I didn't get as much accomplished over the weekend as I hoped I would, but I did spin the first ~1/3 of Part Two. Today I'm back to aiming for 1K per day. I'll report my progress tonight.
I'm glad to hear that you got the first third of Part 2 spun--that's nothing to sneeze at. I know what you mean about Saturdays being a time suck in ways that you have no control over. Way back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, when my boys were as young as your son is, I definitely spent all my weekends carting them around and watching endless baseball practices/games. It will get much easier :)
When you are working on scene sheets, spinning exercises or outline work, do you count those words written toward the 1k total, or are they just in addition to what you write on the actual story? I feel like if I don't write anything on the story itself, my writing achievement that day doesn't count, even if I spent three hours banging out scene cards or nailing down my time line. I know that I need an attitude adjustment, because I suspect this is why I have I have been so reluctant to put in the necessary grunt work on the structure.
I had a good weekend over here--I wrote character cards for all of my main and supporting characters, and started writing out scene cards. I think this will be a good way to outline future scenes without being committed to where I think they fit right now. I wrote out about fifteen cards on Sunday (most of those outlining scenes I've already written, and the rest of those dedicated to the climax and the catalyst scenes right before the climax).
I absolutely understand about keeping it close to home for writing conferences. By the time you add in the hotel, they are expensive. This is definitely why I've only attended three in the past twenty years :)
Thank you for taking the time to respond to my comments---please let me know if I'm becoming a pest! I'm finding your blog to be really motivating and I'm learning a lot. I don't know anyone IRL who writes, so it's great to hear how someone else navigates the process :)
Kristin, you're not a pest at all! It's nice to have comments. :) And I'm glad the blog has been helpful for you.
To answer the word count question, I only count words when I'm actually writing "story words" in a draft. I feel like the word count of an exercise can be deceptive; for example, there can't be more than a few hundred words in the goal/motivation/conflict charts I made last week, but each one of those words required a lot of thought about who my characters really are and what I want this story to really be about. Measuring the success of that exercise by the number of words it produced would be missing the point of it.
For me, what works best is to make completing the exercise/character work/scene sheets/spin the goal, and not pay attention to the word count. But when I'm working on a draft, word count is what keeps me moving forward.
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear that you got the first third of Part 2 spun--that's nothing to sneeze at. I know what you mean about Saturdays being a time suck in ways that you have no control over. Way back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, when my boys were as young as your son is, I definitely spent all my weekends carting them around and watching endless baseball practices/games. It will get much easier :)
When you are working on scene sheets, spinning exercises or outline work, do you count those words written toward the 1k total, or are they just in addition to what you write on the actual story? I feel like if I don't write anything on the story itself, my writing achievement that day doesn't count, even if I spent three hours banging out scene cards or nailing down my time line. I know that I need an attitude adjustment, because I suspect this is why I have I have been so reluctant to put in the necessary grunt work on the structure.
I had a good weekend over here--I wrote character cards for all of my main and supporting characters, and started writing out scene cards. I think this will be a good way to outline future scenes without being committed to where I think they fit right now. I wrote out about fifteen cards on Sunday (most of those outlining scenes I've already written, and the rest of those dedicated to the climax and the catalyst scenes right before the climax).
I absolutely understand about keeping it close to home for writing conferences. By the time you add in the hotel, they are expensive. This is definitely why I've only attended three in the past twenty years :)
Thank you for taking the time to respond to my comments---please let me know if I'm becoming a pest! I'm finding your blog to be really motivating and I'm learning a lot. I don't know anyone IRL who writes, so it's great to hear how someone else navigates the process :)
Kristin
Kristin, you're not a pest at all! It's nice to have comments. :) And I'm glad the blog has been helpful for you.
ReplyDeleteTo answer the word count question, I only count words when I'm actually writing "story words" in a draft. I feel like the word count of an exercise can be deceptive; for example, there can't be more than a few hundred words in the goal/motivation/conflict charts I made last week, but each one of those words required a lot of thought about who my characters really are and what I want this story to really be about. Measuring the success of that exercise by the number of words it produced would be missing the point of it.
For me, what works best is to make completing the exercise/character work/scene sheets/spin the goal, and not pay attention to the word count. But when I'm working on a draft, word count is what keeps me moving forward.