Friday, October 29, 2010

20 Day Writing challenge - end of Week One

I made my goal - and a little bit more! Yeah!

Today's details:

A.M. - wrote form 9:42 - 10:37, 9 pages, 1331 words. I also went back a page and did some minor revisions, because I realized there should be more conflict at the end of the previous scene. I deleted 113 words and added 107.

Broke for lunch, treadmill, making chili for the weekend and some craft work

P.M. - wrote from 3:06 - 3:30, 2 pages, 530 words. Why so little? Maybe it was getting up so early yesterday, or two days on the treadmill, but this afternoon, I was bushed! Nevertheless, I did write and here are the week's totals:

54 pages (goal was 50), 11,259 words.

I didn't start with a word count goal this week. However, I believe I'll add that to the rest of the 20 Day Challenge, so it will be 10 pages a day, for a total of 50/week, and a weekly word goal of over 10,000 words.

If you've been noting how much time I've spent at the computer this week, I imagine a lot of you are thinking, "Huh? Is that all?"

Yep. Because here's the thing: I've learned the hard way that if I push it, especially with a first draft, my brain eventually freezes. Or my imagination just kinda goes on strike. However I describe it, it means writing becomes a real chore, and that's not good.

Also, a first draft can be more mentally draining than any subsequent draft. Even with an outline, I'm making constant decisions and I'm also feeling my way along in terms of the characters, who I don't know really, really well yet. Also, while I may not be sitting at the computer for a long time, I'm doing a lot of thinking about the story at other times.

Oh, and bonus - doing the dishes by hand isn't onerous at all. I point out again I'm just talking dishes for two here, but I'm actually enjoying not having to empty the dishwasher.

So, that's one week down, three to go!


Here I am outside our hotel in a suburb of Rome.

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