hopefully a very resonating try-succeed. I’m so excited about this novel I can barely stand it.
Turns out last week’s word count was closer to 7000 words. Which leaves me with 13,000 to do this week. Already decided it’s okay for me to finish the novel next week. Doesn’t mean I won’t take a good run at it.
In the meanwhile am hoping back onto it. 3000 words tonight? We’ll see.
Posted via LjBeetle
I don’t know how much progress I’ve made this week. I think I’ve done 9000 words. We’re flying out today, and I always write in airports, so I think I’ll be close. I haven’t typed any of it yet, which is one of the reasons why I’m uncertain of the word count.
This would be easier if I could just write on the computer. One of the things I recently figured out is that I compose directly on the computer for the day job. I need to figure out how to context switch on the keyboard.
And this novel continues to be different than my previous ones. I am still writing out of sequence scenes. I’ve never done this before. I find I need to finish a thought, as it were, which means following a character through several scenes. Then I go back and write the inbetween scenes.
It’s been a lovely con. Have run into a few people I know. The hall costumes, while good, weren’t what I expected. I thought there would be a larger number of people dressed up. Still its been fun.
Today we are going to the Castle panel. We’re up really early and are now about to wait in line for hours. Yay?
Posted via LjBeetle
Only wrote 1000 words tonight. Had too many things to do to get ready for the con. This leaves 6000 words to write during a con. *sigh* It’s okay if I don’t get it all done. I’d like to. But I’m not going to kill myself doing it. I’ve already accomplished so much. I want to continue to be proud of this story which means not taking shortcuts.
Now it is time for bed. Flying out at o’dark 30. I may or may not tweet or post from the con.
Posted via LjBeetle
I wrote 2000 words tonight. Which means 3000, not 4000, words so far for the week. I’m hoping I’ll get 2000 done tomorrow, so I can type up at least some of it on the plane.
It was difficult to start, tonight. My heart hurt, between jaylake‘s news, and a friend who’s been diagnosed as end-stage MS.
Also, driving forward so hard, so fast — there’s a part of me that says I need a week to assimilate plot and story to make this novel deeper. There’s another part that says what I’m doing is fine, can be fixed in rewrite, trust the creative voice and the all those things about story that I already know. Because by the end of the session tonight I was flying, the words coming fast and furious. It’s a scene I’ve been thinking about since the start of this project, which is one of the reasons why I was able to write it as I did.
Quality of life is very important to me. I’m not convinced that writing so fast and so hard without a break is how I want to keep going. Just because I can do it doesn’t mean it’s satisfying. We’ll also see how I feel at the end of the month, when I’ve finished.
After I finished writing yesterday, I figured out that one scene that I’d summarized in a paragraph really needed to be written out — about 1200 words. Wrote that tonight.
So here’s the official word count. I’m not where I wanted to be — wanted to write the first 2000 words of chapter eleven tonight. Instead, I’m only a little over 1000 words in.
However, I’m very satisfied with where I am in terms of the plot. It’s hard to describe what goes on in this part of the process. I needed more to be going on (or this book wasn’t going to make 60,000 words.) I didn’t know what. An extremely natural outgrowth from an existing character point just blossomed into a new subplot that’s going to take care of a bunch of things. And hey! Since this has been an existing character beat, from the first meeting of this character, it’s going to kind of seem like I planned it from the start.
I do keep thinking about what mid-career writers do, what I’m doing — going back to the basics, as well as codifying some of the deep story and plot stuff.
Like for example, one of the main things I use for figuring out the plot of a novel is: what does your character fear the most? How can you make that physically manifest? And then make it worse? The fear can’t be trivial. Nor can it be unique. It has to be universal — it’s one of the ways you help other people understand your character, make him sympathetic.
One of the things I’m thinking about a lot in this novel is how to make characters sympathetic. At least half the POV characters aren’t. Not really. But you do feel sorry for them, which I think helps.
The good news tonight was that typing up chapter ten, 2800 words turned into 3500. Which means the last 1000 words I wrote up, which I did not want to put into chapter ten, goes in as the first scene of chapter eleven, which is where I wanted it to fall.
Here’s the official word count:
It’s a little shy of 40,000, but that’s because the last chapter is only 3500. As I have another 1000 words past that written, just not typed, I say I’m ahead of the game.
Next week the plan is writing. And writing and writing. 2000 words per day Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, so I only have to do 4000 during the four days of comic con.
If you’re interested in sponsoring me and supporting Clarion West, go here:
http://clarionwest.org/events/writeathon/LeahCutter
–I’m currently at 35,965 words. This means I only have another 4000 to go for this weekend. I need to write chapter ten, basically. I need to plot out chapter ten first, however. Always helps if I have a clue about what I’m supposed to be writing.
–While outlining chapter nine, I realized that the deep plot engine continues to do its job. The description of almost every scene in chapter nine contains the word “confronts.” I’m at the three-quarter mark in the novel, and everything is ramping up nicely.
–As usual, while doing the initial thinking about this novel, I knew a few scenes that had to happen toward the end. I didn’t have a clue at that point how to get from point A to, oh, say, point T or W. I just knew that eventually I had to get there. One of chapter 9′s confrontations provided me with a clear path, as if I had planned it that way.
–I’ve been remarkably focused this week on writing, though in my cat waxing moments I did do some of thinking about jaylake‘s post about advice for the mid-career writer. Two things came to mind for me: know your process, and know that your process will change for every book. This is my seventh novel. (I’m not counting the one I never finished, whose calls I’m still not taking.) Very few things have remained constant from book one to now. The next book will be different as well.
–And another point, that cathshaffer made and that I’ve found to be particularly true for me: it’s a good time to go back to the basics. I know what works and what doesn’t for me, so I think it’s easier for me to hone my craft, mainly because I don’t feel as though I have to work on everything (see deep plot engine, above.)
–One more thing about writing: I disagree, often vehemently, when people say writing is hard. Writing can be hard work, you can feel exhausted afterward, as if you’ve just run a 36 mile marathon. Sometimes getting your butt into the chair can be difficult, and require discipline and tricks. However, if the writing itself is drudgery, and painful, and hard, every single day, I’d say there’s something wrong with your process or what you’re writing or something. I love to write. I have such joy in writing. There’s nothing I’d rather be doing most of the time. I’ve even learned how to find joy in rewriting. I think “writing is hard” is a myth we tell non-writers so they don’t feel bad about not writing, or even ourselves, too, some days. Most days, though, I don’t have to write. I get to write.
I knew that the only way I’d get in my writing today was to write both at noon, then after work. So I did 500 words at noon, about 1000 later, before going out to eat dinner with a friend.
I haven’t typed up everything I’ve written — I have at least another 500+ words, probably more. I’m concerned that I have so much waiting for the weekend.
Here’s the official word count:
I’m still using my old process, of writing everything out by hand, then typing it up. So yes, it’s taking a lot of time. Can I write 2000 words a day for the next four days? Absolutely. I don’t have many social obligations this weekend. In an ideal world, I’ll get ahead, write more this weekend than I absolutely need to, because next weekend is Comic-con, and I just won’t have the time to write, I think. (Though who knows, I may write a lot while standing in line.)
I’m a little over halfway through this process. I’ve decided writing 10,000 words a week is hard for me. I keep thinking that 7000 words a week is more manageable, what with the day job and all. I’m still going to keep at it, at least for the duration of this project. Then I get a break. (^_^) But at some point, I think I’ll try the 7000 words a week, just 1000 words a day, which actually means 500 words/day during the week, and making up the rest on the weekend, as I’m doing now.
Tonight I spent some time plotting. I was unsatisfied with that. I found scenes I needed to write but this book still feels short so far. Either the scenes I have picked will turn out to be longer than planned, or I’ll end up with additional before and after scenes, tagged onto the major ones I’ve planned (which is what keeps happening.)
Then I wrote about 1000 words. I actually wrote about 1500, but the first 500 needed to be thrown out. I’d started the scene in the wrong place, and I had to start it over again from scratch. However, that 1000 words turned out to be very satisfying. The last two paragraphs, and in particular, the last line, had quite a punch.
I realized that the reason why that last line was so strong, and the scene so powerful, is because it touches on three things: theme, character and plot. (Yes, I’m one of those strange writers who knows what her theme is before she starts writing — or actually, thinks about the theme as part of the initial brainstorming sessions.)
Hence, the subject of this post. That kind of power and magic and flow are the reasons why writing can be so satisfying. It doesn’t always come together, and I was certainly frustrated at the start of my writing session. But sometimes I can figure it out and it clicks and ahhhhh. No other feeling quite like that in the entire world.
Hope that your writing provides you with the same kind of satisfaction.
