Day Seven

Started Back Writing…

About 3,500 words today. Not a full day at it, but better and the book is fun, so all good there as well.

If I was walking the deadlines of this challenge, I would have the first book done, or very close. Nope, a ways from that. I’ll get there when I get there.

How Did It Go?

I got up after ten hours of sleep and managed to actually sit down at my writing computer directly at noon. 12:01 pm to be precise. I thought that was funny as the days before I got to the writing computer closer to 11 pm.

So did about 1,000 word session, then moved a few boxes and went out to lunch with Kris. Back for a little more writing and a financial meeting and then went with Kris. I dropped her at the gym and I did grocery shopping. We are actually starting to move in a little more. Yay.

I cooked dinner and then did a little email and watched some television and about ten got back into my office to do more email. Finally got back to the novel around 10:30 and then with two sessions and some longer breaks, I decided to call it a night at 3,500 words. Very relaxed day all the way around.

(Some observations on writing will return tomorrow night.)

2 Comments

Philip

July 8, 2021 at 5:43 am

We can learn a lot from these posts. This is a good example of how you always talk about not needing speed in the sense of typing 5,000 words per hour but rather a commitment do spending more time, here and there, in the writing chair. This is crucial for writers like me and, I suspect, most of the readers of this blog, because we have full-time non-writing jobs. You do courses and work for WMG and personal stuff but still fit in productive sessions. 3,500 words per day amounts to about 32 pulp-sized novels in a year.

One time I asked Lawrence Block if he had advice for 9-5 types trying to write their first novel with such a busy schedule. He said, at worst, you can type one page a day and still have a novel at the end of a year. Math is so strange how it works.

Keep up the good work.

Kate+Pavelle

July 8, 2021 at 10:10 am

I’m grinning right now as I read you describe your day “and then I did a little bit of X, an errand, a little bit of Y…” and I totally get it. Those little bits do add up, and before you know it’s 9PM and you crave coffee if there is any writing to be done.
And I can’t do coffee that late except for emergencies, because my body will wake me up with the birds no matter when I go to sleep. I’d be a wreck the next day!
People keep writing about top performers taking uninterrpted 4 hour periods to create. Yes I tried that and it worked, but good luck finding one. Rare as hen’s teeth, they are.

Philip

July 8, 2021 at 5:43 am

We can learn a lot from these posts. This is a good example of how you always talk about not needing speed in the sense of typing 5,000 words per hour but rather a commitment do spending more time, here and there, in the writing chair. This is crucial for writers like me and, I suspect, most of the readers of this blog, because we have full-time non-writing jobs. You do courses and work for WMG and personal stuff but still fit in productive sessions. 3,500 words per day amounts to about 32 pulp-sized novels in a year.

One time I asked Lawrence Block if he had advice for 9-5 types trying to write their first novel with such a busy schedule. He said, at worst, you can type one page a day and still have a novel at the end of a year. Math is so strange how it works.

Keep up the good work.
Kate+Pavelle

July 8, 2021 at 10:10 am

I’m grinning right now as I read you describe your day “and then I did a little bit of X, an errand, a little bit of Y…” and I totally get it. Those little bits do add up, and before you know it’s 9PM and you crave coffee if there is any writing to be done.
And I can’t do coffee that late except for emergencies, because my body will wake me up with the birds no matter when I go to sleep. I’d be a wreck the next day!
People keep writing about top performers taking uninterrpted 4 hour periods to create. Yes I tried that and it worked, but good luck finding one. Rare as hen’s teeth, they are.