Day Eight: Writing a Novel in a Half Month
Chapter Eight: Day Eight of Writing a Novel in Half a Month
Very late getting this first entry up, so might only be two in this chapter. We shall see. Nothing really wrong today, just never made time to come here and do an entry until now at 10 pm. Ahh, well. I’ll try harder tomorrow.
Day Eight, Entry One.
12:30 pm. Out of bed at 11:30 like normal and to the internet computer. Worked on emails for an hour until 12:30, then a bunch of business stuff for a bit longer.
12:30 pm to 1:30 pm. More internet stuff and workshop stuff for another hour. Amazing how that chews up time.
1:30 pm to 2:30 pm. Moved over to my writing computer and cycled back a few thousand words to see what I had missed and spent fifteen minutes going through that and adding in 200 words. Then wrote fresh for the next 45 minutes, ending up with almost exactly 1,000 new words total.
2:30 pm to 3:30 pm. Lunch with Kris, mostly watching news. I cooked omelets.
3:30 pm to 5:30 pm. I headed out to go grocery shopping. On the drive back in from Summerlin, I talked with Loren Coleman the entire way about different things with Kickstarter.
5:30 pm to 7:oo pm. A twenty minute nap and then news over dinner.
7:00 pm to 9:00 pm. Kris headed down to our office to work and I came back to this computer and recorded a week of videos for one of the workshops starting up next week. Then took a thirty minute nap, then read a new blog by Kris before coming in here at 10:00 pm to write this.
Back shortly.
Day Eight, Entry Two.
10:00 pm to 10:30 pm. Read some Cave Creek stories. The deadline on these anthologies is tight, so got to keep reading.
10:30 pm to 12 midnight. Watched the first half of Superman and Lois with Kris. Interesting start.
12:015am to 1:00 am. I had planned to go to the writing computer, but instead read some more Cave Creek stories, then took a break.
1:10 am to 3:00 am. In two sessions, with a very short break, I did 2,100 words. Decided I was going to be done with the writing for the night, do this post, take another break, and go back to reading a few more Cave Creek stories.
So total for the day was about 3,100 words. I am going to have to speed up a little if I plan on making this in seven more days or less. Hmmm
3 Comments
Philip
One of the things I love about these numbers is that you have a big fat zero day right in the middle. Amateurs like me too often put up a goose egg and then let Critical Voice tell us, “See, you’re not a real writer. You couldn’t even write today! You may as well quit!” And, alas, we quit.
But you’re showing how a pro pushes forward and doesn’t let it phase him. You have 8,200 words AFTER the non-productive day–that’s a ton of words Critical Voice would have forced many of us to leave on the table. It reminds me of dieting–you lose 7 lbs in Week 1 then slip and have one bowl of ice cream and say, screw it. Gotta be consistent and power through.
dwsmith
That’s why Critical Voice has to be taken out when it comes to writing. And remember, I never think about the end product. Sounds like I do with the title of this, but actually all I like to do is write. End product takes care of itself. And if you don’t focus on the end product, just the fun of writing, the ups and downs aren’t even noticed.
Granted, in this structure, I am forcing the end product to be noticed. Why I seldom do this kind of thing except for fun challenges.
MARK A KUHN
Hey Philip, I hear you loud and clear with that Critical Voice. I have a Post It tacked on to my monitor: WHEN IT DOESN’T FEEL RIGHT, KEEP TYPING.
Dean’s mantra is to HAVE FUN with writing. That is key. Typing more words today is practice for better stories in the future.
Have you taken Dean’s Depth Workshop? I recommend it highly. Also consider his Ideas into Story Workshop. It’s one of his Classic workshops and with the current 50% both of these are really a steal.