Since Monday I’ve managed to average almost 1,600 words per day for a total of 9,555 words on various projects.
The majority of work went into Built for Murder with another three chapters within spitting distance of being done and miscellaneous work on others to write connecting scenes or just editing for clarity. We’re over 80,000 words now and heading to a final first draft. Soon, very soon.
Then, since I get bored easily I switched to one of my short stories and worked on it as well, the semi-long and suffering sequel to A Painful Blessing called An Angry Mountain. It was like butter writing it this time.
And then, because I can’t seem to stop at times, I awoke on Friday with yet another damn story idea that has since become something I call The Prince. As I began writing the essentials down to remember for later I started a scene, that led to the next, then some world building, and by Saturday night its 75% of the way done with only two more scenes to write. It flowed, it sang, it was so darn easy to do. I managed to place it in the same world as Hieronymus and Ancher, but in an area of Bulinnärm I’ve never documented before, so yeah for me! In addition, there’s the core of an idea that I think can be expanded into a novel or even a trilogy. And yes, I know I don’t need another one of those hanging over me right now.
What brought on this burst of energy and creative madness? I’ve been reading my whole life and I think I have a pretty good idea of how a story flows to make it work, when to introduce new elements, when slow things down, etc. I’m not perfect yet but I am getting better. Anyway, I was looking at my long list of projects shown in the right column and was despairing because some had started out well and then the energy and ideas faded and they got bogged down. What to do, what to do?
I went back to some of my writing books and videos I’ve collected that have great ideas for organizing yourself to become a better writer. The first was Rachel Aaron’s 2K to 10K: Writing Faster book. Lots of great advice on learning when, why, and how you do your best writing. Then I rewatched Dan Well’s presentation of the 7 Point Plot Structure he uses to shape his novels. He shows how a simple list of critical points can help you design an effective story and shows how it applies to the first Harry Potter movie, Star Wars, and other popular movies.
So, the commonality was to actually sit down, do some planning up-front, and then write using the best time of day and when my energy is at it’s height.
Voilá, 1,600 words a day and a ton of writing progress made. My wrists ache and my fingers are so stiff it really isn’t funny and yet, the ideas, the desire still exists and so I’m writing yet another long blog post when I should be letting them rest. Whew!
I really need to take a break.
