Week 5 recap

Um…actually I thought I posted this a couple of days ago, but obviously I messed something up.  Arghhhhhhh!

I made very good progress this past week, despite overthinking everything last Tuesday to the point where I could not write a single word. This is a habit I have. I run the plot line over and over, picking out every flaw, every tiny detail of why this can’t possibly work. The only way I can make any progress is to shut off my logical mind and just write scene by scene. I find that I iron out the snags as my characters evolve and grow.

And this breaks the book down into managable sizes. It is true that writing an entire book is overwhelming, and some days, I still think I will never manage to finish another one. But when I tell myself I only have to write 1,000 words, part of a scene that I sort of know where its going, I know I can at least manage that. So one piece of a scene leads to another, which leads to another and so on and so on. The big picture gets taken care of one small piece at a time.

This beginning draft is really chaotic, I have multiple scenes to move around, a couple where I want the POV changed, and the flow is broken up about every five pages or so, so next week I might work on getting it put into a decent organized draft. But for this week, I need to get more word count done, past the point where I abandoned my longest project–20,376 words. Once past that, I think I will be fully committed to the book and it will be entirely too late to back out. Here’s keeping my fingers crossed.

So totals. I did 4,104 words this week. I need to bump this up to over 5,000 to make my goals, but its progress. My grand total so far 17,292. I wrote at home this week and the library, so my snack total was only $2.51. I have 4 hours and 15 minutes total writing time–which isn’t a lot for those of you who don’t think you have time to write a book–$42.50 and I put in $30 gas. 

Grand totals 17,292 words and $265.85 for a cost of $.015 per word. At this rate a 90,000 word manuscript will cost me $1383.67. Hmmm, with the gas my total cost  is up this week, (unless I have completely screwed up my tally, which is entirely possible).  We’ll see how it balances out.

Week 4 recap

Where the hell have I been, you must all be asking yourselves. LOL, I’ve been asking myself that same question. But I had to leave town for a couple of days last week for family business, and I admit it threw my whole schedule off. Plus, I went belly dancing and had to spend several hours trying on different outfits, seeing which fit my aging, saggy body the best. And I had my OVRWA meeting on Saturday which meant I was forced to spend the day playing with knights and armor.  (Poor, poor me!)

These things are important, and I have always been a proponant of having other creative interests besides writing, especially ones that include some sort of physical activity. The body must move between bouts of sitting hunched over the keyboard. Stretch. Breathe.  Dancing is my preferred exercise of choice. Find something to do you love, or else it becomes a grind and you will never keep up with it.

I can’t tell you how many times I have heard authors say they have gained fifty pounds,  killed their back and wrist muscles,  or developed diabetes or some other physical ailment because they spend all their time writing.  (Granted that is their choice, but it’s not mine.) Get a life! Get out and play, have fun, dress up. Belly dancing lets me work up a sweat, dress like a gypsy queen, and move like a seductress. What more could one ask for? My husband and I also take ballroom dance class on the weekends, and I’m heading there in just a few minutes.

So, you ask, what were my stats for the week? Not wonderful, but not horrific. I did manage to get 2,192 words, about half my goal. But that’s okay, it’s still progress, and this coming week is clear sailing. I also spent a lot of the down time running plotlines, character motivation and other big manuscript ideas across my mind, fine tuning the points as I progress through the book. Yes, I have to go back and change some parts of the beginning to match, but I can do that later.

THE BEGINNING DOES NOT HAVE TO BE PERFECT TO MOVE ON! Memorize this line and repeat it frequently. You can go back and change the beginning to match during the re-write. Keep moving forward. Keep the draft flowing.

I actually worked for 3 1/2 hours, $35, and since I wrote one day at home, I only spent $5.04 in snacks.

So the grand total so far is: 13, 188 words. $190.84. = $0.014 per word which will cost me $1,302.36 to finish the book at this rate. Whew! Making progress.

Week 3, Day 1

Have opted to start on Tuesday this week, lolol, don’t ask.

At any rate,  here are the stats for last week. I wrote 4,552 words, paid out $8.81 for snacks and $60 hourly. I had a momentary lapse back into insanity this weekend, really wanting to ditch this work and start one of my other projects, but I’ve managed to resist the urge so far.

Still, I’ve abandoned manuscripts up to the 20k mark, so I’m not out of the woods yet. Keeping myself on track for now.

Gia