Wednesday, May 16, 2012

The Climax

Just wrote a big pivotal scene which will probably pose as THE CLIMAX for the novel and I have to say...writing is just so much easier when you do it every day. This was a scene I wrestled with for a while, but when you write every day these scenes become easier. The words come quicker, the people are fresher and everything is more organic. If I take even one day off, it takes a longer time to start the engines on the next day. Monday was my first blank writing day of May and Tuesday became my slowest starting writing day. But I finished Tuesday strong with a scene I liked and then I roared back today and finished it. It's that easy. Tomorrow another scene. Friday, another. You don't quit until it's done and when it's done, you start something else. If I can do that, I win. Frankly I am not in this to lose.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Another month, another tally, oh and there's music.

Well April was a tad more successful than March as far as raw writing production is concerned. In March, I had four circles (meaning no writing took place that day) and finished with 52,000 words written in the 31 days of the month. In April, I had two circles and wrote 56,000 words. I'm especially happy with that because it's clear improvement in that I took two days out of March and added 2k words/day to those circles AND found time to make up words in a 30 day month. So in two months of serious dedication to the craft, I've put up 108,000 words. I'm good with that.

If I haven't made it clear in previous posts, I'll try again now. The reason I'm so hung up on these words is because my goals in writing aren't just to write a book, or even to get it published. I want to write for the rest of my life, and frankly I don't want to do anything else. The more I write, the freer I feel, the better I live. It's the simplest way I can put it. I don't like day jobs and I don't like pandering. I'm not married and I don't have kids, so what am I waiting for? If ever I'm going to reach a dream of writing every day and actually succeeding, I have to hold myself accountable. And that means tracking words, then holding those words in my face if I don't meet my quota of words. Hopefully, this becomes a life long habit, or at least one I have until I'm happily at my goal.

Granted, these are all first draft words. To me, these are about 2/3 as useful as a second draft word and maybe 2/5 as useful as final draft words. But you can't have final drafts without first having a sketch. I'm trying to blaze through at this point. I was working toward getting my characters to a unifying experience and then put them through the horrors of said experience. Now the story starts at that unifying spark and my narration has strengthened considerably thanks to that. I am no longer allowing myself to look back at previously written chapters until I consider the first draft done. Then it shall sit in a hole for a long, long time while I write its sequel. Well, that's the plan anyways.

Now, for the music: