Well, after some 3 1/2 months I'm done with my first draft. Admittedly it took rather longer than my original guesstimate of 2-3 months, but given that my first draft weighs in at 257 (Word) pages, and 121,147 words, I don't think that's too shabby.
Having finished on Sunday, I have started the process of re-reading it. So far I think it's actually not bad. I'll probably give it a second re-reading, filling in the obvious gaps and problems, and then I will commence Editing.
I expect that the second draft phase will be more of a challenge, because I won't quite know what I'm doing, and it can theoretically go on forever :)
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
10 Week/40 Hour Status
I have been writing for ten weeks, and have managed to keep up on writing time, although the whole "one hour a day, four days a week" has kind of gone out the window. Mostly I've been doing whatever works, but at this point I think I might officially switch to half an hour a day most days, with a full hour one day (still totaling four hours per week, but a rather different model).
The "writing day" vs. "off day" model actually doesn't work that well with real life, and although my goal with the hour-long session was to have a session long enough to really get going, it doesn't seem to work out that way (at least for first-draft writing). The basic problem is that in about half an hour I've written everything I'd really thought out, and then either have to take precious time deciding what happens next, or stop.
With half-hour sessions I can just dump out what I had contemplated during walks, showers, etc., and not waste my writing time thinking!
Of course there is a cost to this: things probably aren't as dynamic and flowing as if I spent longer periods of time writing. On the other hand, it fits much better with a full life, and actually allows a surprising amount of progress:
In forty hours (one work week), spread over ten weeks, I have written:
82,229 words (2,055 per hour)
174 pages
There is no earthly way I could have written as much sitting down for eight hours a day, because I'm pretty sure I put in as much time thinking between sessions as I do actually writing.
In any case, I'm making good progress.
I don't think I'll be done by month 3 (the upper limit of my original estimate), but I might be done by month 4. Then the real work will begin!
The "writing day" vs. "off day" model actually doesn't work that well with real life, and although my goal with the hour-long session was to have a session long enough to really get going, it doesn't seem to work out that way (at least for first-draft writing). The basic problem is that in about half an hour I've written everything I'd really thought out, and then either have to take precious time deciding what happens next, or stop.
With half-hour sessions I can just dump out what I had contemplated during walks, showers, etc., and not waste my writing time thinking!
Of course there is a cost to this: things probably aren't as dynamic and flowing as if I spent longer periods of time writing. On the other hand, it fits much better with a full life, and actually allows a surprising amount of progress:
In forty hours (one work week), spread over ten weeks, I have written:
82,229 words (2,055 per hour)
174 pages
There is no earthly way I could have written as much sitting down for eight hours a day, because I'm pretty sure I put in as much time thinking between sessions as I do actually writing.
In any case, I'm making good progress.
I don't think I'll be done by month 3 (the upper limit of my original estimate), but I might be done by month 4. Then the real work will begin!
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
1st Week Status
Well, so far, so good.
I have been writing for a week, which given my every-other-day schedule means that I've had four one-hour sessions. Out of that I have gotten 7,851 words, averaging 1,962 words per session - not bad.
As you might guess from my word count, I'm sticking with the NaNoWriMo style first draft: just write. And write. And write. And save the re-writing for later.
The advantage of this is that once momentum has been established, the words, ideas, and action flow fairly naturally.
The disadvantage is that it's hard to know whether what you're writing is good or horrible. It also means that going back and fixing things up later will probably take rather more work.
Still, overall I think it works fairly well for me. I'll just have to have faith that it isn't all crap.
Although it's only the end of the first week, I think I'm going to adjust my schedule to 4 times per week (preferably approximately every-other-day). If I stick with strictly every-other-day I'll get 3-4 hours in each week, depending on the week, and they'll keep scooting around. Given that my schedule makes writing on some days considerably easier than others, such scooting around isn't really such a good thing.
On to the second week! I'm hoping to get my protagonist into some difficulties this week . . . .
I have been writing for a week, which given my every-other-day schedule means that I've had four one-hour sessions. Out of that I have gotten 7,851 words, averaging 1,962 words per session - not bad.
As you might guess from my word count, I'm sticking with the NaNoWriMo style first draft: just write. And write. And write. And save the re-writing for later.
The advantage of this is that once momentum has been established, the words, ideas, and action flow fairly naturally.
The disadvantage is that it's hard to know whether what you're writing is good or horrible. It also means that going back and fixing things up later will probably take rather more work.
Still, overall I think it works fairly well for me. I'll just have to have faith that it isn't all crap.
Although it's only the end of the first week, I think I'm going to adjust my schedule to 4 times per week (preferably approximately every-other-day). If I stick with strictly every-other-day I'll get 3-4 hours in each week, depending on the week, and they'll keep scooting around. Given that my schedule makes writing on some days considerably easier than others, such scooting around isn't really such a good thing.
On to the second week! I'm hoping to get my protagonist into some difficulties this week . . . .
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Writing and Life
As of tomorrow, I will begin my grand experiment in sustainable writing. Hopefully I will actually get a book out of the experience - we'll see.
I'm not going into this completely cold: I've had a few radical writing months with NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Writing 50,000+ words in a month has its own advantages, but the major disadvantage is that you get to the end of the month and are burned out and behind on life. Or at least I have been, in each of my three experiments with it (once during the official month, and a couple times on my own).
It's amazing how difficult it is to write for even an hour a day, what with a full-time job, cooking, cleaning, bills, and the desire to do something other than write. To be fair, I could pull it off if I gave up reading, and used my reading time for writing instead . . . .
But this is an experiment in sustainable writing, and giving up reading pretty much nixes the sustainable bit.
So, my goal:
Write for one hour every other day. Faithfully.
My hope is that this will be enough to keep momentum, but little enough that I can actually live with it over the course of months.
Theoretically I think I should be able to have a rough draft in 2-3 months, a second draft in another 2-3 months, and maybe something I'm willing to show to someone else at the end of 6 months (total) or so. A sensible creature might pick up work on an existing manuscript - of which I have a handful, courtesy of NaNoWriMo - but I am not a sensible creature. Hopefully I will get back to my neglected orphans at some point, but at the moment I want to see whether I can just begin at the beginning and keep going until I have a working draft.
Wish me luck!
I'm not going into this completely cold: I've had a few radical writing months with NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Writing 50,000+ words in a month has its own advantages, but the major disadvantage is that you get to the end of the month and are burned out and behind on life. Or at least I have been, in each of my three experiments with it (once during the official month, and a couple times on my own).
It's amazing how difficult it is to write for even an hour a day, what with a full-time job, cooking, cleaning, bills, and the desire to do something other than write. To be fair, I could pull it off if I gave up reading, and used my reading time for writing instead . . . .
But this is an experiment in sustainable writing, and giving up reading pretty much nixes the sustainable bit.
So, my goal:
Write for one hour every other day. Faithfully.
My hope is that this will be enough to keep momentum, but little enough that I can actually live with it over the course of months.
Theoretically I think I should be able to have a rough draft in 2-3 months, a second draft in another 2-3 months, and maybe something I'm willing to show to someone else at the end of 6 months (total) or so. A sensible creature might pick up work on an existing manuscript - of which I have a handful, courtesy of NaNoWriMo - but I am not a sensible creature. Hopefully I will get back to my neglected orphans at some point, but at the moment I want to see whether I can just begin at the beginning and keep going until I have a working draft.
Wish me luck!
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