Day Nine of a Seven Day Novel Challenge
Day Nine of a Seven Day Novel Challenge
Nope, still didn’t make it. But I honestly wasn’t pushing very hard once again today.
As I said, if I get it done Saturday it would make no difference since it has to go to WMG on Monday no matter what. It will be done tomorrow.
So once again today I decided to not stress about it. Did my 10,000 plus steps (five miles), took a long nap, cooked dinner, did some e-mail, then managed with some television scattered along the way to actually get 3,700 words in three hour-long sessions and a half hour session.
Also, I spent about two hours cycling back in the book and running at where I am at. The book will get shorter as is standard these days for me. Plot loops I identified and am leaving in for the moment.
Finish tomorrow.
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Day 1… 3,000 goal… Actual words… 3,100. Total so far… 3,100 words
Day 2… 4,000 goal… Actual words… 4,400. Total so far… 7,500 words
Day 3… 5,000 goal… Actual words… 5,100. Total so far… 12,600 words
Day 4… 6,000 goal… Actual words… 6,200. Total so far… 18,800 words
Day 5… 7,000 goal… Actual words… 4,200. Total so far… 23,000 words
Day 6… 8,000 goal… Actual words… 5,900. Total so far… 28,900 words
Day 7… 9,000 goal… Actual words… 4,100. Total so far… 33,000 words
Day 8… no goal… Actual words… 4,300. Total so far… 37,300 words
Day 9… no goal… Actual words… 3,700. Total so far… 41,000 words
Day 10… Finish is the goal… Desired goal of over 40,000 words.
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September Online Workshops
Click the workshop tab above for description and sign-up or go to www.wmgpublishingworkshops.com.
Questions about any of the workshops, feel free to write me.
Class #21… Sept 6th … Author Voice
Class #22… Sept 6th … How to Write Thrillers
Class #23… Sept 6th … Speed
Class #24… Sept 6th … Writing Mysteries
Class #25… Sept 6th … Character Development
Class #26… Sept 7th … Depth in Writing
Class #27… Sept 7th … Advanced Character and Dialog
Class #28… Sept 7th … Cliffhangers
Class #29… Sept 7th … Pacing Your Novel
Class #30… Sept 7th …Expectations (Writing on the Rails)
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Totals For Year 4, Month 1, Day 26
Writing in Public blog streak… Day 1,072
Over 10,000 steps streak… Day 57
— Daily Fiction: 3,700 original words. Fiction month-to-date: 63,700 words
— Nonfiction: 00 new words. Nonfiction month-to-date total:1,900 words
— Blog Posts: 300 new words. Blog month-to-date word count: 10,600 words
— E-mail: 11 e-mails. Approx. 600 original words. E-mails month-to date: 388 e-mails. Approx. 28,500 words
— Covers Designed and Finished: 0. Covers finished month-to-date: 0 Covers
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— Year of Short Fiction Goal: 120 stories (July 1st to June 30th). Stories finished to date: 8 stories.
— Yearly Novel Goal: 12 Novels. Novels finished to date: 1 novels.
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5 Comments
Harvey
Still enjoying watching the process. Thanks Dean.
Edward Punales
Glad you’re making such great progress. One day I hope to be half as productive as you are 🙂
A quick question about plot loops, cause you’ve mentioned them a lot; would there ever be a situation where you’d want to leave in a plot loop? Are there any situations where a plot loop may add to a story in a meaningful way?
dwsmith
If it added to a story in a meaningful way, I would keep it. No doubt about that at all.
Why I have problems with what I call plot loops is because of the hundred plus books I wrote under contract for traditional publishers. They required things to be longer because they needed to charge more money for the books, so a 40,000 word story had to be 70,000 words or longer. So I got real good at having characters go off to do things and then come back to basically the same point without readers noticing and while making it interesting.
I swore now that I am in control of my own writing that never again would I allow a stupid plot loop for no reason other than length be in my books. So everything that is in my books now adds to the story in a meaningful way. And sometimes they may look like loops, but if they add, they are not in my definition.
Harvey
Dean, I’ve also wondered whether your plot loops sometimes wander off into a short story of their own. Does that happen much?
I’ve had a couple do that. Sometimes they also remain in the novel, and sometimes not.
dwsmith
Kris pointed out tonight that one little summary area, if told from a different viewpoint, would be great short story. But that point needed to stay in the story. But I might write it as a short story later. Usually the plot loops I cut are just that, plot loops.