Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Making Writing A Habit I Can't Kick - Day 5 - Reflection

And the writing continues. Unlike yesterday, I woke up to a phone call which connected me to the outside world much earlier than I wanted to. It was after 9 am, so I can't complain too much. Good thing is, it did get me up and out of bed and out to start my day.
So here comes the update...

1. How much did I write?
2,594

Word count for the day and how long did it take me?
99.9% of all that I wrote today were notes transcribed from this morning. Considering I quit writing on the notes and began transcribing them around 2:15, I have been working on those 2,594 words since around 9:30 this morning. Which puts me at around 4 hours and 45 minutes of writing.

2. What is the current word count of my Work In Progress (WIP)?
Word count for the WIP is 10,742. Which puts me about 10% into what I hope the final word count of the finished, publishable book will be.

3. How do I feel about what/how I did today in the writing session?
I'm actually pretty darned impressed at how much I did. Why would I be impressed that nearly 5 hours of work only netted me close to 2,600 words (which divided out is around 520 words an hour)? Because I wasn't only working on my writing. I had two very long, drawn out text message conversations. One with my mom close to 10 am that lasted nearly an hour. Then a second with a student of mine who literally kept the conversation going for nearly 2.5 hours. 
All the time I was responding to texts and reading through texts, I had the words I needed to put down on the page going through my head. I never lost the thread of the conversation with my characters.
That's a huge deal!! For me that's pure gold information.
I didn't try to dilly-dally getting started on the writing. Once I was up, I had the stack of papers and my fountain pens in hand and I was ready to go. And the interruptions from the conversations had little effect.
So, all in all, a great writing day...although I'm not sure I'm finished, I just wanted to make sure I got this posted.

4. Compare/Contrast today's session to yesterdays.
Was it easier/harder?
In comparison to yesterday, it wasn't easier or harder getting started. I simply recognized what I had to do and I set forth to do it. In future I might actually set a goal for the number of scenes I want to get through, but getting through 3 and considering two were scenes with only the sketchiest of notes, I'm pretty darned proud of my progress. Especially considering the interruptions that could have derailed me. I could have decided to turn on the TV and watch Netflix after the first text conversation with my mom. I could have kept going in that direction when I started the second text conversation less than an hour later. Yet both times, I knew I had a goal and I stuck with it. I knew I had to write. I had to get words on the page.
And I did just that.
Yay Me!!

Did I enjoy it?
Actually I did enjoy it. It was nice to have that physical connection to the manuscript and be able to move through the scenes just letting the words drop onto the page. It's getting a little easier to trust myself to just let the words flow rather than try to direct the scene for the character. As a control freak, it's hard to let someone else take the wheel, but letting my characters do it, is getting much easier, because they actually know where they're going. I'm just along for the ride.

5. What am I looking forward to in tomorrow's session?
I think tomorrow I want to set a goal for the number of scenes to get through. This strategy may be a bit premature and has the potential to derail me and my progress, since I'm not so great at keeping to my goals. Then there's the added issue that I have to go in to the day job to help out with some stuff early in the day.
It may mean that tomorrow will be a transcription day only, which is fine with me. As long as I'm adding to my word count. that's what really matters.

My favorite line from today's writing:
She had a war to plan.


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