Writing in Public, Finishing the First Draft

 Posted by at 13:39  No Responses »
Jan 202015
 

A fairly inconsistent close-out to the end of the year, followed by three consecutive 2000+ word days finally spell the completion of the first draft of Alour-Tan 2! I immediately set to outlining Alour-Tan 3 and sent off the draft to my First Reader, who has been providing me regular and fantastic feedback while progressing through the book. Once all the feedback is in, I’ll fire up a new round of Writing in Public to chronicle the second draft.

Date Written NaNo Total Overall WC Notes
Sun, Dec. 14 2187 65540 72396
Mon, Dec. 15 4399 69939 76795
Tue, Dec. 16 0 69939 76795 Went to see The Hobbit
Wed, Dec. 17 2081 72020 78876
Thu, Dec. 18 0 72020 78876 Wife’s company party
Fri, Dec. 19 826 72846 79702 Coworker’s retirement party
Sat, Dec. 20 738 73584 80440 Friend’s birthday party
Sun, Dec. 21 0 73584 80440
Mon, Dec. 22 0 73584 80440
Tue, Dec. 23 1295 74879 81735
Wed, Dec. 24 877 75756 82612
Thu, Dec. 25 0 75756 82612 End of year vacation. Didn’t quite hit the 80k I wanted to hit in the November+December timespan, but I needed to not think about any sort of work for the remainder of the year.
Fri, Dec. 26
Sat, Dec. 27
Sun, Dec. 28
Mon, Dec. 29
Tue, Dec. 30
Wed, Dec. 31
Thu, Jan. 1
Fri, Jan. 2
Sat, Jan. 3 2886 85498
Sun, Jan. 4 2109 87607
Mon, Jan. 5 2143 89750 DRAFT ONE COMPLETE

Previous Writing in Public post here.

Writing in Public, Day 44

 Posted by at 11:13  No Responses »
Dec 152014
 

Per my tweet from a few days back, Act Two is done and now it’s time to run down the home stretch to the end of this draft of this book! Then begins the revision process to make it not abjectly terrible.

Date Written NaNo Total Overall WC Notes
Mon, Nov. 24 2054 40338 47194
Tue, Nov. 25 2807 43145 50001
Wed, Nov. 26 4252 47397 54253
Thu, Nov. 27 0 47397 54253 Thanksgiving
Fri, Nov. 28 2243 49640 56496
Sat, Nov. 29 994 50634 57490 Regular NaNo goal achieved. Also, a travel day, so not much time for writing.
Sun, Nov. 30 0 50634 57490 More traveling. Recovering.
Mon, Dec. 1 2513 53147 60003 Sixty thousand!
Tue, Dec. 2 0 53147 60003 Not sure what happened here.
Wed, Dec. 3 2243 55390 62246
Thu, Dec. 4 2105 57495 64351
Fri, Dec. 5 1726 59221 66077
Sat, Dec. 6 0 59221 66077 In general, I like to take one (deliberate) day off a week and that day is generally Saturday.
Sun, Dec. 7 2022 61243 68099
Mon, Dec. 8 0 61243 68099 Funky commuting plus staying out late.
Tue, Dec. 9 0 61243 68099 Movie night.
Wed, Dec. 10 0 61243 68099 Working late.
Thu, Dec. 11 0 61243 68099 More working late.
Fri, Dec. 12 2110 63353 70209 Seventy thousand!
Sat, Dec. 13 0 63353 70209 Party!
Sun, Dec. 14 2187 65540 72396

Previous Writing in Public post here.

Writing in Public, Day 24

 Posted by at 19:41  No Responses »
Nov 252014
 

Odds of my being able to hit my 80,000 words-for-NaNo target are diminishing rapidly, sadly, but the standard 50,000 word NaNo target remains well within reach. I hadn’t expected to lose as many days as I have to A) allergies prompting early bedtimes/late rises, B) Bruins games, C) holiday travel, and D) holidays generally, but lost them I have. Short of hitting a consistent word count well north of anything likely for the remainder of the month, 80k is out of reach. That said, I’m solidly in the swing of the story now, so there’s at least no reason that my current momentum should abate as November turns to December.

I have to wonder at the wisdom of placing NaNoWriMo in November. October culminates in Halloween, which makes much of the month costume project time (at least, for me!). November culminates in Thanksgiving in the U.S., forcing a choice between family time and writing time. December is much the same, but with your-winter-holiday-of-choice and New Year’s. September, on the other hand, is devoid of such obligations in its entirety. If I decide to do a month-long writing push again next year (as opposed to a much more sensible lots-of-writing-all-the-time-regardless-of-the-month approach), I think I’ll kick it up two months and do it in September.

Date Written NaNo Total Overall WC Notes
Sat, Nov. 1 0 0 19271 NaNo begins, but I don’t!
Sun, Nov. 2 2709 2709 21980
Mon, Nov. 3 2769 5478 18823 Notable removal of some stuff from the existing manuscript
Tue, Nov. 4 966 6444 19789
Wed, Nov. 5 3049 9493 16349 Another big chunk of existing text removed
Thu, Nov. 6 3441 12934 19790
Fri, Nov. 7 473 13407 20263 Beer o’clock on office Fridays doesn’t do good things for my word count
Sat, Nov. 8 2145 15552 22408
Sun, Nov. 9 0 15552 22408 “Write every day” is good advice. So is “don’t work every day.”
Mon, Nov. 10 1873 17425 24281
Tue, Nov. 11 729 18154 25010
Wed, Nov. 12 0 18154 25010 Crushing Bruins loss to the Maple Leafs.
Thu, Nov. 13 2133 20287 27143 Managed to write in the morning before work, but crushing and dispiriting Bruins loss to the Habs killed evening writing.
Fri, Nov. 14 0 20287 27143 Sick, but worked from home. Called it a night pretty early.
Sat, Nov. 15 0 20287 27143
Sun, Nov. 16 3400 23687 30543 That’s better.
Mon, Nov. 17 4666 28353 35209
Tue, Nov. 18 2416 30769 37625
Wed, Nov. 19 4021 34790 41646
Thu, Nov. 20 358 35148 42004 Four hours of work here, to boot.
Fri, Nov. 21 956 36104 42960 Allergies kicking in. Fell asleep on the train home (usually the more productive of my train rides). Epic Bruins game against the Caps, ending in a 7-round shootout.
Sat, Nov. 22 0 36104 42960 Packing, travel, Bruins loss to the Habs (again!). Literally no unallocated time.
Sun, Nov. 23 2180 38284 45140
Mon, Nov. 24 2054 40338 47194

Previous Writing in Public post here.

NaNoWriting in Public, Day 11

 Posted by at 09:24  No Responses »
Nov 112014
 

Taking a page from Dean Wesley Smith‘s Writing in Public series, I’m going to start documenting my NaNoWriMo-driven push to finish the first draft of Alour-Tan II.

The typical NaNoWriMo goal is to write a short novel from scratch through the month of November, totaling at least 50,000 words by the end of the month. I’ve modified those parameters to better-suit what I need to do with this book. My goal is instead to write 80,000 new words (supplementing the 20,000ish I had already written for a total of ~100,000) over the course of the month, completing the first draft in the process. I don’t include the preexisting words in my NaNo total, as that would most definitely be against the “rules” of the “competition”.

Date Written NaNo Total Overall WC Notes
Sat, Nov. 1 0 0 19271 NaNo begins, but I don’t!
Sun, Nov. 2 2709 2709 21980
Mon, Nov. 3 2769 5478 18823 Notable removal of some stuff from the existing manuscript
Tue, Nov. 4 966 6444 19789
Wed, Nov. 5 3049 9493 16349 Another big chunk of existing text removed
Thu, Nov. 6 3441 12934 19790
Fri, Nov. 7 473 13407 20263 Beer o’clock on office Fridays doesn’t do good things for my word count
Sat, Nov. 8 2145 15552 22408
Sun, Nov. 9 0 15552 22408 “Write every day” is good advice. So is “don’t work every day.”
Mon, Nov. 10 1873 17425 24281
Tue, Nov. 11 729* 18154 25010 WC as of 0900 this morning; more planned for this evening.

My authorial achilles heel

 Posted by at 11:02  No Responses »
Sep 042009
 

The problem with my writing the previous night had nothing to do with the material. Though the setting has been percolating for a long time, the story itself has never been there. Like Tolkien’s Middle Earth, if I may be so bold as to draw that comparison, I’ve got a world and some events rather than a story. A few events do not a story make. This has ever been a problem for me, as those familiar with my vast graveyard of stillborn RPG concepts can affirm.

Fortunately, I did have a character. Continue reading »