Spring Writing Project: Update #3

These past two weeks have been quite the struggle when it came to writing. You’ll quickly figure out why in just a moment, but before that, let’s review what I’ve accomplished so far:

1.) General Statistics

As of yesterday, my current word count is 64,464 words. (It was by mere coincidence that I stopped writing at a number with all 4’s and 6’s.) I’m still doing quite well with getting my daily word count goal. And, yes, nothing has changed in terms of me beginning to write for the day during the after-midnight hours. It is officially a full-blown habit of mine to write at around this time.

However, somewhere along the line, I had subconsciously upped my daily word count an extra hundred words. I’ve rolled with it, and now it’s my new goal. Because apparently writing 1300 words/day was not challenging enough for me. (Why you always gotta make things harder for yourself, Amanda?)

Also, not only have I been writing slightly more each day, but I’ve managed to write quicker. My average time has dropped significantly: 1 hour, 46 mins. (Mathematically, it’s 1 hour, 45.71 mins.) I did not set out to shorten my time frame. I guess I’ve just become more efficient?

Basically, I’ve been a writing machine the past two weeks. Not quite sure why…

2.) Character Names

Nope. Zero progress has been made here. I’ve decided that I’m not going to worry about it until I finish the project next month.

3.) Plot

Ah, yes. The overarching plot. I’m slowly running out of “red” scenes to write from my outline. At this point, I think I’m stretching certain scenes only because I’m trying to avoid writing the two major events that happen (one of which being the major climax at the end). I kinda know what will happen during these two events, but because how important they are to the story, it feels daunting to write them out.

Also, I’ve learned that it takes me longer to write a particular scene than I think it does. Once again, it could simply be because I keeping adding to it rather than moving onto a new scene (where I would have to sit and roughly sketch what should be happening with the characters next). Or maybe it’s because I’ve learned to slow the story’s pace down. Perhaps it’s both reasons?

All I know is that I’m starting to get nervous about not having enough story to tell for the next seventeen days (including today).

4.) A Wrench in the Plan

Two days after my last blog post, my mind was roaming while I was doing my morning routine when a thought occurred to me. I had wondered why there weren’t many books based on a particular subject in world history. I’m not talking about historical fiction, but more like using it as a jumping off point to create a new fictional world. (Full disclosure: A novel based off of this time period and its people was published this month, and I instantly ordered it because of this fact. Even though this is the author’s debut, so I have no idea what the new writer is capable of.) 

I had pondered about it, and the conversation in my head basically went like this: 

“Why don’t you write this story, then? I mean, you write stuff.” 

“What?” 

“Well, I guess you shouldn’t. After all, you’re currently in the middle of your Spring Writing project.” 

“Okay, but this story you were thinking of - ” 

“We still have twenty-eight days left of this project. Exactly four weeks. We can’t think about another story. We already made a commitment to see this project through.” 

“…” 

“Wait. Amanda, what are you doing?” 

*glances at my notebook where I record story ideas* 

“NO, AMANDA, NO! Stop! What are you doing? Stop!” 

*scurries over to notebook and scribbles down the vague story concept* 

So, yes, now I’ve spent the last twelve days thinking about two completely different stories. I’m obviously still writing for my Spring project, but I have another foot brainstorming ideas for my next project. My Spring story has lost its sheen now because it has to compete with shiny New Story Idea.

Sigh. Why do I keep doing this to myself? And here I thought I was going to take a little break once this current writing project is over in May. Nope. It appears that I’ll be working on a Summer project, after all.

Maybe this is the reason why I focused solely on writing short stories last year. They were less of a commitment, and I got to dabble in however many stories/genres I wanted to write.

5.) Final Thoughts

I get the feeling that the last stretch of my project is going to be difficult. Based on my new 1400 words/day goal, I have roughly 24k words left to write. Do I have enough story material to get me to the finish line? Can I keep pushing back Shiny New Idea, hoping it will stop interfering with my current project? Will I ever have a decent sleeping schedule? (Probably not.)

I guess we’ll find out next month.

Six weeks down, two (and a half) more to go.

Spring Writing Project: Update #2

Yesterday marked exactly one month since I embarked on my Spring Writing Project. Therefore, I’m now halfway through it. Let’s take a look at my progress so far:

1.) General Statistics

I’m still doing very well in terms of word count. As of yesterday, I’m currently sitting at 45,281 words. (Basically, I’m just 5k words shy of what a typical NaNo story would be at the end of one month.) I’m now 3681 words ahead of schedule, so all the extra words certainly have started to add up. And, yes, I have continued to write every single day so far.

The average time I spend writing per day remains at about 1 hour, 50 mins. (Mathematically, though, the average time is now 1 hour, 50.4 mins.) My sleep schedule is still messed up. I have discovered that drinking lemonade helps me stay awake whenever I begin my two-hour writing excursion after midnight. It beats drinking pop during that time for the caffeine. (I don’t like coffee. But then again, no sane person should be drinking coffee after midnight anyway.) Why I wait until after midnight sometimes to begin writing? I have no idea. Procrastination?

Also, I’ve been thinking about my actual end goal. Since I’m a little ahead of schedule with my total word count, I was wondering which was more important for me: to reach the 80.6k word goal or to write continuously for two months (62 days)? In the end, I reminded myself how I was trying to build writing endurance. If I wanted to reach a particular word count, I could have upped the daily word goal. So I’ll keep trekking along, and hope I have enough material to work with for the next few weeks, no matter how many words I reach by its end.

2.) Character Names

Sadly, I’m still not making much progress with the names. I have not added any more new names into the story other than the previous four. Instead, I keep using my three-letter code names.

I have, however, been circling around two possible names for the protagonist (and their various spellings). They both have the same first syllable, so clearly I’m after a particular sound for her. I also might have names for two of the characters that she interacts with, but I’m not fully committed to it. (One of their names could sound too similar to the protagonist’s.)

At my rate, I’ve pretty much accepted that I won’t really name anyone until this first draft is finished next month. I’ll just keep identifying them with nonsense instead, haha.

3.) Plot

I’m at a point in my writing where I just write scenes out of order. Therefore, the plot seems to be always tweaking. I’ll write one scene, and then the next day, I’ll write a scene that belongs in earlier parts of the story, so I’ll have to adjust the new scene to fit what I had written the day before. By doing this, there is now a character alive longer in my story than I had originally planned.

Last week, I finally created a general outline of the entire story. All the scenes I have yet to write have a red font color to stand out. Also, to keep all of my out-of-order scenes somewhat organized, they’re all labeled by their “chapters.” And by that, I mean each segment is described as Chapter Xa, Xb, Xc, etc. (The “X” was originally used as a placeholder for a number, and then I just found myself adding more letters to it, so I rolled with my thought process.)

Also, I’m still not sure how to go about writing the major climax at the end, so I keep avoiding it. At some point, I’ll have to buckle down and just write it. Eventually, I’m going to run out of “red” scenes to write and I’ll have no choice but to figure out how everything should be clicking together at the end.

4.) Final Thoughts

A strange thing happened by the end of last week. I realized that my daily writing has now become a habit. I don’t struggle so much to get myself to sit down and write. Once it’s time, I pick an unwritten scene (or continue writing the scene from the day before) and go at it without much thought.

I also have had an itch to go back and flesh out the world mythology more. But then I have to remind myself how I can do that in the next draft during the editing phase. For now, it’s important for me to just finish this particular story. After all, first drafts are when you’re still trying to find the story. It’s probably why I keep modifying certain events within the plot as I continue to write them non-linearly.

Overall, I’m quite happy with my halfway progress so far. I still believe I have enough story material to write for the second half of my project.

Four weeks down, four more to go.



P.S. Last Saturday, I started reading Book #12. GIRLS MADE OF GLASS AND SNOW by Melissa Bashardoust. It’s a fairy tale adaption story of Snow White, which I hardly ever hear being retold. Then again, I don’t read many fairy tale adaptions. Although, Leigh Bardugo’s novel THE LANGUAGE OF THORNS is probably my favorite from this particular genre out there. I read her collection of stories back in January (it was Book #3), and I’m still mesmerized by the artwork that fill the page borders.