This week has been a turning point. I have written 15 000 words since Monday morning. There is a VAST DIFFERENCE between a book that is 70K in, and one that is 85K in. One is only halfway, and one is on the way to being finished. I'm approaching a turning point, the middle of the middle, and I'm quite pleased with the words piling up, but not at all pleased with the quality of the writing. It is hysterical, melodramatic, people shout at each other without reason.
Ah....
I just have to keep moving forward. It can all be fixed later. The important thing is to write it. I have an interim goal of finishing another two chapters by Xmas, so there will be no rest for me in coming days (including my birthday tomorrow). I must try not to have a deadline over Christmas next year.
It's not too bad, though, as far as a life goes. I start writing at 6, my beautiful husband brings me breakfast and looks after the kids, I finish around 10 and then spend time with the family. When the children go to bed at night, I either do a little bit of other work or play World of Warcraft... it's hardly the salt mines!
Friday, December 21, 2007
Saturday, December 15, 2007
The eighth one
Weather: summery and breezy evening
Listening to: Christopher O'Riley "True Love Waits"
What do you suppose other people are doing on Saturday nights? I imagine them getting dressed up real purty, going to dinners and movies, enjoying the evening air... I am chained to this desk for however long it takes to write the 2346 words I need to hit my interim goal of 70 000 words. The longer I procrastinate, the later I'm going to be up (and the tireder I'm going to be tomorrow when one/both of my children wake me at dawn). So why am I on this blog, wasting word-energy and time? Hmm?
I will edit this post when I am done.
9.45pm. Done.
Listening to: Christopher O'Riley "True Love Waits"
What do you suppose other people are doing on Saturday nights? I imagine them getting dressed up real purty, going to dinners and movies, enjoying the evening air... I am chained to this desk for however long it takes to write the 2346 words I need to hit my interim goal of 70 000 words. The longer I procrastinate, the later I'm going to be up (and the tireder I'm going to be tomorrow when one/both of my children wake me at dawn). So why am I on this blog, wasting word-energy and time? Hmm?
I will edit this post when I am done.
9.45pm. Done.
Friday, December 7, 2007
The seventh one
Weather: I wouldn't know, I'm in aircon (probably quite sweaty)
Listening to: Stars of the Lid "And the Refinement of their Decline"
60 000. I'll say it again. 60 000. I've fixed my dramas, and I am writing forward again. The next 30K or so is planned out, and there's some good stuff in there so I just need to get it down. My goal is to get to 100K by the end of the month. In a month that includes my birthday and Christmas. No rest for sinners like me!
Sometimes when I am writing, a little voice in my brain helpfully tells me that I am applying crapola to the page in large measure (I imagine a palette and a spatula, rather in the way that render is applied to walls). That little voice may be right, but there is no place for self-doubt just now. I have promised myself that I am allowed to doubt myself on February the first, but not until then, when I have a 140 000 word manuscript printed out beside me.
Tonight my son fell asleep on the couch here in my office. My husband is out with his brothers and the little guy always feels a bit unsafe when the big guy isn't around. It's primal, I'm sure. So here I am, writing away, trying to hit that magic number (60 000 la la la); and Luka is sitting up telling me increasingly incoherent things as he gets tireder and tireder (is tireder a word; it ought to be!) I could not have imagined, ten yeas ago when I started in this silly business, that I would be able to write with anyone in the room, let alone a small noisy person. Goes to show, most artistic crises are a load of hogwash. If you need to get it done, you'll get it done.
Listening to: Stars of the Lid "And the Refinement of their Decline"
60 000. I'll say it again. 60 000. I've fixed my dramas, and I am writing forward again. The next 30K or so is planned out, and there's some good stuff in there so I just need to get it down. My goal is to get to 100K by the end of the month. In a month that includes my birthday and Christmas. No rest for sinners like me!
Sometimes when I am writing, a little voice in my brain helpfully tells me that I am applying crapola to the page in large measure (I imagine a palette and a spatula, rather in the way that render is applied to walls). That little voice may be right, but there is no place for self-doubt just now. I have promised myself that I am allowed to doubt myself on February the first, but not until then, when I have a 140 000 word manuscript printed out beside me.
Tonight my son fell asleep on the couch here in my office. My husband is out with his brothers and the little guy always feels a bit unsafe when the big guy isn't around. It's primal, I'm sure. So here I am, writing away, trying to hit that magic number (60 000 la la la); and Luka is sitting up telling me increasingly incoherent things as he gets tireder and tireder (is tireder a word; it ought to be!) I could not have imagined, ten yeas ago when I started in this silly business, that I would be able to write with anyone in the room, let alone a small noisy person. Goes to show, most artistic crises are a load of hogwash. If you need to get it done, you'll get it done.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
The sixth one
Weather: summer rain
Listening to: Deepspace (aka. my husband www.deepspacehome.com)
I fixed it! The second half of the beginning should have actually been the first third of the middle. Do you see?!?!?!
All I had to do was moderate the pace. Slot in some extra scenes, flesh out some summaries. Now I have added 7000 words to the MS and my middle-not-beginning problem is fixed. I would love to have the time to explain to you what the difference between beginning and middle is (as they have quite different functions) but, alas, it is after 9pm and if I want to get up at 5 to write I'd better go to bed 15 mins ago. See, I even get into my pjs frantically.
I sat in a very nice cafe (okay, it was Gossips at Toowong) last Thursday and nutted out the next big chunk of scenes. Quite pleased with myself. I was rushing (can't think why) and hadn't given a significant subplot (with great narrative potential) its full weight. Now, fleshed out, it gives me lots of material to work with. I have decided that if I can hit 100 000 words by Dec 31, I can finish the book. If I can't make that goal, then I will phone my agent on Jan 1st and ask for more time. I am not good at asking for more time.
Will report back in due course.
Yours
FW
Listening to: Deepspace (aka. my husband www.deepspacehome.com)
I fixed it! The second half of the beginning should have actually been the first third of the middle. Do you see?!?!?!
All I had to do was moderate the pace. Slot in some extra scenes, flesh out some summaries. Now I have added 7000 words to the MS and my middle-not-beginning problem is fixed. I would love to have the time to explain to you what the difference between beginning and middle is (as they have quite different functions) but, alas, it is after 9pm and if I want to get up at 5 to write I'd better go to bed 15 mins ago. See, I even get into my pjs frantically.
I sat in a very nice cafe (okay, it was Gossips at Toowong) last Thursday and nutted out the next big chunk of scenes. Quite pleased with myself. I was rushing (can't think why) and hadn't given a significant subplot (with great narrative potential) its full weight. Now, fleshed out, it gives me lots of material to work with. I have decided that if I can hit 100 000 words by Dec 31, I can finish the book. If I can't make that goal, then I will phone my agent on Jan 1st and ask for more time. I am not good at asking for more time.
Will report back in due course.
Yours
FW
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
The fifth one
Weather: Breezy and summery
Listening to: Led Zeppelin box set
Perhaps I should rename this blog "the fearless writer" because it seems to me that to rack up massive word counts you need to be utterly certain that what you write is okay. There is no time to second guess, you must just keep going. I'm certainly not feeling fearless this week, as I have hit 50000 words and have an awful sinking feeling I've completely screwed up the chunk I've just written. I think I wrote it as "beginning" when it should have been "middle". Hmmm. They have different functions, you see. Now I'm not sure what goes in the middle.... sigh.
In good news, those little Fantastica books I wrote have attracted a very nice deal in France. I wrote them frantically, so it can't be all bad.
Listening to: Led Zeppelin box set
Perhaps I should rename this blog "the fearless writer" because it seems to me that to rack up massive word counts you need to be utterly certain that what you write is okay. There is no time to second guess, you must just keep going. I'm certainly not feeling fearless this week, as I have hit 50000 words and have an awful sinking feeling I've completely screwed up the chunk I've just written. I think I wrote it as "beginning" when it should have been "middle". Hmmm. They have different functions, you see. Now I'm not sure what goes in the middle.... sigh.
In good news, those little Fantastica books I wrote have attracted a very nice deal in France. I wrote them frantically, so it can't be all bad.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
The fourth one
Weather: breezy summery evening
Listening to: my husband read to my kids
One of the promises I always make myself is that if I write something frantically, I will edit it at leisure. So when the edit of the historical novel I wrote earlier in the year (frantically) was returned to me for my consideration this week. Well, you can imagine how I felt.
I have managed to make it to the 50 000 word / one third mark of my current book; a natural place to put it aside for a short while and look at this edit. At the moment I am working from 5am to 7am; during my baby daughter's daytime nap; then again at night (my World of Warcraft habit has been temporarily shelved... and just when I'd got a horse!). It seems to be getting done, but it's hardly leisurely. It feels a bit, well, frantic.
Meanwhile, the research book I borrowed, from which I intended to draw masses of interesting details for my current novel, is now overdue. The best I can hope for is to photocopy a few chapters before it goes back, and have a chance to read them at a later date... perhaps during the frantic edit.
Listening to: my husband read to my kids
One of the promises I always make myself is that if I write something frantically, I will edit it at leisure. So when the edit of the historical novel I wrote earlier in the year (frantically) was returned to me for my consideration this week. Well, you can imagine how I felt.
I have managed to make it to the 50 000 word / one third mark of my current book; a natural place to put it aside for a short while and look at this edit. At the moment I am working from 5am to 7am; during my baby daughter's daytime nap; then again at night (my World of Warcraft habit has been temporarily shelved... and just when I'd got a horse!). It seems to be getting done, but it's hardly leisurely. It feels a bit, well, frantic.
Meanwhile, the research book I borrowed, from which I intended to draw masses of interesting details for my current novel, is now overdue. The best I can hope for is to photocopy a few chapters before it goes back, and have a chance to read them at a later date... perhaps during the frantic edit.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
The third one
Weather: rain clearing
Listening to: Jayne Hockley and Taryn Fiebig "Thyme and Roses"
Today I write from the Slough of Despond. The pressure to keep writing is immense, and yet I have a list of other things to do which is a mile long. Including editing another book. I must finish part two of this book THIS WEEK if I'm to have any hope of meeting its Jan 31 deadline. This morning I have been trying to write a fairly straightforward scene, and it feels like the words are brussels sprouts that I am pushing about on a plate. God, look at that sentence! Is it any wonder I am in despair. If my 5 year old hadn't woken me at 1am with a nightmare, then climbed into bed and chatted to me, then refused to get back into his own bed, screaming and therefore waking the baby... well, perhaps I would have been in a better frame of mind to make good sentences. My heart is spiky, as though little darts of adrenalin are constantly assailing it. This can't be healthy, right?
Listening to: Jayne Hockley and Taryn Fiebig "Thyme and Roses"
Today I write from the Slough of Despond. The pressure to keep writing is immense, and yet I have a list of other things to do which is a mile long. Including editing another book. I must finish part two of this book THIS WEEK if I'm to have any hope of meeting its Jan 31 deadline. This morning I have been trying to write a fairly straightforward scene, and it feels like the words are brussels sprouts that I am pushing about on a plate. God, look at that sentence! Is it any wonder I am in despair. If my 5 year old hadn't woken me at 1am with a nightmare, then climbed into bed and chatted to me, then refused to get back into his own bed, screaming and therefore waking the baby... well, perhaps I would have been in a better frame of mind to make good sentences. My heart is spiky, as though little darts of adrenalin are constantly assailing it. This can't be healthy, right?
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
The second one
Weather: beautiful rainy day
Listening to: Brian McBride "When Detail Lost its Freedom"
The Frantic Writer has about 130 000 words to write by January 31st. So I get up very early--usually between 4 and 5 am--to write. This means I am always tired (especially if I stay up too late the night before playing World of Warcraft... ahem...) but the deadline looms. This morning, however, my 14 month old daughter decided that she would like to be awake from 4.30am too. Fearing that she would wake her 5 year old brother, I brought her in here to my office. Now I am writing, frantically as always, while she trashes my office. There are coloured plastic paperclips strewn everywhere, file cards upended, books pulled out of shelves etc. And yet, I have managed to write 1000 words so I mustn't complain. But it is certainly very different from the old, pre-children, days when I might write... if in the mood... uninterrupted for hours at a time.
Listening to: Brian McBride "When Detail Lost its Freedom"
The Frantic Writer has about 130 000 words to write by January 31st. So I get up very early--usually between 4 and 5 am--to write. This means I am always tired (especially if I stay up too late the night before playing World of Warcraft... ahem...) but the deadline looms. This morning, however, my 14 month old daughter decided that she would like to be awake from 4.30am too. Fearing that she would wake her 5 year old brother, I brought her in here to my office. Now I am writing, frantically as always, while she trashes my office. There are coloured plastic paperclips strewn everywhere, file cards upended, books pulled out of shelves etc. And yet, I have managed to write 1000 words so I mustn't complain. But it is certainly very different from the old, pre-children, days when I might write... if in the mood... uninterrupted for hours at a time.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)