Ghost Novel: Day 1

As I said in the previous post, I’m going to have one post per day here for the ghost novel writing process.  (And no, this is not a novel about ghosts, this is me ghosting a novel because I was hired by a publisher. I explained all this in previous posts.)

I will add to this post at different times today right up until I head to bed so you can follow the process.  At the end of each post I will add up the daily word count and project word count. You want to see what a professional writer’s day is like, I’ll put it up here, every day until this book is done.

Here we go… this might be interesting in a perverse sort of way. (grin)

Day 1: Entry 1:

12:45 PM… Rolled out of bed because my big, fluffy white cat (Walter White Kitty … not my fault or his fault for that name…blame Kris) decided I needed to be up and awake. (I went to bed about 5 am after watching far too much about the tragic events in Boston.)

1:15 PM…  I got to my internet computer with my breakfast bars and did e-mail and answered questions and such. It was luckily an easy morning.

1:45 PM… Moved to my writing computer, set up files, set up a chapter template since I keep a different file for every chapter and combine them at the end, then typed in a title, typed in the main character’s name and started writing.  I have no idea where this book is going, but to start I paid attention to making up some setting through the character’s eyes and opinions.

2:20 PM… About 500 words done. Headed off to get the mail and then a meeting at WMG Publishing. At 3:15 met Kris for lunch since she had also been out and running around doing errands.  Then back to WMG Publishing and then back here to my office.

4:15 PM… checked my e-mail, had copyedits sent to me from an editor on a short story. He promised they were light, so I spent thirty minutes doing that and getting the story back to the editor. I then did other e-mail and workshop questions as well and did this first part of this post.

5:05 PM… headed back to my writing computer.

Day 1: Entry 2:

5:05 PM… Moved over to my writing computer from my internet computer and decided that before I went too far I needed to start a glossary of terms, character dress, place names and such, so I set that up and put in it the little bits I had done in the first 500 words.

Then wrote about 700 words until about 6 PM, took a five minute break, came back and wrote another 500 words before my cat, Walter (Or as Kris now calls him at times The Waltise Falcon) reminded me in no uncertain terms that it was time for a nap.

6:30 PM… checked my e-mail, answered one, grabbed the cat and headed for the downstairs media room to take a nap with the cat.  Kris woke me at 7 and we watched news and ate dinner. I did the dishes, tossed in a load of laundry, and headed back for my office. I answered more e-mails, started one more thing for another editor that needs to be done this weekend, then wrote this second entry.

Time is now 8:15 PM and I am headed back to the writing computer. Total so far today around 1,700 words on the book. I’m feeling pretty good about the start so far.

Day 1: Entry 3:

9:30 PM… (This is put up slightly late since the internet was down until after four in the morning, but this is what I would have said.)

I did about 1,300 words between 8:15 and 9:45. Then a fire alarm here in the house went off without reason. Something silly like a dying battery. So by the time I fixed that, Kris offered me a snack so I had a snack with her, then headed back up to the WMG offices to work on some collectable books there as a break.

I got back around 11:00 and tried to put this entry up, but couldn’t because of the internet being down, so went to work. At that point I was at around 3,000 words and feeling really fine for the first day.

Day 1: Entry 4:

From  11:00 PM until around midnight I did another session, another 800 words, then took a break and went downstairs to our media room and watched the news and part of Craig Ferguson with Kris.

12:45 AM… went back to work, did about another 1,000 words in just over an hour, took another break and again tried to get online. Kris was headed to bed, so she let me use her iPad to put up a comment to tell everyone what was happening, which was all it was allowing me to do.

2:00 AM… went back to the writing computer, got about another 1,000 words done in another hour.  Took a short break, internet still down. Went back to work.

3:00 AM… internet still down, I did about another 1,000 words, but turned on my e-mail so that it would make a sound when an outgoing message finally got out.

4:10 AM… I did about another 1,000 words before my internet computer dinged and told me the internet was back up and working. So I stopped and came to this computer to do this post.

At this point at 4:26 in the morning, I’m at 7,625 words for the day. I could go a little farther but this is a ton better than I had hoped for the first day so I’m going to stop and go downstairs with my cat and veg out on some stupid television.

I still have no idea at all where this book is going. Just making it up as I go. But at the same time I’m feeling no worry at the moment either. I have a hunch that will come. (grin)

So day one summary:

7,625 words, feeling great, happy with the first day. Best first day on a novel I’ve had in some time, to be honest.

Back tomorrow for Day Two. (Remember, my day starts when I drag my butt out of bed, which considering I’ll be watching television for the next hour to clear the damn book from my mind so I can sleep, getting out of bed will be around 1 PM.)