Tuesday 30 April 2013

April 30th – 380,984

After a hectic, personal, day yesterday, today is very much more a working one. I’ve managed to stick to my routine, and concentrate on getting the day’s writing done before looking at anything else, and as a result finished 3,572 words just as the clock reached 11 o’clock. That has taken me clear of the 380k mark and this particular manuscript up past the 16k mark.

Now though, other things beckon, I’ve got some e-book only releases to prepare, some book blocks to format and several web site updates to do. However, before I do all that, I have some 38 royalty statements to send out.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, no rest for the wicked.

Monday 29 April 2013

April 29th – 377,412 – and Amazon on story length.

Interesting food for thought today. Amazon have apparently started a cull on KDP, threatening to remove all short stories below 2,500 words in length, as these don’t provide the reader with a satisfying e-book experience. This doesn’t apply to us, as we don’t accept anything below that length in any case, but we have a number of books in the 2,500 to 3,500 word range. It begs the question just where Amazon are going to stop with this, are they going to say 3,000 next month, then 3,500, then 5,000 etc. etc. Are they going to reach a point where novellas are under threat? How long before the other retailers follow suit? 2,500 has tended to be a common lower limit for a lot of small press publishers over the years, so I expect most of those affected today will be pure self-published works. The next possible tranche, between 2,500 and 5,000 words, will catch a number of larger fish. I still feel aggrieved that Amazon has driven the price of a novel below the cost of a cup of coffee, but you just have to swim with the stream, unfortunately.

On the writing front, it’s been a good day, 3,024 words on this work in progress, which is itself now approaching 13k in length and developing quite nicely. I suspect it’s going to end up as a novella rather than a novel, I don’t think the story has got that many legs, but hey who knows?

Marion has had a good day today, she’s been well enough for me to take her out and indulge in some retail therapy, we even managed lunch out, which is even better from my point of view, even if it was a jacket potato and the aforementioned coffee that’s more expensive than a novel. In fact, I think I’d have to sell 9 of my own books on Amazon today to cover the cost of lunch.

 

Sunday 28 April 2013

April 28th – 374,388.

Today I managed to get off to a quick start, writing wise, so well before lunch I’ve completed my writing stint and hit 3,294 words. The rest of the day is going to disappear in the fog of life, other things to do.

Military strategists refer to it as the “fog of war” – when things are happening too fast for the commanders to grasp and influence, where little things are happening out of sight, little things than can detail the whole battle. For a writer, we have something similar – what I’ve just referred to as the “fog of life”. Where life interrupts our writing time, usually in unpredictable ways.

It can be very frustrating, but we also have to remember life, intrudes for a reason, it’s life – and we have a life outside of our writing, the people around us need us to sometimes put down the keyboard and take up life, interact with the real world. I know, it’s a daunting prospect, but to be fair, quite a rewarding one, when we remember to enjoy the rewards.

Saturday 27 April 2013

April 27th – 371,094

Today hasn’t been the easiest day to deal with. Essentially there’s been a lot of conflict in the air, mostly from a family point of view, but at least that has been resolved.

As a result writing time has been a little curtailed, which is not necessarily the best frame of mind to work on a brand new project. In the end I picked up one of the three ideas that I wrote the starts to during the last work in progress, the third one, and managed 3,044 words on that, taking me past the 370k mark.

Above all else though in the next week I’m going to have to get my editing hat on and get at least a couple of these through the first edit. No rest for the wicked, I guess.

 

Friday 26 April 2013

April 26th – 368,050

Well I put some extra writing time in today, in order to complete the manuscript I was working on. 4,569 words done and this one is, as they say, in the can. That leaves me with a problem for tomorrow – which one do I pick up and start properly. I’ve had three great story ideas during the time I’ve spent writing this one, and in each case written down the opening scene, or two, so I have a starting point. Ah, decisions… decisions.

In non-writing terms, today has not been such a good day. The blasted car broke down on me this morning, the left front suspension spring snapping and I heard it rubbing against the tyre so stopped to take a look. I managed to nurse it up the road to my mechanic who can fix the spring today, and that’ll cost, but I’m more concerned it the tyre is damaged. That will be a lot more expensive than replacing the spring will be.

Still at least it happened with only me in the car, not when I was transporting Marion anywhere, although this increases the likelihood of us having to remain housebound over the weekend, which as you might expect upset my fast recovering wife almost as much as the prospect of a hefty bill on the car.

 

Thursday 25 April 2013

April 25th - 363,481

Marion’s health continues to improve so I guess the tablets are working, she certainly isn’t asking for other meds as much as she was, which is good. She’s a bit more active today though, but we still daren’t take her out anywhere – I’m afraid the cabin fever is going to have to build till after the weekend.

Although I don’t want to profit from her misfortune, it does mean I’ve had another day where I’ve been able to do more writing. So today was a good day, I’m just one section short of completing the final scene in this book and I can add that one to the edit pile, which I’m going to have to tackle soon, whether I want to or not – it’s just getting too big. I need to get these out on the rounds. At just over 77,500 words written, and about one or two days more to go, it will be slightly longer than book one, but not be enough for that to be an issue.

Still, 3,458 words today written in three short sessions is good progress and I can tick another day done against the schedule. Hitting that schedule each time is becoming, I wouldn’t say automatic but I suspect I will get withdrawal symptoms if I stop trying now.

Wednesday 24 April 2013

April 24th – 360,023.

For some reason Wednesday has become the one day of the week where it’s getting harder and harder to find any writing time. Somehow, though, I’ve managed it and hit my quote, 2,900 words which has taken me past the 360,000 word mark.

This work in progress is fast approaching its end too, another couple of days to compete this scene and then a day for the scene that neatly links this book to book three and it’ll be done – and at the right length too, although I think I’ll slip one of the intended scenes for this book in as the first full scene in the new book, just to aid continuity.

I sorted out the title too, and I’ve got a draft cover for it, but that’s with my one woman focus group so we’ll see how that pans out.

All in all, quite satisfied with the progress here, and looking forward to putting it down and starting another one. The problem is I now have more than one prime candidate for the slot, and I don’t know which to pick! Damn it!

 

Tuesday 23 April 2013

April 23rd – 357,123.

The doc gave Marion another (different) course of antibiotics yesterday and she’s dutifully taking yet more tablets. I counted up this morning, she takes ten with her morning coffee! That’s just ridiculous, but at the moment, that’s what’s required. Once she gets over this infection, the number will reduce. Anyway, she’s got a seven day course and instructions for me to take her back if she’s not over it by the end of them.

Because she’s poorly and wants to rest, that has freed up a bit more of my time yesterday and today, and since I had another great story idea I started jotting it down last night. I picked up those notes this morning and ran with it, resulting in a complete prologue and first chapter (it’s one of those stories that has to have a prologue or the first chapter doesn’t make sense – you can’t drop the ‘six months earlier’ flashback in later without disrupting the flow. Then after lunch I was a really good boy and picked up my main work in progress, cruising that past the 71k mark as well. All in all a great writing day, polishing off 5,103 words and leaving myself over 17 ¼ days ahead of schedule on the target.

As I’ve said before I’m going to need that time later in the year, so this is a good time to get race ahead like this. I reckon there are going to be three weeks during the summer (not contiguous ones) that I won’t be able to do much writing in, if any. If I can actually get 21 days ahead of schedule before those weeks I won’t be feeling guilty about falling behind. As always, the best way to deal with a problem is not to have the problem in the first place.

Monday 22 April 2013

April 22nd – 352,020.

I just had a quick look back over the history of this challenge as I updated the spread sheet I use to keep track of my progress. I didn’t really start on the challenge before the third of January, so as a result the first two days of January produced negative scores against the metronomic 2,740 words a day. Since then there have only been two days, one in January where I had a scene finish and wasn’t quite sure how to write the next one, and one in March where I came to the end of a book and finished fractionally short on the day’s word count. Every other day I’ve been the target, albeit on some days only by the slimmest of margins.

I’ve got to stop today, having managed 3,073 words and in the middle of that passing the 350,000 word mark, another milestone down. Marion’s still not doing well, so I’m going to take her to the docs this afternoon and see if they can tell us, and hopefully treat why her cough won’t go away.

We’ll see how that plays out.

In the meantime this work in progress is developing nicely. I’ve completed the climactic moments of the story, the black moment as it’s referred to, and am now working on continuing the story to bring it to a conclusion (note the difference between the climax and the conclusion) in such a way as to link this book into the third one in the set.

Depending on how Marion gets on at the docs, I might even get some editing done later.

Sunday 21 April 2013

April 21st – 348,947.

For a while this morning I entertained the idea of keeping going, and breaking through the 350k mark, but in the end decided I’d reached a good place to stop. The end of the climactic scene of the book and I now need to work on reaching a satisfactory conclusion to this as a standalone story, and at the same time set it up nicely for the hooks for the third book in the trilogy.

I’ve got around about 10k of words to play with length wise and I think I’m going to have to do some plot rearranging in order to achieve both aims. I’d got three more scenes mapped out in my head, and two of them are long ones that would span more than one chapter. Fitting those into here as well as the scene that provides the hooks isn’t going to be easy, nor is it going to fit into that word count.

Still, 3,566 words today, finishing at lunchtime is a good count and a good one to put in the bank. Now it’s time to turn to other things and get my head around far more cerebral challenges.

All good fun, of course.

Talk to you tomorrow.

Saturday 20 April 2013

April 20th – 345,381.

Seeing as today is our granddaughter’s fourth birthday I was pretty sure today would be a non-writing day. However, I’ve proved myself wrong – again. I didn’t get that much writing time this morning, but I did get enough, completing 2,866 words and once more finishing with my heroine in a dilemma in the middle of the climactic scene for the book.

In many respects I wanted to finish this scene, but because of the aforementioned little lady’s event, I can’t, so a couple of hours at a soft play centre near where they live beckons for the afternoon. You never know, maybe after we get home there’ll be time to finish the scene this evening. That is of course provided I’ve survived that couple of hours in a soft play zone. I’m too big and too old to have a go and sitting there watching is going to be tiring enough.

Ah well, wouldn’t miss it for the world. Anybody got a good survival guide for soft play zone watchers?

Friday 19 April 2013

April 19th – 342,515.

I couldn’t start writing first thing this morning, as I had to go see the doc about my blood test results. Unsurprisingly my white blood cell count was high (I had a cold when the sample was drawn) but thankfully everything else was fine. So now, in order to recheck the white cell count I have to go back in a month’s time, and make sure I’m not suffering from a cold or flu when I do so. I know they’re being thorough, and I can’t fault them for that but it can be a bit of a bind sometimes. Then again, if they weren’t thorough…

Anyway I did eventually manage to sit down at the computer and scribble away, resulting in 2,959 words completed almost exactly on the stroke of noon. This current w.i.p. is now marginally past the 60k mark and another week should see it completed. Then it comes down to deciding what to write next. To be fair, I think that decision is virtually made for me, the idea I hit the screen with last weekend has legs and since it’s setting is quite familiar, I won’t need to spend too much of the intervening time on research.

Now, though it’s time to stop fussing with one set of toys, and go back to programming the other set. If I wasn’t wearing a short sleeved shirt, I’d be rolling them up about now, for sure.

Thursday 18 April 2013

April 18th – 339,556.

I started early today, again, but not quite as early as yesterday. Still, it’s only 10:30 and I’ve written 3,383 words for the day.

I have a large pile of other stuff to get cracking with now, so that will be all for the day in terms of writing. I suspect those, huge as the pile is, I’ll get through it by teatime, so I just might, and I stress the word might, be able to get some editing done tonight as well – get started on one of the early first drafts of this challenge and converting it to usable work. We’ll see though. For now there are other priorities, both writing and non-writing related.

All good fun, of course… not.

 

Wednesday 17 April 2013

April 17th – 336,173 words.

Well today I woke up early and lay there with the next scene for this book running through my mind. Despite not really wanting to get up, I felt compelled to, so for the next forty minutes wrote around 1,200 words sitting there in my robe and slippers. That was a first, and it shows just how much this writing every day, this target hitting has become an addiction rather than just a way of getting more output. Well after getting showered, dressed and breakfasted as well as getting the bread ready to be left to rise, I’ve now come back upstairs to write and used the bread rising time to complete the day’s word count at 2,808 words.

And it’s only 9:15am!

Ridiculous!

Now, I’m going to close the lid on the laptop, go and torture myself by baking the bread (the smell just makes me hungry!) and relax for a while, before hitting the number crunching I have to do for the company.

Ah, well, no rest for the righteous! Or something like that.

Tuesday 16 April 2013

April 16th - One third of a million words.

That’s it, another milestone reached. I have now completed 333,365 words, meaning I’ve passed the one third point on the way to my million word challenge. Wow. It feels good to say that, really good. I hit 2,813 words today, still working on my main work in progress and feeling this one is building toward a climax now.

Having said that, I’ve been thinking a bit about the previous one, and decided there’s a couple of major plot holes in it, which is going to need a re-visit to fix them. They’re quite big ones too, so that goes to show one of the perils of trying to write at this speed. Having said that, isn’t that what the first edit pass is all about, anyway? It is for me.

Anyway, today is about celebrating hitting the milestone that’s loomed over me for the last week or so, ever since I hit the 300,000 mark, I’ve been desperate to reach this one. That’s the power of targeting for you. It’s been almost a visceral need to reach this target, so I’ve made sure to write above the minimum count (albeit, only just some days) every day despite feeling awful because of the cough and cold.

I wouldn’t have done that if it hadn’t been for a looming milestone on the horizon.

Monday 15 April 2013

April 15th – 330,552.

I’ve been a good boy today, and returned to working on my main work in progress, rather than staying with the exciting new idea I worked on yesterday. There’s no doubt in my mind, though, that I will be working on that as soon as the proverbial virtual ink is dry on the draft of this piece.

I guess, partly because I was so excited about the new piece yesterday, my writing speed has been rather slower today, meaning I’ve managed 2,837 words at a reasonable clip, but not done more than that. I need to get my desk clear anyway – it’s about time for Amazon to release the figures for March, and that means I have a complex spreadsheet to adjust in order to finalise the figures for e-book sales for quarter one.

Otherwise know as good old-fashioned number crunching. Ah, well. If only life was a simple as a spreadsheet.

Sunday 14 April 2013

April 14th – 327,715

As I said, yesterday I’d left my heroine in a nice secure and comfortable place between scenes, so that meant today I was free to take the nascent idea I’ve had rumbling around in my head for a couple of days and run with it – decide if it had legs.

Not only that, I had a severe coughing fit early this morning, meaning I was wide awake at a very early hour, so up at an obscenely early one, leaving Marion to go back to sleep, giving me a good hour and a half of uninterrupted writing time, once the coffee had been made.

That hour and a half showed me this idea has got more than just legs, it’s a sprinter of a story – I took a deep breath and sat back, realising instead of just writing an opener and a story treatment, I’d written the first two full scenes, hitting a word count of 4,387 words.

Now I need to make a decision, do I pick it up again and write it once I’ve finished the main work in progress, which I want to get back to tomorrow, treating it as a complete ‘pantser’ exercise. Or, do I sit down and outline it properly, produce a plan for it, and make sure I’m happy where the story is going to go. The whole thing is there in my head, already, and this one isn’t a complex story, but there are potentially a lot of characters, and it could go several ways.

Ah, creative decisions, the best part of the frustrations of this job.

Saturday 13 April 2013

April 13th – 323,328.

Well, I surprised myself, stuck to my task of working on my main w.i.p. rather than diverting to write down yesterday’s idea. I’m not sure if that was because I really wanted to get this scene finished, or because the idea isn’t all the way formed yet.

I guess, I’ll have to find out tomorrow, although I suspect, seeing as I’ve stopped at a scene break today, rather than midway through a scene, as I did yesterday, I’ll take the opportunity to get this new one down on ‘paper’.

Still, in two spate sessions, separated by the need to remove a light fitting from my father’s garage because of a water leak (they’re waiting for the roofers to come and replace the leaking roof, and the leak has got worse, and now drenched one of the lighting fittings), I managed to get 3,086 words done.

It seems to have settled into a pattern now, 3,000 words a day, or there about, has become the norm, the new me, and to be honest, I’m really happy with that.

Friday 12 April 2013

April 12th – 320,242 words.

Health wise both of us are continuing to improve, so today I’ve felt less lethargic than I have done for the last few days, which has been good news given how much work I’ve got to do at the moment.

I did find time to drop in on the laptop on three or four occasions, resulting in a reasonable 3,084 words done, taking me ever closer to that 1/3 of the way to completion of the task. This book is now well north of 40k and I’m only half way through the material I’d intended to put in it. I can only hope it doesn’t expand any further. I persuaded Paulette it could be a trilogy, I don’t want to have to go back and tell her, actually it’s now four books not three. I’m not sure of the reception I’d get.

Still and all, I’ve managed to keep going, keep writing and it is certainly habit forming. I look forward to my sojourn on the keyboard now, irrespective of how easy or difficult the next scene will be to write.

I’ve been looking at, and talking to a couple of other prolific authors, I’ve mentioned a couple of them in the past, and comparing notes as to how to get this kind of productive spell started, and how to keep it going.

The answer, unanimously is targeting, whether it’s “get this book written in the next six weeks” or, as I do, “write more than 2,740 words a day, every day”, or just write “10,000 words a week”, the target is immaterial – it’s all about what works for you.

Coming from a highly structured numbers background, for me keeping track of the numbers is my motivating force, but to be fair, I’ve now invested with the desire to finish each book, and then start the next fresh idea bubbling in my head.

I’ve had another one of those too, a cracker, and I’m trying hard to hold off and write that down tomorrow, just to get a couple of the rough edges rounded off in my mind first. The problem is, I’m also looking forward to writing the ad hoc dinner party scene which is chronologically next in the current work in progress – if I can persuade the heroine to get out of the bath first, lazy madam!

Thursday 11 April 2013

April 11th – 317,158.

Well, the cold is getting better, it’s not better but it’s heading in the right direction. More importantly, so is Marion’s but she’s still quite poorly.

Still, despite the debilitating effects I’ve managed to get 3,115 words written today, and in discussion with my publishing partner last night, we’ve agreed this story is now definitely a trilogy, we just can’t work out what the title of this, the middle book is going to be.

The current working title, is the definitive title for the final book, so we have titles in place for both books one and three, we just, don’t have a title for the middle one, the one I’m just about half-way through writing. We have a couple of ideas, but we’ll let them settle for a bit, then it’ll be time to start thinking about cover art.

In the meantime, though, I need to get this one finished. The problem is I have a distraction at the moment, a new gadget, and you know boys and toys…

Wednesday 10 April 2013

April 10th – 314,043 words.

Today I’ve had to contend with a lot of different things. Not only have I had to deal with the way I have been feeling, my cold is no better, although at least we both got some sleep last night, but Marion’s is no better either. On top of that, our daughter and our two granddaughters dropped round to see us, having not rung first. Well I wasn’t going to upset the apples of our eyes by turning them away at the door, was I?

Being given the run around by a three, almost four year old and a nearly two year old for a couple of hours has left me exhausted.

As I had about a thousand words to do at the time they arrived, I’ve just this minute finished them, hitting 2,818 for the day, and that is your lot. Enough.

So, excuse the brevity of this, I’m going to go downstairs, and sit and veg out for a while, and then maybe after tea find something else to do.

Tuesday 9 April 2013

April 9th – 311,225.

Today has been another broken writing day, with my attempts to hit the word count broken into four separate sessions. This damned cold has had an effect on my ability to sit in front of a screen for long, so I couldn’t sit and get it done. As a result not only has it been spread over a large part of the day, but also I’ve been slower in each short segment of writing time, mainly due to the need to read through to pick up the relevant chain of thought.

Having to go out, not a good idea with a cough like mine, for a blood test didn’t help, nor did the fact that Marion is still a lot worse than me.

Still, despite all of that I hit 3,382 words for the day and I’m very pleased with that. This plot is bubbling along nicely and I remain convinced that this is going to become a trilogy rather than a sequel. Now if only I could lose this darned cold, I’d feel pretty good about my world, at the moment though, anything but…

Monday 8 April 2013

April 8th – 307,843.

Well, I’ve been good, I haven’t given in to the man-flu, despite not getting very much sleep last night, and managed a total of 3,284 words today. That was split between my main work in progress and a new idea, which was very quickly turned into a 900 word treatment and filed for later use. The only thing I need to decide with that is whether to write in in the style of TV shows like 24 – i.e. in real time, which would result in a novel, or stick to a more traditional approach, cut out the linking scenes and reduce it to a novella.

That will depend entirely on how I feel when I start writing it for real. This was a story concept that came to me in between bouts of coughing in the middle of the night. It just formed itself out of whole cloth before I fell into a restless sleep, and this morning was fresh and foremost in my mind. Hence writing down the treatment before I forgot it. That fully fleshed story also included the character names, the period, and the precise location and setting. So I’m glad I managed to write it in 900 words.

The really big issue for me is that I’ve already got the idea for the sequel forming in my head. Damn, you muse, will you please shut up for a bit – let me finish the current book, at least, please, pretty please…?

Sunday 7 April 2013

April 7th – 304,559 words.

Well, I managed to get 3,184 words written today, which given my cold is a lot worse was no small achievement, so excuse the self-congratulatory tone today. Mind you, I couldn’t maintain the speed of the last four days, and had to break for lunch, meaning I probably took closer to two hours today rather than the less than an hour and a half I’ve been hitting.

The story is shaping up nicely, but I am even more convinced this is going to end up as a trilogy rather than a single book, or even the pair I thought it would when I started this second one. I’m over a third of the way in and nowhere near the eventual resolution of the main plot – I guess I’ll just have to keep going and see where it goes. Having said that, I am pretty sure where the black moment will come in this story and the temporary resolution/ cliff hanger on which to end this particular volume.

This is of course going to give me a lot of problems with the title, I had a great title for the first book, and a good one for a final book, which is what I’m using at the moment, but no real idea what to use as a title for this second book if indeed I do extend it to make a trilogy. Covers will also be an issue, that’s going to have to be very carefully worked out. Still, compared to not writing at all, these are good problems to have.

Saturday 6 April 2013

April 6th – Passed the Three Hundred Thousand Word mark.

Today I managed 2,872 words taking me to 301,375 to be exact, so I passed the 30% point today, the 300,000 word milestone. I know, I’m focussing in the blog on the numbers, but when I’m writing they are the furthest thing from my mind. I need a focus here, and I need to keep track in order to see how I’m faring against the target, but that is all.

In fact, I was very surprised to achieve the word count today, let alone achieve it at a similar speed to the last three or four days as I’m decidedly under the weather. I’ve got a cold, no it’s not man-flu, it’s a cold, sore throat and a cough, but nowhere near as bad as Marion’s. Had her cold is the thing that’s put me so far under the weather – she’s constantly waking up in the night coughing her heart out, and of course that wakes me. I’m running on empty in terms of sleep reserves, yet still managed to churn out just short of three thousand words in about 80 or 85 minutes (I wasn’t clock watching today).

I’m also happy with what I’ve written. After lunch I gave it a reads through and felt it worked quite well although there are a couple of sections, notably the narrative passages that link a couple of the action sequences together, which will need an edit from a show not tell point of view. There again, if I put all the detail in those, where, let’s be fair not a lot is happening, including a journey where my heroine manages to sleep almost from door to door, the book would become very long indeed. That is of course, often the problem, you need to transition your characters from place to place, or time to time, or both, but you don’t want to tell it in real time. If events mean you just can’t finish one chapter Tuesday night and start the next Friday night, you have to provide a link paragraph or two, and they are a sure-fire way of going tell on your reader.

Ah, well, it’s an edit fix, for now, it’s commented in the margin, to make sure I don’t miss it at the next pass, which is always a possibility especially if you allow yourself to get distracted at the crucial moment. Not that I do of course – sticks tongue in cheek and walks away whistling tunelessly.

Friday 5 April 2013

April 5th – 298,503.

I guess I’ll have to wait till tomorrow to pass the milestone of 300,000 words, having written 2,943 words today in a little over 80 minutes. Slightly slower than yesterday but still a pace I wouldn’t have thought possible only a few weeks ago.

As I said before, if I could bottle and sell it, I’d make a fortune, but I can’t really put my finger on it. Bearing in mind, I can’t actually touch type – I come from a generation where keyboard skills were not something you learned as a young man, indeed we lived so far out in the sticks, the bank statements on my first bank account were hand written. My son works in a bank, but when I left school, if you went for a job in a bank, you had to pass tow tests, mental arithmetic was one, but by far the most important was the hand writing test. (Which I would most assuredly have failed!). In fact, when I went to work at my father’s accountant’s office during the school holidays, I wasn’t allowed near an adding machine, I had to work it all out in my head for the first two summers, and only then I was trusted with the monstrously large machine. The very first job we had to do was check the client’s bank statements added up.  I guess it was a different existence then.

Still writing quickly, especially as this piece is in first person, is lending an immediacy to the manuscript that I think is going to be important. Especially now, as we are about to introduce a new menagerie of characters into the soup, giving yet more scope for some interactions and above all some tension between them and the heroine.

 

 

Thursday 4 April 2013

April 4th – 295,560.

Well I have to admit today was a little slower than the previous two days have been, at least in writing terms. It actually took me two hours or so to write 3,220 words, mainly due to the fact I couldn’t corral enough time to write uninterruptedly for the requisite time. Today’s count was in fact achieved over three distinct segments, with lunch intervening between the second and third ones.

Nevertheless, it’s a good count for the day and I’m really happy with the way this one is shaping up. The idea had been originally conceived as a single book, but I’m now over 18k into the second book, and as I told my publishing partner last night, I’m pretty sure I won’t finish the story by the end of book two, meaning, it’ll have grown from a single book to a trilogy.

Ah, well, nobody loves a trilogy more than a publisher, so that’ll be good. Mind you I’m going to have to be very careful finding the right main image for the cover for each of them - that is not going to be easy. Since the whole trilogy takes place within an eight month span, at least I won’t have to artificially age any of the models.

Wednesday 3 April 2013

April 3rd – 292,338 words written.

Well today was another quick day. I guess I like writing dialogue and action scenes, or should I say dialogue/action scenes? One or the other, as I’ve managed to output 2,945 words today in a little under 75 minutes. So that’s even faster than yesterday. I wish I could bottle this and sell it as a productivity tool, but I can’t. I can’t even explain it fully, either.

A couple of authors have explained this kind of phenomenon better than I could, so here’s the links. One is to an e-book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/2k-10k-Writing-Faster-ebook/dp/B009NKXAWS which is short and sweet, but also cheap (99c) so I’d recommend it for that reason. It also gives some very good advice about the self-edit process. The link above is to the UK Amazon site, please switch to your own local site to purchase.


Both authors have one theme in common, organisation. You have to organise your writing time in order to be able to write fluently and effectively. In their case they tend to organise round a specific writing slot in the day. Factors in my life, mean I can’t do that, but I do find a slot at some point in the day to write and for that time I’m also very organised.

I’m often being asked how I do this, or for that matter being told I’m “bonkers” or even worse, but I hope these two links I’ve just given you will enable you to understand how I do it, how I’m not alone in doing it, and maybe give you some pointers as to how to do it yourselves.

Happy writing.

PS. Just to clarify, I don’t actually know either Rachel Arron or Karen Woodward.

Tuesday 2 April 2013

April 2nd – 289,393 words.

Well, we had a rotten night. Marion’s cold and cough bit really hard yesterday evening and she spent the entire night alternatively coughing or just wheezing in her sleep as she struggled to breathe. As you can guess, the noises from her side of the bed kept me awake for the bulk of the night so when we got up this morning, we were both shattered. Marion, more so than me, after all she’s the one down with the bug.

The morning disappeared in a haze of fatigue and grocery shopping, and it was 1 pm before I had chance to sit down and write. Luckily it was another of those flowing dialogue scenes which I find so invigorating to write, so now, some ninety six minutes later I’ve stopped again, having written 3,028 words in that time. I suspect this one will have some continuity issues at editing, but I enjoyed the writing but now need a rest, 2,000 words an hour isn’t for me a long term sustainable speed, however exhilarating and however much there’s an adrenalin rush from writing like this.

I probably should have kept going for another hour or so, and topped 5, 000 for the day, but I really do need to get some other stuff done, and besides, as I said at the top of this post, I’m tired and I need to change down a gear, so editing and proofing here I come.

Monday 1 April 2013

April 1st - No wind ups today, just a solid 2,904 words written.

I didn’t’ expect to get much writing time today, with family coming round and preparing a meal for eight but you could say I got lucky. I couldn’t sleep, so was up early which gave me an extra hour, and preparing the crock pots took less time than I’d expected giving me enough time in the morning to finish my allotted word count. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to write the blog entry until now, about eight hours later, and the deadline for April Fool’s pranks has now long passed. Ah well, since I was a bit grumpy from being up so early, I guess that’s no bad thing.

Today’s count has taken me to a grand total of 286,365 words completed against my target, and I’m almost a complete fortnight ahead of target, so in writing terms all is well with my world, which makes a nice change after the last two or three years.

Family have all gone home now, so it’s time to get stuck in and do some studying, if I can keep my eyes open long enough. Appcelerator here I come.