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Topic of the Night: Help Getting Through the Time of Great Forgetting
Help Getting Through the Time of Great Forgetting Every year now for the last three or four years I have talked about something I notice with beginning and early-career writers. It happens like this: Writers are all excited at the first of the year, make resolutions, plans, challenges. All great with great intentions for their coming year of writing and production. And for months, things are working great. Somewhere around the last of April to the first of June, life from the outside starts to intrude and the writing takes a back seat, slowly, over weeks or a month. And then the writing is forgotten for the most part, or…
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Clean Copy
Clean Copy Tonight I was running through The Idanha Hotel to put in the corrections Kris had found on her read, at least the ones I agreed with. That was the book I wrote in seven days last week, remember? Well, this time through I agreed with all of her corrections, mostly just typos, and what was even more interesting, this was the cleanest manuscript I have had in a very long time. I normally do clean copy in my one draft, but this was noticeably cleaner. Kris only found about one typo every six or seven manuscript pages, and sometimes there would be no typos in numbers of chapters.…
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Topic of the Night: The Blog That Destroyed An Art Form
The Blog That Destroyed an Art Form I got a great comment from a guy this morning. I didn’t put it through because the guy called me some pretty good names. *ss*ole was only one of them. One word I had never been called before. Creative. But he said he had liked my writing. (I think the operative word there is “had.”) So why was he so angry? And why did I damn near fall out of my chair laughing at this angry post with a bunch of swear words aimed at me? (Not the reaction he was hoping for I am sure.) Because he said, basically, that with my…
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Topic of the Night: Writing a Novel in Seven Days: Epilogue
WRITING A NOVEL IN SEVEN DAYS Epilogue The Challenge Was Simple. Day One: 3,000 words. And then each day after that add 1,000 words to the amount needed. Seven days, if my math is right, I will have a 42,000 word novel. 3,000… 4,000… 5,000… 6,000… 7,000… 8,000… 9,000 words. 7 Days. Looking Back The Writing of The Idanha Hotel: A Thunder Mountain Novel Day 1… 3,700 words. Total words so far… 3,700 words. Day 2… 5,100 words. Total words so far… 8,800 words. Day 3… 5,600 words. Total words so far… 14,400 words. Day 4… 6,050 words. Total words so far… 20,450 words. Day 5… 7,500 words. Total words so far……
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Topic of the Night: Writing a Novel in Seven Days: Chapter Ten
WRITING A NOVEL IN SEVEN DAYS Chapter Ten: Day Seven The Challenge is Simple. Day One: 3,000 words. And then each day after that add 1,000 words to the amount needed. Seven days, if my math is right, I will have a 42,000 word novel. 3,000… 4,000… 5,000… 6,000… 7,000… 8,000… 9,000 words. 7 Days. Day Seven (9,000 word day) Got the book done!!!! The goal today was at 9,000 words and needed to be the focus of my day because I had no idea how many words I would actually need to end this book. I had 3,000 words in the bank, so that helped the worry some. Counting 3,000 words for…
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Topic of the Night: Writing a Novel in Seven Days: Chapter Nine
WRITING A NOVEL IN SEVEN DAYS Chapter Nine: Day Six The Challenge is Simple. Day One: 3,000 words. And then each day after that add 1,000 words to the amount needed. Seven days, if my math is right, I will have a 42,000 word novel. 3,000… 4,000… 5,000… 6,000… 7,000… 8,000… 9,000 words. 7 Days. Day Six (8,000 word day) Once again made my goal for the day. This goal today at 8,000 words was pretty much my focus for the day. I still worked up at WMG Publishing, but for not as long. (Yes, I still worked my day job, got my e-mail, and did these blogs while writing 8,000 words.) Counting…
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Topic of the Night: Writing a Novel in Seven Days: Chapter Eight
WRITING A NOVEL IN SEVEN DAYS Chapter Eight: Day Five The Challenge is Simple. Day One: 3,000 words. And then each day after that add 1,000 words to the amount needed. Seven days, if my math is right, I will have a 42,000 word novel. 3,000… 4,000… 5,000… 6,000… 7,000… 8,000… 9,000 words. 7 Days. Day Five (7,000 word day) Once again made my goal for the night. I paid a ton more attention to the challenge today than I did yesterday. Seven thousand words is a serious number of words in one day and I gave the writing of that much the respect it needed to make it happen. Counting 3,000 words for Day…
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More on the Time of Great Forgetting
More on the Time of Great Forgetting Last night I mentioned the Time of Great Forgetting for writers and a number of writers wrote me privately wanting to know more about what I meant. Well, basically, the Time of Great Forgetting is when a part-time writer’s attention is taken by life in general and all New Year’s Resolutions and streaks and challenges are forgotten. This normally each year starts around the first to middle of May and runs until the last of July when writers suddenly remember their writing and then fight to restart. Why May? Sunshine, gardens, kids graduations, golf, spring sports, and on and on and on. For some…
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Topic of the Night: Writing a Novel in Seven Days: Chapter Seven
WRITING A NOVEL IN SEVEN DAYS Chapter Seven: Day Four The Challenge is Simple. Day One: 3,000 words. And then each day after that add 1,000 words to the amount needed. Seven days, if my math is right, I will have a 42,000 word novel. 3,000… 4,000… 5,000… 6,000… 7,000… 8,000… 9,000 words. 7 Days. Day Four Once again made my goal for the night. Barely. And wow was this a ton harder than yesterday. The next three days ought to be very interesting, to say the least. Counting 3,000 words for Day One and 4,000 words for Day Two, 5,000 words for Day Three, and 6,000 words for Day Four, I needed…
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Time of Great Forgetting
Time of Great Forgetting From the looks of how the April workshops sign-ups are going, we are entering into the time of great forgetting for writers just slightly ahead of time. The Time of Great Forgetting is when the year-end resolutions for writers are long forgotten and the weather is getting better. Usually this forgetting time for writers without a full-year focus doesn’t start until late April and then runs through until the middle of July. I always find it interesting that I am ramping up as other writers are just sort of drifting away. But I am a professional year-round writer. I have my bad months, sure, but I never stop…