I may have "written the last line" two weeks ago, but that in way means I was finished with this project. The idea was always that in my thirteen week time limit I would complete three drafts: a first/rough draft (FMD), a working draft (WkStD), and a readable draft (no clever acronym on my harddrive).
After thirteen weeks of what seems like non-stop work, I finally have something I feel like I can show people (metaphorically speaking) and say "why, yes, I actually have done something with my life." Doing something with my life is, of course, why I went on this crazy, obsessed, compulsive, waking-up-at-six-fucking-a-m, summer-long novel-writing adventure. Not that I'm ready to die now or anything, but should I get a repeat deathly illness, maybe I won't have so much to regret.
So what does one do when they edit? Well, in my case, it was a lot of writing. So much for that last post, eh? I still consider that line the "last," but I'm sure there will be a lot more writing for this book in my future.
So... Final Stats for The Escaterra Summer Project:
440 pages; ~118,000 words
~40 pages/week (written)
~10,700 words/week (written
~37 pages/day (edited)
~9,800 words.day (edited)
So there's that. This is just the beginning really. I'd love to hear your thoughts, so please comment. I'll definitely (eventually) respond.
Thank you, you five loyal readers all of whom I know, who have supported me for the past three months and a week. I love you dearly, and I'll keep you updated, so keep reading!
Showing posts with label Comments. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Comments. Show all posts
Monday, August 15, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
Week Five: Utter Failure
Just thinking about my weekly stats makes my head hurt. I was well under my 50 page goal. Granted, it's not really my fault when my head decides it wants to mimic the pain from a torture scene in 24, but I'm still bummed about it.
Still, I'm extraordinarily close to the halfway point in the novel. My projection for it is Wednesday the 22nd, and I plan on writing through the evening until I get there. After today I'll probably have about 30 more pages to write, based on the scenes I know need to happen and how long they tend to be.
Once I get to the halfway point, I'm going to start giving more information about the novel itself. I don't think I've given a summary since week one. I'm thinking about doing mid-week Character Spotlights; how does that sound to you? I've also been working on another related project that I plan to premiere in a sister blog by the end of the summer.
I'm still lacking in the Facebook area. It's awful. I feel so disconnected from my friends not in my immediate physical space. Also, I can't share this blog there, so I appreciate your efforts to do so!
Quote of the Week: Fail
I didn't write for two days, so there really wasn't much from which to choose. I know I said I'd try for two this week, but c'mon. Three days worth of material. Plus, this is a long quote.
This quote is actually of a win for the main character, Nico, but a fail for the one she's dealing with.
"“You think you can kill me?” Nico asked
“Did you happen to notice how many people were in the room out there?”
54 patrons: half Prienvian, quarter Dwarven, and the rest a mix of Elven, Human and Hakathan. Plus the Prienvian barkeep. Nico liked challenges. Kept fight in the blood. “Nope.”
“Over fifty. And they’re all waiting for me to give them a signal.” The petite criminal giggled again. “So, let’s not be silly and do something you’ll regret in your afterlife.”
“Oh, I never allow myself to do something I’ll regret.”"
PS. Sorry this is late getting up again this week. I woke up late and didn't want to start writing late.
PPS. Great start to this week, by the way. :-)
Still, I'm extraordinarily close to the halfway point in the novel. My projection for it is Wednesday the 22nd, and I plan on writing through the evening until I get there. After today I'll probably have about 30 more pages to write, based on the scenes I know need to happen and how long they tend to be.
Once I get to the halfway point, I'm going to start giving more information about the novel itself. I don't think I've given a summary since week one. I'm thinking about doing mid-week Character Spotlights; how does that sound to you? I've also been working on another related project that I plan to premiere in a sister blog by the end of the summer.
I'm still lacking in the Facebook area. It's awful. I feel so disconnected from my friends not in my immediate physical space. Also, I can't share this blog there, so I appreciate your efforts to do so!
Quote of the Week: Fail
I didn't write for two days, so there really wasn't much from which to choose. I know I said I'd try for two this week, but c'mon. Three days worth of material. Plus, this is a long quote.
This quote is actually of a win for the main character, Nico, but a fail for the one she's dealing with.
"“You think you can kill me?” Nico asked
“Did you happen to notice how many people were in the room out there?”
54 patrons: half Prienvian, quarter Dwarven, and the rest a mix of Elven, Human and Hakathan. Plus the Prienvian barkeep. Nico liked challenges. Kept fight in the blood. “Nope.”
“Over fifty. And they’re all waiting for me to give them a signal.” The petite criminal giggled again. “So, let’s not be silly and do something you’ll regret in your afterlife.”
“Oh, I never allow myself to do something I’ll regret.”"
PS. Sorry this is late getting up again this week. I woke up late and didn't want to start writing late.
PPS. Great start to this week, by the way. :-)
Monday, June 13, 2011
Week Four: Crisis and Frustration
I did it. Over 200 pages written in four weeks. I think I previously posted that this would make me ahead of schedule, but it actually puts me right on schedule if my goal is to write 10 pages a day, which it is. Still, I am pretty proud of myself, and I expect that I will be half way through the novel by the end of this coming week or middle of next. I might even add a Saturday writing session this week to make sure that is met.
Well, this past week has seen a lot of frustration for me. I had to take my planning to the next level and brainstorm specific scenes. This wasn't a problem in and of itself, but it was a solution to the problem that I had no idea where I was taking a particular character, and it certainly wasn't a perfect solution. The most painful source of frustration for me this past week, however, had nothing to do with the book. Three of my accounts have been hacked, including Facebook, and I have been locked out entirely from all of them. I've spent days, including several hours I should have been writing, trying to recover them. No luck thus far.
When I was writing this blog this morning, I wrote about how although I've been mostly meeting my daily goal, I am failing to keep to my schedule of free writing from 9-9:30 and from 1-1:30 and novel writing from 9:30-12 and 1:30-4ish. One of the things I cited was that I'm often too energetic or too exhausted and I get distracted by the need to exercise or take a nap. I did free write before my morning session, and it certainly had the effect I want for it: clearing my mind of other stories by writing them down before I begin my novel writing. Of course, I proceeded to take a nap my entire afternoon session. I probably wouldn't have if I remembered to turn my phone off silence so I could hear the alarm I set for myself. I do want to cut down on napping in general, but it's extraordinarily difficult to have any success writing or even look at the computer screen when I have a soul-splitting migraine. I guess I'll just have to find a balance with that.
Just a reminder that you can Comment without having a Blogger account, Follow the blog through your Blogger account, Subscribe by email or RSS feed, and Share the posts on Facebook or Twitter (which I would be quite grateful for since I can't post on Facebook for at least a couple weeks). Also, I'm on Twitter: @BookwyrmFCP.
Sadly no Quote of the Week this time around; I was having difficulty with finding a good quote earlier today and right now I'm still reeling from my migraine. Maybe I'll post two next time.
Well, this past week has seen a lot of frustration for me. I had to take my planning to the next level and brainstorm specific scenes. This wasn't a problem in and of itself, but it was a solution to the problem that I had no idea where I was taking a particular character, and it certainly wasn't a perfect solution. The most painful source of frustration for me this past week, however, had nothing to do with the book. Three of my accounts have been hacked, including Facebook, and I have been locked out entirely from all of them. I've spent days, including several hours I should have been writing, trying to recover them. No luck thus far.
When I was writing this blog this morning, I wrote about how although I've been mostly meeting my daily goal, I am failing to keep to my schedule of free writing from 9-9:30 and from 1-1:30 and novel writing from 9:30-12 and 1:30-4ish. One of the things I cited was that I'm often too energetic or too exhausted and I get distracted by the need to exercise or take a nap. I did free write before my morning session, and it certainly had the effect I want for it: clearing my mind of other stories by writing them down before I begin my novel writing. Of course, I proceeded to take a nap my entire afternoon session. I probably wouldn't have if I remembered to turn my phone off silence so I could hear the alarm I set for myself. I do want to cut down on napping in general, but it's extraordinarily difficult to have any success writing or even look at the computer screen when I have a soul-splitting migraine. I guess I'll just have to find a balance with that.
Just a reminder that you can Comment without having a Blogger account, Follow the blog through your Blogger account, Subscribe by email or RSS feed, and Share the posts on Facebook or Twitter (which I would be quite grateful for since I can't post on Facebook for at least a couple weeks). Also, I'm on Twitter: @BookwyrmFCP.
Sadly no Quote of the Week this time around; I was having difficulty with finding a good quote earlier today and right now I'm still reeling from my migraine. Maybe I'll post two next time.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Planning Continued
After a fairly unsuccessful day yesterday of trying to write scenes for this week's character, I decided to take some time this morning planning out possible scenes. As I've written previously, I'm approaching planning cautiously, but this morning's session seemed to really work -
I've got a general idea for a dozen plus scenes, and my writing today definitely showed me that the planning was not going to interfere with spontaneous creation when a new scene cropped up, bridging the planned scenes. Plus, despite the time I took out to plan during the morning session, I still exceeded my writing goal and broke the halfway mark on my 11th page.
This was a short update, I know, but I haven't much to say other than that I am proud of the results.
As a final piece of this update, I encourage you to comment if you have any response to this blog. Because when someone has commented in the past, it brightens my day a little. Since someone has asked me if being logged in is necessary, you do not have to be a member of Blogger to comment - Google accounts, Open IDs, Livejournal, and AIM s/ns are all ways to sign in for commenting - but I don't allow anonymous comments in order to cut back on spambots. You can also follow the blog through your Google account, RSS feed or email.
I hope to hear your thoughts soon!
I've got a general idea for a dozen plus scenes, and my writing today definitely showed me that the planning was not going to interfere with spontaneous creation when a new scene cropped up, bridging the planned scenes. Plus, despite the time I took out to plan during the morning session, I still exceeded my writing goal and broke the halfway mark on my 11th page.
This was a short update, I know, but I haven't much to say other than that I am proud of the results.
As a final piece of this update, I encourage you to comment if you have any response to this blog. Because when someone has commented in the past, it brightens my day a little. Since someone has asked me if being logged in is necessary, you do not have to be a member of Blogger to comment - Google accounts, Open IDs, Livejournal, and AIM s/ns are all ways to sign in for commenting - but I don't allow anonymous comments in order to cut back on spambots. You can also follow the blog through your Google account, RSS feed or email.
I hope to hear your thoughts soon!
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