OK, I fell off my somewhat compulsive goal-setting-check-marking-record-keeping of the early weeks of ROW80 – but the good news is:

I FINISHED MY FIRST DRAFT!

Champagne for Everyone!!!

This is, of course, just the first draft, but we’ll worry about editing tomorrow or later next week. Today, we’ll just enjoy.

I’m not going to go into the details of word count, suffice it to say, between Friday, Jan. 27 and this morning, I added 12,697 words for a total word count of 38,225. Yes, I realize that’s way low for a novel. With this draft I was aiming just to get the screenplay into a minimal novel form, sometimes not doing much more than transcribing the screenplay. But, now I have a MS that I can work with and turn into a real novel.

Also, btw, while working on it I’ve had an idea or two that are going to change the story fairly significantly. But, again, worry about that tomorrow.

I’ll just mention, for the record, I have kept up with the webinar, producing more scenes for that class and, in general, writing more and more regularly than at any time in my life! Thank-you ROW80!

Later this week – probably Tuesday, I’ll set some new goals for ROW80. But for now: ENJOY.

Well, this is different – and it caught me totally by surprise. I didn’t make the novel word count goal the last three days.

I did do some writing – quite a bit, actually – tackled one project which I intend to send to a writing contest, whose deadline is Jan. 31st. Not exactly purposefully, I veered away (temporarily) from the original goals. Ah well, that’s what the Word Bank is there for. I guess.

So, here’s the hard numbers.

Wed., Jan. 25
Words: 1088
Words Banked: 88 – Total Words Banked: 3861
Total Words to Date: 23778

Also, as noted in previous post, spent 1+ hour on class exercise (writing a scene).

Thurs., Jan. 26
Words: 1236
Words Banked: 236 – Total Words Banked: 4097
Total Words to Date: 25,014 **

**Nice milestone!

Also: attended scene-writing webinar for 3, count ‘em, 3 hours.

Fri., Jan. 27
Words: 528
Words Banked: 0
Words Withdrawn from Bank: 486 – Total Words Banked: 3611
Total Words to Date: 25,528

I think I worked on a scene-writing exercise, but honestly don’t recall.

Sat., Jan. 28
No Mirror Girl novel work at all.

Words Withdrawn from Bank: 1000 – Total Words Banked: 2611

I worked at least 4 hours, maybe 5, completing one scene, starting another for scene-writing class.

Sun., Jan 19
No Mirror Girl novel work at all.

Words Withdrawn from Bank: 1000 – Total Words Banked: 1611

I worked at least 2 hours, maybe more, completing the second scene for scene-writing class.

I worked at least 2 hours or thereabouts, readying other project for submission to contest.

I’m already 2/3 of the way through the novelization of the Mirror Girl, so I think even with this detour I’ll have a draft by mid-February or thereabouts. Which is great, really.

So, here’s to the occasional deviation!

I don’t know why it is – when I imagine free time, I always imagine vast stretches of time when I am completely free, absolutely no other obligations, I can just sit at the computer and write and write. The reality never, at least hardly ever, looks like that. This whole “life is what happens when you’re doing other things” deal is a bitch.

So, I’ve not had as much time as I thought to surge ahead, but have been generally keeping up. I need to learn to place more value on modest, steady progress (as opposed to always envisioning a blaze of glory).

Sun., Jan.22
Words: 1032
Words Banked: 32 – Total Words Banked: 3736
Total Words to Date: 21653
at least one hour working on class exercise

Mon., Jan. 23
Monday was my day off this week, at least as far as the word count on my novel goes.

I did, however, spend at least an hour on the class exercise.

Tues., Jan. 24
Words: 1037
Words Banked: 37 – Total Words Banked: 3773
Total Words to Date: 22690

So far today, Wednesday, I’ve spent a couple of hours on my class exercise – expect to do words on the novel later today.

I’ve slowed down the last couple of days. I had a big deadline for the day job on Friday – that seems to have sucked up more energy than I realized at the time. I’ve met the word count goal, not kept up with the brainstorming/class exercises (at least on Friday & Saturday & so far today, Sunday).

Sometimes I treat myself as a bit of an automaton goal-setter. This is always temporary. And I think the slower tempo of yesterday & today is simply a reflection of that – can’t treat myself as if I’m not flesh & blood that needs a break!

But, to summarize:
Wed., Jan. 18:
Words: 1126
Words Banked: 126 – Total Words Banked: 3564
Total Words to Date: 18481
Did a bit – just a bit of work on class exercises

Thurs., Jan. 19:
Day off this week

Fri., Jan. 20
Words: 1072
Words Banked: 72 – Total Words Banked: 3636
Total Words to Date: 19553
no brainstorming or exercises

Sat., Jan. 21
Words: 1068
Words Banked: 68 – Total Words Banked: 3704
Total Words to Date: 20621
no brainstorming or exercises

I’ve gotta say, it’s nice to hit that 20,000 word threshold. This coming week doesn’t look that busy on the day job (since I’m self-employed, that’s not all good news) – but hopefully, I can work up a head of steam on the writing again.

How are you holding up?

OK, still hanging in there, still pleased as punch with ROW80.

Sunday, Jan. 15:
Words: 1097
Words Banked: 97 – Total Words Banked: 3270
Total Words to Date: 15,187

Monday, Jan. 16:
Words: 1050
Words Banked: 50 – Total Words Banked: 3320
Total Words to Date: 16,237

Tues., Jan. 17
Words: 1118
Words Banked: 118 – Total Words Banked: 3438
Total Words to Date: 17,355

I have 70 1/3 double-spaced pages printed out right now. This is only the first draft – a long way to go – but it’s so rewarding to see so much concrete progress. I am so grateful to Kait Nolan for this tool – http://aroundofwordsin80days.wordpress.com/blog/

(Jeez, when I’m not so obsessed with word count, I’ll take 30 minutes and learn how to do links.)

Hope your week is going well!

P.S. Almost forgot! Re: my other goal, brainstorming and/or exercises for class – met that too. It was all exercises for class, but that is developing new work, so it’s all good.

The week since Wednesday has gone splendiferously. That’s a word, right? Huh, Thesaurus.com lists some synonyms for it such as ostentatious and garish. The heck with the thesaurus, all I meant was, truly extra-splendid.

Wed., Jan 11
Words: 1085
Words Banked: 85 – Total Words Banked: 1842
Total Words to Date: 9842

Also: 15 minutes brainstorming.

Thurs., Jan. 12
Words: 1104
Words Banked: 104 – Total Words Banked: 1946
Total Words to Date: 10,863* – Look, Ma, I Hit Five Figures!

* on Thursday I did some minor editing of about 20 pages of what I’ve written so far, for a sample to send to someone. In the course of this, I cut 83 words – so there’s a hiccup in the total words between Wed. & Thurs., but I’m not going to take the words out of my word total – I did write them after all!

**No brainstorming, attended a **writing class. A 3-hour writing class.

Fri., Jan 13
Words: 1078
Words Banked: 78 – Total Words Banked: 2024
Total Words to Date: 11,941

Also: at least 15 minutes brainstorming, probably more, for **writing class.

Sat., Jan. 14
Words: 2,149!!!
Words Banked: 1,149 – Total Words Banked: 3173
Total Words to Date: 14,090.

Hell, Yes!

I assume that I’ll hit more speed bumps or the doldrums or something, but right now, this ROW80 is working like magic.

**Yes, the writing class. I’d forgotten about this when I set my goals. I’m taking an eight-week screenwriting class with Corey Mandell. (This is embarrassing – I can’t get the link to work. I will rectify my bad html skills later – here’s his website: http://coreymandell.net )

It’s actually a scene-writing class, as opposed to writing an entire screenplay. The focus is on particular writing skills, such as writing conflict and something called creative integration. We’ve had one 3-hour webinar meeting and it looks promising.

However, instead of random brainstorming, I’ll probably spend most days working on exercises for Corey’s class. Also, depending on how busy I get, I may be forced to reduce my Word goal for the Mirror Girl novelization. I want to give the course the time and attention it needs.

Speaking of which…off to get lunch and then work on my assignment for this week.

How’s your week been?

I’m checking in before I’ve done my Wednesday work – going to do that after posting my check-in and will report it either later or Sunday or both.

Monday, Jan. 9 went OK:

Words: 1047

Words Banked: 47 – Total Words Banked: 1757

Total Words to Date: 8757

15 minutes hands on keyboard brainstorming: Check – done.

Tues., Jan 10 – hit a speed bump. Bound to happen, I suppose. I had a longish day at the day job and found that when there was finally time for writing for myself, I was completely zonked – out of it.

I thought it over and decided the better part of valor would be to take it easy – if I push myself too hard, I’ll eventually rebel. I felt pretty good about that decision on Tuesday and still feel so today.

The rest of my week looks fairly open so it may be that Tuesday just becomes my one day off this week. But, I’ll see how it goes and if I take another day off, then I’ll subtract the 1000 words from my “Word Bank.”

Two things didn’t come to mind yesterday while I was mulling this over.
1) I was, I think, supposed to do at least 100 words, even on days when I’m not going to make the official goal. Never even registered – I think this was a kind of newbie thing, reflective that I’m fairly new to these goals.

2) supposed to spend 15 minutes brainstorming. Again, never even crossed my mind – all I thought about was the 1000 words and whether I was going to attempt them or not.

I’m not sure how to build flexibility into that 15 minute brainstorming goal. I may need to make that a 5 days a week goal instead of 6 days – or perhaps allow even fewer minutes. I’ll mull that over and see how the rest of the week goes.

Off to post my check-in and then hammer out my words.

Thinking over my goal(s), it occurred to me that I really need to add a modest goal of dedicating time to brainstorm some new ideas. I’d like to think I could do that plus keep up the 1000 words per day pace. However, I reluctantly conclude that could be shooting myself in the foot; better to set a more modest goal and if I exceed it, cool, if not, no stress.

So, new goal: 750 words per day, 6 days a week and 15 minutes per day, hands on keyboard, exploring new ideas. New goal starts tomorrow, Monday.

Yesterday, Saturday, turned out to be my day off – by default. Power outage just as I was sitting down to type pulled the plug on that.

Otherwise, as the previous posts show, I did 1413 words on Wed., 1021 words on Thurs., and 1097 words on Friday.

Sunday, Jan. 8:
Words: 1089

Words banked: 89 – Total Words Banked: 1710

Total Words to Date: 7710

This is all pretty exciting. I’m probably no more than 1/8 of the way to completion – but what’s amazing to me is that I’ve got 31 double-spaced pages already. In just one week. Not bad.

This is probably incredibly obvious and something more practical people realize instinctively, but to me it’s like a revelation how quickly steady work adds up.

One refinement to the goal: 1000 words per day, 6 days a week. I deserve a day off – I need a day off. (Unless I just am dying to write.)

Also, I’m going to keep a running count of words per day and total words so that I know how many words over 1000 that I have written each day – to “bank” them for those days when I can’t keep up that pace.

Mon., Jan 2: 

Words: 1363

Words banked: 363

Total Words to date: 1363

Tues., Jan 3:

Words: 1727

Words banked: 727 – Total Words Banked: 1090

Total Words to date: 3090

Wed., Jan. 4

Words: 1413

Words banked: 413 – Total Words Banked: 1503

Total Words to date: 4503

Thurs., Jan. 5

Words: 1021

Word banked: 21 – Total Words Banked: 1524

Total Words to date: 5524

Fri., Jan. 6

Words: 1097

Words Banked: 97 – Total Words Banked: 1621

Total Words to date: 6621

Note: I seem to have gotten myself confused – my “First Pass” post dated Jan. 3 suggests that my first writing day was on Tuesday – but it was actually Monday.
I’m feeling especially proud tonight. I got a bit of disappointing news this afternoon. Writing the 1000 words today is an instance of “climb back up on the horse.”

Reading Barbara McDowell’s mid-week check-in - ROW80 Mid-Week Check-In: 1/4/12 - made me think I need to think up some more goals.

In the mean time: I’ve only been at this for two days, only one real goal: 1000 words per day. Day 1: 1363; Day 2: 1727.

I’m not sure how else I’m supposed to check-in with ROW 80 – will read a few other blogs to see if there’s something I’m missing.