Just so happy to see that number right there.
It was a good week. I wrote. I started practicing hand-lettering so I could do something besides type all the time. It's like a new source of inspiration.
Just so happy to see that number right there.
0 Comments
A conversation with my husband:
Me: ...and so I was just blown away when she said that $400 was a decent price point for a shirt. I mean, who says that. Him: You're a junkie. You're a reality TV junkie. Me: I know. Isn't it great? I mean, I think it just satisfies my deep desire to take random people that would never interact in real-life and lock them in a room, then observe what they do. It's like The SIMS, but way less work. Him: *blinks slowly* Ummmm, how long have you been a kidnapping psychopath? Me: I'm not a psychopath. I'm a writer. I like to people watch, but I hate leaving home. Reality television is just people watching for introverts. Just some recent items that caught my interest and made me think.
The Fat Jew Controversy As a writer, plagiarism is a thing that concerns me. I worry about straight up theft of my words, my ideas. Sharing is one thing, but removing the creator's name and acting like you wrote it? Created it? Nope. Watching to see how this all plays out. Most interested in the potential for consequences or will we as a society be all, "meh." Update: He responds. J.K. Rowling Twitter Easter Eggs Seriously, she's awesome. As an author I can only hope to create a world so deep and realistic that we can talk about it for years and years and not have covered it all. Pricing Your E-Book Cut me some slack if you know all this. I'm a newbie and still absorbing it all. I found this interesting since it's more than just, "see what others in your genre do." That's in there, but the word count and page count thing were pretty interesting. Data and Books I cringed a little reading this. I get it, our society now has new and improved ways to track readers and books and engagement and so on. But I'm an old codger and I don't like it. I need to read more about this and kind of sit with it I guess. Would you ever let data dictate how you write? Shorter Fiction? This is an old one, but I came across it this week doing e-book research. I love novel length work, but making money sounds good, too. I really liked the idea of writing a couple of short stories as back story to the current novel project. Next question: where to get that critiqued? Ferguson Knitters I think this is awesome. Because I LOVE Bill Hader Weekly Word Count - August 21, 2015 (in which I discover that I am my own greatest obstacle)8/21/2015 2,755 words.
Y'all. I am so proud of all of those words. This week was our first week back to school for the 2015-2016 school year. This means even less time to write than normal (I homeschool, yo). Last Friday I wrote 800 words. I didn't write over the weekend (I don't usually). I didn't write at all until last night. The kids were in bed and the house was quiet. I was really, really tired. I opened my laptop and started to surf over to Facebook or Twitter, and then I was like, NO. So, I opened Scrivener and picked up the thread of my story. I was watching the little project meter turn from red to green and then I hit my word count for the day and I sighed. Made it, I thought. I can quit now, I thought. 368 words is good enough. I leaned back in my chair and stared at the ceiling. I just barely dragged that scene over the line. It took me ages to figure out what to do there. I felt so happy to be done. Because I had no idea where to go next. But then I was like, You know what? NO. I opened a new scene and I just started writing. No plan. No thinking about where to go or how this fits in the plot. I just wrote. And when I had to quit to take a late night phone call I had written 1600+ more words. And they were the most glorious, authentic words I've written in awhile. So, my advice? JUST WRITE. GET OUT OF YOUR OWN WAY. Off to take my own advice. One of the things that I struggle with the most in writing is time. I'll be the first to admit that I waste time. I think everyone does, right? I've had days when dinner time rolls around and I feel like I've not done anything, but I've been "doing" all day. And yet, the house is trashed, the laundry's not folded, dinner's not cooked, I've not written anything and I look like I just rolled out of bed. If I'm not careful one day like that can easily roll into a week. It's misery. There's nothing like going and going and having nothing to show for it. It's even worse when my husband asks me to do something and it gets forgotten. Last fall I reached a point where I was done. Done with flying by the seat of my pants. Done with having nothing to show for my time. Done with being unorganized. I started looking for a planner, hoping that if I started writing things down I could actually remember to do them and maybe start to get some control. On a side note, have you priced planners lately? Anyway, I ended up where I get all my best ideas: Pinterest! I searched for planners, hoping that I could maybe find something that would work for me that I could print for free. One of the results wasn't a printable, it was link to a video on bullet journaling. Watch it. I'll wait. It resonated with me. It was simple. It was cheap! I was sold. I went straight to Amazon and ordered a 5" x 8" hardbound Moleskine with grid pages. In January I started bullet journaling just like in the video. I kept everything in the journal: writing ideas, garden plans, Whole 30, menu planning, grocery lists. It was great. It was also a hot mess. But on the plus side I was getting things done. It was still hard to fit in writing, so not working. Summer hit and I chucked the whole thing. Which was okay for summer, I guess. But, we start school on Monday, and I can't fly by the seat of my pants again. I don't want to go back to how I felt last year. Back to Pinterest. Bullet Journaling has really picked up steam over the course of 2015, so this is really me adding my voice to the noise at this point. Onward. Looking through all of the ideas, I realized that what was frustrating me was not being able to see what was coming over the course of the week. I don't need tons of space because I usually end up with 1-4 things scheduled each day. I just like knowing what's coming and being able to see where I already have commitments. The previous version I just started a new section each day and wrote in that days commitments, but to see the week I had to go to my phone.
The first layout I tried was a week in squares at the top leaving most of the page for to-do listing. Only that week I wasn't very busy and most of the two page spread was empty. Bummer. So, I decided to give this layout a try. Love. It. Having the week on the left side lets me see everything going on. This week looks pretty empty, because I took the picture last week. It filled up! It always does. My life happens in condensed fashion. I make a few appointments way out (dentist, hair, etc.) but for the most part things happen and get scheduled the same week they happen. Especially since there are teenagers involved and they do things last minute anyway. The right side I write something to memorize: this week it's a Bible verse. I also have a smaller section for to-do's which I have determined is the perfect amount of space because I have room at the bottom of the page for daily habits. So, those things that used to take space on my to-do list are now in their own space and being tracked. The notes for next week is where I can jot down anything that needs to be handled the next week. Duh. I create this spread new every week, usually on Saturday or Sunday. I look at my phone calendar and transfer appointments over and carry over any to-do's that still need to be addressed. How does this help me as a writer? Because I can focus when I sit down to write. I've checked off my tasks. Everything's steaming along. I don't get interrupted by thoughts about what I've forgotten to do or when I have to leave for the next appointment. I can put on my headphones and just write and immerse myself in the story for as long as I have time. I have found this is the best way to keep the real world from intruding into my writing time. The minute the clock struck midnight on June 1, 2015, I failed. I had set a deadline for Heart Stone to be completed by that point and instead of the first draft being done and ready to rest over the summer I had a half-done novel and a sinking feeling that it might stay that way for awhile. So, the first thing to do - a post-mortem (#4, mentioned in my deadline post). Let's ask some hard questions and figure out how to avoid my mistake in the future. Pre-Writing Planning 1. Does/Did this project have a plot/plot points/general plan? Yes. I mentioned before that I had used Alexandra Sokoloff's book Screenwriting Tricks for Author's to plan this novel. I also mentioned that I am a bit of a plantser (cross between plotter and pantser). What this means is that I plotted out all of the major points in the story, but left the movement in between these points open. My challenge as a writer is to move the characters between the major plot points in a believeable way. That being said, I grossly underestimated how much work it is to get characters from point A to point B without turning them into paper dolls and forcing them to just do what I say already! Their movements and decisions have to be believable, or all my work is for nothing. I think this is a rookie mistake. Bottom line - I need to give myself more of a map or more time. I think which I choose depends on the project. If the deadline is external, then the map becomes necessary. If I have the luxury of time, them great. I can skimp a bit on the map. 2. Does/Did this project have main characters in place? Yes. I also mentioned that I used Chuck Wendig's method of developing characters to assist in that. I answered the questions for each of my main characters. Secondary characters don't get that treatment and often I just name them randomly and move on. I may go back and fill in info for them if they turn into more than a one-off kind of character. 3. Does/Did this project have a word count goal (measurable & achievable)? Yes. 50,000 words (this was a goal and probably will end up longer). Measurable and achievable are important here as you set goals. This count was both. I still missed it, but I'll get to that in a second. 4. Does/Did this project have checkpoints (smaller goals)? Sort of. Here's where I think I went wrong. I had an overall word count goal of 50,000 words. I was able to figure out what I needed to write every day to meet that goal. For me, that meant writing 834 words every weekday for about 12 weeks. It's completely do-able on paper. But, my schedule can be weird at times. Some days I may be able to squeeze in a couple of hours or more to write and I may knock out 3,000+ words in a day. Other days I may get no time to write. Zero word days are not abnormal around here. I just shrugged them off. No biggie, I'll make up the words on another day. Only, because I was only doing daily tracking I didn't necessarily make up the words. And I didn't realize how far behind I was until it was too late. Solution: Weekly and monthly goals and tracking in addition to daily tracking. Zero word days are going to be a reality, but I have to have a way to make sure that I make up the count and stay on track. By adding a weekly word goal and a monthly word goal I'll be able to catch deficiencies faster, before they become too overwhelming. 5. What role did/do distractions play in missing this goal? Let's be honest for a second. This was a problem too. There's a million things competing for my attention online that can be way more fun than pushing through a sticky mess in my book. Solution: I have Scrivener set to full-screen mode. Nothing else shows, although notifications will still pop up. This helps once I choose to open it! So, instead of mindlessly walking away from computer at the end of the day I plan to leave Scrivener open so that when I get on my computer the next day, my novel is what I see first thing. The idea here is to write first, browse later. I know I can't write for 8 hours straight. I have to break that up, but I can handle an hour or two and in that time I should be able to meet my daily goal. Then I can browse Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, etc. The second part of that solution is to list everything that I need to do, daily, weekly, and monthly. If I want to tweet 20 times per month, then I can schedule some tweets in advance and meet that goal. If I am aiming for 3 blog posts per week then I need an editorial calendar and to work ahead - time that needs to be calendared separate from writing time. And so on. Next Steps Now that I've taken the time to evaluate what went wrong I can set new goals and plan accordingly. Deadline 2.0 - October 31, 2015 Checkpoints Daily word goal - 417 Weekly - 2,085 August - 6,255 words (total count 33,790) September - 8,340 words (total count 42,130) October - 7,870 words (total count 50,000) Meeting this goal means setting the book aside here, assuming that the plot has played out. If it has I will break from this and focus on book two for NaNoWriMo (means I have to pull double-duty in October - planning book 2 while writing book 1). If I need to continue working on this book, that will be my NaNo goal - finishing this work completely. Editing commences in mid-January, with a goal of getting outside input in March. Would love to have it query ready by June 1, 2016. We'll see. Please note: I'm an unpublished, kinda newbie at this. All of this post is just based on my own personal experience and journey. It's helpful to me to break things down like this in an attempt to do better going forward. The only advice I can offer if you miss an external deadline with you publisher, editor, agent, etc. would be to pick up the phone and call them. Better to come clean and develop a plan than to make them chase you down.
All in all an excellent week. Granted, I am not putting up the big word counts that I was early in the book, but I am stuck in the midpoint and working through some tricky plot and character moments. I hope after I get past this midpoint that writing will speed up.
But, even if it doesn't I'll make my new deadline, maybe even with time to spare. Which will be good because I have a NaNoWriMo novel to plan, too. My vision, if I was asked to describe the ultimate writer, would probably be a man (shocker) wearing khakis, a button down shirt, and a cardigan. He'd be older, probably middle aged. He's in a room facing a big window that looks over the countryside at his big solid desk, where he's pecking away at an old typewriter for hours every day. After a few weeks he stacks up his completed pages, smiles, and tucks the pages into a big manila envelope.
That's the writer that lives in my head. And, (shocker) that's not how writers really work! Can you believe it? At least, that's not how this writer works. This writer wears mostly shorts and t-shirts. This writer is usually barefoot. This writer is not a man. This writer may or may not be middle aged. This writer doesn't work at a typewriter, has no stack of completed pages, and most definitely does not get hours a day to work. And this writer, unlike my prolific imaginary writer, needs to work with deadlines. Here's what I've learned about deadlines in the last year of writing: 1. Every month can't be NaNoWriMo. I wrote 50,000+ words in November. I wrote 30,000+ words in April for Camp NaNoWriMo. I know I am capable. But the sheer volume of time required is too much to do on a daily basis for me. Look, I know that there are people that can churn out that volume of words every month. I am not that person and I am here to say it's okay. It's okay if your monthly word count doesn't live up to the record that you set that one NaNo. Life happens, family happens, work happens (because bills...). It's Okay. 2. Aim high. When I started this current book in February it looked nothing like what I am writing now. The characters were similar, but the plot has changed tremendously. So, in March, when I stepped back to plan better I set a goal of completing the book (roughly 50,000 words) by June 1, 2015. That was a lofty goal for me. It meant buckling down and writing in the free spaces in my day. I homeschool my kids and that has to come first, so writing has to be a fringe project. I didn't make it. 3. Acknowledge your seasons. The reality is that sometimes you're going to be busier than other times. You have to acknowledge that and work with it. During the school year we're home most of the day. I can slip into the office and write during lunch or between the end of the school day and the start of dinner prep. It's easy to get in 1,000 words or more if I'm on a roll (and not procrastinating). During the summer we are on the go, go, go. It starts in the morning and doesn't end til late at night. The kids have daytime activities and friend dates and so on. I spend a good deal of my day in the car. While it would be great if I could perch the laptop in the dashboard and keep writing, it's not practical. So, I didn't write much at all this summer. It's the sad truth that my calendar took over. 4. Do a post-mortem. I'm not a crime writer. Yet. Heh. But, seriously, do a post-mortem and figure out why you missed that deadline. This is especially important when you're new. Stay with me. I hope to be a professional (read: paid) writer someday. That means there will be deadlines for everything under the sun - draft deadlines, editing deadlines, and so on. And they will be externally imposed deadlines from publishers, editors, and the like. Because of my personality, I know that I will want to hit those deadlines. To do that I need to know my own limitations. Which is where this post-mortem comes in. Why did I miss that June 1 deadline? What could I have done differently? Will it be different next time? For the record, I'll be doing my own post-mortem in another post. But, the key is that I can negotiate deadlines in the future from a place of education, rather than a place of cross your fingers and hope for the best. 5. Crunch the numbers. I wrote 25,000 words on this book in three months. These were 25,000 good, pre-plotted words. If that sounds weird, you have to understand that previous "novels" lacked a crucial element. Plot. Anyway, if I can reasonably hit 25,000 words in three months (not summer months) then I should reasonably be able to write 50,000 words in six months. Easy. This helps me set a new deadline for this book and can be used as a baseline for future novels. 6. No deadline = no work. That June 1 deadline passed and I hadn't finished. But, instead of setting another deadline I just figured I'd write the rest of the book as I had time. I didn't. Even though summer is busy in a way that the rest of the year isn't, I am positive that I spent way too much time with the Real Housewives and way too little time writing. 7. Planning makes the process easier. A lot of novelists are planners. A lot of novelists are pantsers. I like to think that I am a hybrid. Plantser? This is the first of three attempts that I sat down and really created a framework for the story. I wrote up a 6 line character sketch for everyone. I spent about 2 weeks looking at the big picture. Then I dove in. I planned, but now I do a lot of pansting because my plans aren't super detailed. I have a hit this mark, then hit this mark, then hit this mark kind of sketch. I pants what happens between the marks. What's important is knowing that there's room for both styles in every process. 8. Use all of your tools. I'm not talking about your word processor of choice. Although that's important. Get out your calendar. Paper, electronic. It doesn't matter. Now pencil in everything you have to do for the next week, month, quarter, whatever. I do this weekly. Every Saturday I look at my calendar and see what's coming up. What obligations do I have out of the house that could affect my writing time. Then I schedule my writing time. Some days that means I am at my computer bleary-eyed and nursing a mega cup of coffee at 6 a.m. Other days I stay up a little later at night. But I have to plan when I can write. If I wait for "inspiration" to strike then I might as well throw in the towel. It doesn't work that way for me. (See: writing in the fringe hours). 9. Bribe your inner editor. You know, there's super popular advice out there about silencing your inner editor. You know, that little voice that thinks that everything you write is stupid and dumb and you should just quit writing? Yeah, shut him up. Only, my guy won't be quiet. Even as I duct taped his mouth shut and tied him to a chair in the corner he thrashed around. Broke a lamp. It was a mess. I turned him loose, but then we were both miserable. So, I decided to bribe him instead. If he stays quiet I'll go back and re-read stuff that I wrote weeks ago. It serves two purposes: First, my inner editor is always surprised at how not awful the writing actually is. I mean, there's useable stuff in there! Second, I'm able to look for story threads that have been dropped and can bring them forward. Things like a forgotten character quirk, a turn of phrase, etc. It's a small way to add a bit of continuity without editing an WIP. 10. Treat writing like a job. This only applies if you want it to be your job. If this is a hobby, something you do for fun, then carry on. I want to write for a living. I'd like to sell a book someday. So, I'm starting now. What this means is that I have a target word count to hit every week. I know it will vary. I'm not making any money from this right now, so even though I make it as high a priority as I can, sometimes it has to take a back seat. That's okay. But I no longer will allow myself to shrug about not making targets or missing deadlines. Obviously I won't fire myself, but I may have to make myself make double my daily word count if I miss a day. I don't know what the next three months hold, but I do hope that by October 31 I can come back here and proudly report that I finished my novel. Back in business.
The problem with being away for so long is that I had to go back and re-read everything to figure out where I was going. Ha! Building up some momentum and have seen my word count go up every day. Bonus: Being away for awhile I was able to read my stuff through fresh eyes. It's not terrible. Needs editing and is still really, really rough, but not terrible. I think that's pretty high praise for a first draft... |
AuthorI write. I am unpublished. Hoping to change that. Archives
June 2017
Categories
All
|