For Day 12 I reclaimed an older chapter and made it work with the book the way it now is. I added 614 new words of rewriting/editing/writing 1,460.
I do have a few more chapters that I will probably be able to bring back into the fold, but most of the stuff coming up is going to be new, to meet my current vision.
Historically Saturdays give me very little time to write, so I’m not even going to plan on Day 13 being anything near amazing, but I’ll show up. 🙂
Isn’t it kind’a funny that I keep calling it pulp writing speed? Because I haven’t achieved it yet. I should be hitting over 1k in 30 minutes, but I’m only in the 900’s.
Anyway, my writing day was interrupted, which is quite common. Still, I focused on writing new early chapters in the book to more realize some of the other characters.
Yesterday’s writing was 1,666 words. That’s about an acceptable NaNoWriMo pace, but way too short still. Though I’m trying to jump into a good speed, I still have to get back into the habit of more writing, and start pushing myself for higher output.
All work is still on my secret WIP. Funny that I thought I could announce it last weekend. Just looking at my outline tells me that I’ve created a lot more work. Writing is easily going into next week (especially with my current slow pace).
Day 9 had a word count of 1,375, not too bad for not having time to write. That brings my book’s word count to 40,818. I have another 17,000 words I’m likely not using. That might be a good excuse for a book of short stories. I have some unused material from my Hungry Gods series that’s just sitting around.
I have another 17,000 words I’m likely not using. That might be a good excuse for a book of short stories. I have some unused material from my Hungry Gods series that’s just sitting around.
Anyway, Day 10’s not going to write itself. Gotta go…
Day 8 was an example of not being in the mood to write, but showing up to do something anyway. I had to use a timer to make that happen, but it worked.
I ended up outlining for awhile, deciding what I want to do with all my new story arcs. After that, I had about 30 minutes of writing time which got me a total 942 new words.
Day 9 will be the same. I have a few new twists for the climax that I’ll outline, and then I’ll go back and maybe add another 942 words. Day 9, however, is almost over, and it’s one of those days where I feel like crap. Too much sun and too much heat.
Last week I averaged 1,542 words per day. This week I want my average to end higher than that. Most of the total word count will be accomplished on Day 10.
Two more of my secondary characters are going to get story arc’s now. The odds of seeing the completion of the 1st draft by the end of my Week 2 isn’t looking good. End of August, maybe?
I decided on Day 7 to finish Spilling Blood Season 3‘s layout for the paperback. And I did! Yay me!
Then I turned my attention to my Work in Progress.
It was my intention to finish it on Day 7, but I instead introduced 3 new characters. Complete with story arcs.
But it is making the ending far more lively. I’m thinking the book is going to be around 55k to 60k now.
So anyway, back to the day’s accomplishments…
Day 7:Â
Week 1:
Word Count: 10,947.
I had a limited window yesterday to write, and wasted some of that thinking about a couple of plot holes that needed to be turned into story arcs. They’re not really plot holes, but I have a few secondary protagonists and antagonists that need more time in the sun.
Though this is making a longer book, it also increases the amount of time I need to finish the book. I guess I should be happy writing a book focusing just on one or two characters, but for now, I’m going to follow where it takes me.
Which means I don’t see myself finishing it on Day 7.
I think my battle plan is going to still to focus all my energies on finishing this book, maybe wrapping it up by Wednesday. I have a few hours Sunday and Monday, but Tuesday is not going to be accommodating.
I may or may not finish the Spilling Blood Season 3 paperback layout on Day 7. I guess I should give it a half hour…
So yesterday I didn’t do any revising or editing, in my short window, I instead tried to squeeze in some word count by writing the story arcs mentioned above. In the half an hour I had, I wrote 734 words.
I’m writing this well into Day 6, because it’s Saturday, and Saturdays are not conducive to writing. So I’m going to try and keep this short, because tonight’s going to have slim opportunity for progress.
Day 5 was productive, as I expected. Though I progressed far less than the day before, I actually wrote more. yesterday’s word count was 2,310, and actual polishing/writing/revising/editing is a total of 6,242. The goal was 7k+, but oh well.
The Work in Progress that I’m trying to complete on Day 7 is at 35,150 words that I’m happy with. There’s another 15k of words needing attention, and I know there’s a few new chapters that don’t exit that I need to bring to light.
I would be happy with the final draft of this book hitting around 50k to 55k words.
Am I worried? Yes, a little. I think I’m going to go a day or two over on my goal, which I guess isn’t such a big deal, since this is Week 1 for working my progress up toward Pulp Fiction writing speed. I still intend to be disappointed in myself. 🙂
I’ll do a book reveal and cover reveal once this first draft is finished.
Oh! I also worked on the Spilling Blood Season 3 paperback! I may be able to wrap up the layout portion tomorrow. *Yes! Fist pump!*
As for next week, I’m thinking about doing a rewrite on Hungry Gods Book 3, which again won’t give me high word counts (since it’s already written), but needs lots of love. It would be nice to let it see the light of day.
I’m still writing this post later than I wanted to because, sleep. Anyway, I’m on schedule to finish on August 14th, but barely, and only because I have a lot of material written already.
My writing, revising, and editing has me going a little slower than I’d like, but I have more free time on Thursday and Friday (at the moment). I only added 1,017 new words to the book, but wrote/revised/edited a total of 3,788, so the progress was there. Not quite up to the 5k I’m targeting, but productive nonetheless, and heading in the right direction.
Of the current 45k word count in my WIP, 14k of it is polished now.
Sometimes I think I’m a prolific writer. I’ve written a bunch of books and a shitload of short stories. I know I lose steam and have difficulty juggling writing when I’m involved elsewhere, but overall, I write a bunch.
But then I go and read up on the golden age pulp writers, and I realize how low my productivity really is… They Wrote 4500+ words a day, well over a million words every year…
…for decades.
Complete novels every week.
For decades.
So yeah, apparently I’m not a serious enough writer.
So… Since I’m 40-something, I guess I’d better get started if I want to compete with the pulp writers of the past. I’ve only got so many decades left!!!
So what the Hell…let’s go for it. Might as well start my shocking decades-worth of writing output today, right?
And I should totally blog it.
So, let’s set the expectation…
5k a day. That’s a number that works for me. That’s about two hours of writing a day, and 35k words a week. That’s not quite a novel a week, but the 5k a day is a minimum, so we shall see.
Instead of focusing on multiple titles, I will focus on one book until it’s finished.
There will not be a set word count for book length.
Ideas – You know those writing prompts I’ve shared? I’ve got a ton of them, so I’m okay for a year or two.
Anyway, I’ll just go for broke this week and see where I end up, then I can make other plans.
For now, this week will be dedicated to my Zombie Horror Romance.
Deadline for first draft – Sunday, August 13th.
Other project on my plate – Finish paperback of Spilling Blood Season 3.
G.S. Wright 