Taking a break now

  I've done 3,827 words this afternoon, and I'm getting a bit hungry.  I'm thinking I'll have some supper, and maybe watch a move or something before I get back to it.  I'd love to do another 1500 or so today, but I have some thinking to do now about my next steps.  It might be better for me to let it sit for awhile.

  I think it's a far stronger beginning now.  I worry that it lacks the urgency of the 3-day, though.

  The thing about the 3-Day novel, see, is that it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but it IS a page turner.

  I'd like to keep that page turner feeling.  It's easy to achieve during the three day, because you have NO choice but a breakneck pace.

  I'd like to think Will comes off rather as rather more likeable in this draft so far.  I guess I'll see.

  If there are any non Canadians out there, do you know who Bruno Gerussi is?

  I think the first line of the book is great if you do, and maybe doesn't work if you don't.

Finally working

I'm using new writing software these days.  It's called Scrivener, and you should look it up.  It's a really interesting approach for a word processor.  It's designed for project compilation.  Once you've finished a draft, you export to Word or whatever you use for the final gussy up.

It's ideal for a project like mine.  I can keep all the old chapters attached to the project, in multiple revisions, and add and insert the new ones.  Each chapter or section is kept as kind of it's own document until you choose to compile it. 

I've just finished extensively re-writing my opening, based on the last attempt I had to get this going.

Now I'm going to lay new ground with a much expanded version of the second chapter from the 3-day manuscript.

It's going to be a weird process of expanding existing material to flesh it out, and adding entirely new chapters, so tracking my word count is going to be an interesting proposition.  I guess, though, that the whole point of this exercise is to just be productive, and I reckon I'll be doing that.

I've had zero desire to work this last few days, and too many shiny distractions.

Now it's time to buckle down and catch up.

If I write 1,772 words a day from here on out, I'm golden.

That's attainable.

How are the rest of you doing?

Busy weekend ahead

   I skived off for the evening, having had a more than moderately stressful work day today, and as I have to get up and go in for a training session tomorrow.

   I lounged on a couch and dozed with three dogs.

   Honestly, I have no complaints.

   Sunday, I'll make a push to catch up.  I have faith in my ability to do so.

  More later

Happy Fun Times!

When I consider the 2500 words that I have written so far, I am filled with rage and self-loathing.  I hate my solo fiction writing.  In collaborative writing, I know the established setting: I can see it in my mind, and I know that whoever I’m writing with can see it too.  I know who my audience is.  Most of all, I can feed off of their passion, and their ideas.

Writing alone feels a lot like eating alone, except that I don’t have to do it to live, and it isn’t delicious.

I do not intend to reread any of what I have written until I finish my first draft or give up on this project entirely.  I don’t need the discouragement.

Which brings me to something else I’m not enjoying about this process: it feels like being back in school.  Not the blowing off class to get drunk in the Uni bar and yell at my compatriots about matters of import part, or the passionate class discussions part, or the bouncing ideas off of enthusiastic professors part.  No, it feels like the part of school where you’re enslaved by it, where your every waking moment is consumed with the guilt of not working, where your time belongs to a project and not to you.

Interestingly, however, as much as I’m despising this process, I know that I’m going to be drawn back to it.  Last night, I kept being reminded of how much I disliked what I was writing and, yet, by the time a couple of hours had gone by it became increasingly difficult to put my laptop down.  I kept wanting to write just a few more sentences, finish the paragraph, finish the scene.  I’m not sure where this addiction to trash production comes from, but I guess I’d better use it while it’s there.

Update: At least I can post on this blog in red font and it looks AWESOME.

Rilla!

   Rilla has joined us here, and will, one hopes, post on her progress as the month goes on.

   I'm hoping to seduce yet more people to this dingy corner of the web.

Catching up

   I decided to have fun with friends yesterday, so I'll be catching up later today on the actual work of writing.  I get to write a new opening to my book.  This pleases me, as the current one is weak and stupid.

   It also means, probably no net GAIN in words for the first two days, but new words that DO count for the event purposes, so that's good.

   Sacha has a different challenge.  He's starting from scratch, and hopefully he'll let us know how it's going for him.

Greetings people.

   I'm planning on expanding my 3-Day Novel Simon Says Sorry to a full novel length of around 85,000 to 90,000 words.  I figured I'd try to do it as part of the NaNoWriMo event, because any excuse to be productive is a good one.

  This year, my friend Sacha is also on board with an entirely new manuscript.  I've invited him to post his thoughts as the process goes forward. 

  So, feel free to stop by and check in on us as the month goes on.

  I'll start actually discussing the process tomorrow.