1,393 words.
For tomorrow's work I get to research cognitive behavioral therapy. Yesterday I was googling anti-psychotics and delusions. Yes, this is a children's book. Why do you ask?
Thursday, January 31, 2019
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Day 9
1,644 words.
I did some re-reading of what I've written so far, and a bit of google research. Both distractionary things, I know, but sometimes I need to take a step back and reorient myself on where I am in the story, or get ideas for where to go next. In my practice novel I sometimes had whole days where I did nothing but that, but obviously today turned out productive anyway.
I did some re-reading of what I've written so far, and a bit of google research. Both distractionary things, I know, but sometimes I need to take a step back and reorient myself on where I am in the story, or get ideas for where to go next. In my practice novel I sometimes had whole days where I did nothing but that, but obviously today turned out productive anyway.
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
Day 8
1,551 words.
I did go back and rewrite a lot of what I wrote yesterday, but I'm much more satisfied with it now.
After I finished up yesterday, I thought today I would be writing a scene where my protagonist does something cringe-y and I was not looking forward to it. But this morning I remembered a rule I've set for myself, which is that everything I write I should enjoy writing. That's not to say I should make everything go well for my characters all the time, or even that writing should never be hard or frustrating, but if I am actively dreading writing a scene, why write it at all? I think this is the natural corollary to a saying I hear often, which is "no tears in the writer, no tears in the reader." If I'm not enthused about a scene, why would I expect my readers to be?
Now, not only is there no cringe, but the scene works even better than my original plan, which is usually what happens when I remember to be enthusiastic.
I did go back and rewrite a lot of what I wrote yesterday, but I'm much more satisfied with it now.
After I finished up yesterday, I thought today I would be writing a scene where my protagonist does something cringe-y and I was not looking forward to it. But this morning I remembered a rule I've set for myself, which is that everything I write I should enjoy writing. That's not to say I should make everything go well for my characters all the time, or even that writing should never be hard or frustrating, but if I am actively dreading writing a scene, why write it at all? I think this is the natural corollary to a saying I hear often, which is "no tears in the writer, no tears in the reader." If I'm not enthused about a scene, why would I expect my readers to be?
Now, not only is there no cringe, but the scene works even better than my original plan, which is usually what happens when I remember to be enthusiastic.
Monday, January 28, 2019
Day 7
1,459 words.
I ran into the problem of not knowing beforehand what the purpose of a scene was. So I'm going to have to do a little seam-ripping tomorrow and backtrack a few hundred words to make the scene into something that will move the plot along. Which is fine. It's nothing I haven't done before.
I ran into the problem of not knowing beforehand what the purpose of a scene was. So I'm going to have to do a little seam-ripping tomorrow and backtrack a few hundred words to make the scene into something that will move the plot along. Which is fine. It's nothing I haven't done before.
Saturday, January 26, 2019
Friday, January 25, 2019
Day 5
1,530 words. In about an hour.
At least I seem to have figured out why this feels so suspiciously easy. My practice novel was a mystery thriller with an ensemble cast, three of which were main characters and five or six of which had arcs, accompanied by fight scenes (which I'm not good at) and complicated logistics. The Robot Changeling, on the other hand, is a middle grade book with one protagonist and a mere handful of supporting characters. It's also a more internal story with a lot of sitting around and talking scenes, which are more my forte. For the five minutes after I realized that I felt a lot better about the breakneck pace I have going.
Of course, fate just loves messing with me, so naturally I then watched a YouTube video about writing, where an agent, someone with skin in the game who would know, said she felt fast-paced books were harder to fix than slow-paced ones.
I'm... just going to pretend I didn't hear that.
At least I seem to have figured out why this feels so suspiciously easy. My practice novel was a mystery thriller with an ensemble cast, three of which were main characters and five or six of which had arcs, accompanied by fight scenes (which I'm not good at) and complicated logistics. The Robot Changeling, on the other hand, is a middle grade book with one protagonist and a mere handful of supporting characters. It's also a more internal story with a lot of sitting around and talking scenes, which are more my forte. For the five minutes after I realized that I felt a lot better about the breakneck pace I have going.
Of course, fate just loves messing with me, so naturally I then watched a YouTube video about writing, where an agent, someone with skin in the game who would know, said she felt fast-paced books were harder to fix than slow-paced ones.
I'm... just going to pretend I didn't hear that.
Thursday, January 24, 2019
Day 4
1,717 words. And I only skipped lunch by an hour! (and a half...)
Ideas are still coming easily. Words are still flowing. I'm still suspicious I'll turn around and find that all the 'easy' words were actually complete crap and they need to be trashed. Still telling myself that even bad words are better than no words. Still not sure exactly what kind of story I'm telling despite knowing the plot.
Still loving being a writer.
Ideas are still coming easily. Words are still flowing. I'm still suspicious I'll turn around and find that all the 'easy' words were actually complete crap and they need to be trashed. Still telling myself that even bad words are better than no words. Still not sure exactly what kind of story I'm telling despite knowing the plot.
Still loving being a writer.
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
Day 3
1,185 words.
My main character has a plan, but I only know the first and last parts of it. I've got another day or two of writing and then I'm going to have to come up with the rest of it. Don't you love it when your characters know more than you do?
Still, I'm pleased. Today's word count only took me about an hour to write. I use speech-to-text, so that's a little less impressive than it sounds, but even compared to my normal pace, it's fast. The downside to this speed is that I already know this draft is going to be way too short, and subsequent drafts are going to need to be expanded rather than pared down. Is that better or worse? I don't know!
What I do know is that it's probably going to be a common problem for me. I'm used to writing short stories, making my writing concise and stripping away unnecessary words. It's always been an effort to describe instead of summarize, let moments breathe instead of getting right to the point. But since this is the first draft, my priority can't be descriptions or pacing. Right now I just need to get the big picture, bare bones structure down. Once this draft is finished I'll go back to revising my practice novel, and then I'll really get to practice adding in descriptions and tweaking pacing; making sure the story doesn't feel stuffed and that every part of it has a chance to breathe.
My main character has a plan, but I only know the first and last parts of it. I've got another day or two of writing and then I'm going to have to come up with the rest of it. Don't you love it when your characters know more than you do?
Still, I'm pleased. Today's word count only took me about an hour to write. I use speech-to-text, so that's a little less impressive than it sounds, but even compared to my normal pace, it's fast. The downside to this speed is that I already know this draft is going to be way too short, and subsequent drafts are going to need to be expanded rather than pared down. Is that better or worse? I don't know!
What I do know is that it's probably going to be a common problem for me. I'm used to writing short stories, making my writing concise and stripping away unnecessary words. It's always been an effort to describe instead of summarize, let moments breathe instead of getting right to the point. But since this is the first draft, my priority can't be descriptions or pacing. Right now I just need to get the big picture, bare bones structure down. Once this draft is finished I'll go back to revising my practice novel, and then I'll really get to practice adding in descriptions and tweaking pacing; making sure the story doesn't feel stuffed and that every part of it has a chance to breathe.
Tuesday, January 22, 2019
Day 2
1,246 words. And twenty minutes to spare before bedtime!
Normally I write in the morning, but today was a full day so I didn't have any time to myself until after 8:00pm. I started this session tired and felt like I was probably going to have a half word count day. I told myself I'd be satisfied if I made 500 words. But the ideas kept flowing-- always a good feeling. By the time I got to 800 words it felt silly to stop there. I even made a bunch of notes at the end because I had even more ideas than I could write today.
I think all this 'inspiration' is coming because I have an outline. On the planner/pantser debate I am fast becoming a true believer in planning. It means less time during the actual writing spent wondering what to write next, and more time spent figuring out how to write it.
Of course, it's always good to leave wiggle room. I made several adjustments just today simply because of things I couldn't have predicted until I actually sat down and climbed inside my character's head. I even changed her name. I'll probably change it again, but the previous one was just a placeholder and it felt like it.
Normally I write in the morning, but today was a full day so I didn't have any time to myself until after 8:00pm. I started this session tired and felt like I was probably going to have a half word count day. I told myself I'd be satisfied if I made 500 words. But the ideas kept flowing-- always a good feeling. By the time I got to 800 words it felt silly to stop there. I even made a bunch of notes at the end because I had even more ideas than I could write today.
I think all this 'inspiration' is coming because I have an outline. On the planner/pantser debate I am fast becoming a true believer in planning. It means less time during the actual writing spent wondering what to write next, and more time spent figuring out how to write it.
Of course, it's always good to leave wiggle room. I made several adjustments just today simply because of things I couldn't have predicted until I actually sat down and climbed inside my character's head. I even changed her name. I'll probably change it again, but the previous one was just a placeholder and it felt like it.
Monday, January 21, 2019
Day 1
Today
I began the first draft of my new story, The Robot Changeling. I
wrote 1217 new words, adding to the 450 or so I had written a few
weeks ago while I was bored and thinking.
I dawdled a fair bit this morning before sitting down to write. Excuses came easy: I need to finish that manga before it’s due at the library tomorrow, I need to take down all the papers and notes for my last story that is cooling off in a drawer right now, waiting for me to come back to it in six weeks or whenever draft 1 of The Robot Changeling is done.
Stephen
King said “the first million words are practice”, and I’m
nowhere near that yet, so for the next few years, everything
I
write will be “just practice”. But also, momentum helps. I had
days on my practice novel when I wanted to give up, when I knew it
was terrible and nothing I did would make it any less terrible. I had
days when I was sick and didn’t write very much. I had days when I
hadn’t written for a week and I had gotten so far out of the story
I could barely remember why I was writing it anymore. But I kept
going. And I finished.
And when I began work on the second draft, it was-- well, it wasn’t easier exactly. But I already had 50,000 words written over the course of two or three months, and so even though I had to rearrange some really big plot elements and make some hard decisions about cutting subplots, I had that ugly monster to look back to for guidance. It was something. And that made it a lot easier to put fingers to keyboard and just write. Because I was already so far, stopping would have been harder than not stopping.
I’m starting this blog to keep track of my progress. It’s going to serve as a reminder to me that this process kind of sucks a lot of the time and that’s normal. So that the next time I start something new and I get nervous, I can look back and be reminded that the fear of starting something new is, well, nothing new. But also, I’ll be reminded that I did it anyway.
I dawdled a fair bit this morning before sitting down to write. Excuses came easy: I need to finish that manga before it’s due at the library tomorrow, I need to take down all the papers and notes for my last story that is cooling off in a drawer right now, waiting for me to come back to it in six weeks or whenever draft 1 of The Robot Changeling is done.
(It’s
not literally in a drawer-- it’s sitting on a shelf. In a binder.
Because I printed it out. Used up an entire black ink cartridge and
them some. The last few chapters are rainbow colored.)
But
before the excuses drowned out my entire day and I just gave up, I
remembered the most common and most important piece of writing advice
I’ve ever gotten: just write. No excuses. No fear. Just write. It’s
going to suck and be bad and not be anything you ever want to show
another human being. That’s okay. Just
write.
And
that’s not abstract advice to me anymore: it’s also something I
learned for myself during the majority of 2018 as I wrote my practice
novel (it’s fanfiction and no you can’t read it when it’s
done.) (Well, maybe PM me and we’ll see.) I called it a practice
novel because that’s what it is, but doing so took the pressure off
me in a big way. Who cares if it’s terrible? It’s just practice.
But this morning, as I faced down my barely sketched-in outline and
thinly fleshed-out characters and major plot holes, I realized that I
can just treat this thing like practice too. It’s only the first
draft. Nothing to get all worked up about.
And when I began work on the second draft, it was-- well, it wasn’t easier exactly. But I already had 50,000 words written over the course of two or three months, and so even though I had to rearrange some really big plot elements and make some hard decisions about cutting subplots, I had that ugly monster to look back to for guidance. It was something. And that made it a lot easier to put fingers to keyboard and just write. Because I was already so far, stopping would have been harder than not stopping.
I’m starting this blog to keep track of my progress. It’s going to serve as a reminder to me that this process kind of sucks a lot of the time and that’s normal. So that the next time I start something new and I get nervous, I can look back and be reminded that the fear of starting something new is, well, nothing new. But also, I’ll be reminded that I did it anyway.
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