1,015 today. I got through the panic and the beat-down. The invitation and the scramble for power will be tomorrow's words. Then it's hurried marching orders, an action scene, and done with Act I.
And so far, I like what I'm getting. I don't anticipate a long slog of a second pass through these scenes before I move on to Act II.
Tomorrow is a bit of a question mark. I had a whole plan for the day, but now we're getting a snowstorm. I left my evening tutoring gig after the first hour because the backroads (there is no non-backroad route there) were already getting sketchy. I'm not sure if The Son's school will be canceled tomorrow, when the plow will come, if we'll be able to make it down the driveway at all, or what. Being stuck at home all day can go either way, writing-wise: if I'm liberal with the TV privileges and The Son gets embroiled in a Project, I could get a lot of time to work; if he's having a craves-constant-interaction kind of a day, I may have to wait until evening to get the words.
Work is picking up, after a very sluggish school year thus far. My after-school SAT tutoring slots are full, and I just got a call from the tutoring center I worked for during the '10 and '11 school years. I still technically work for them, but the branch office I was working out of is like the neglected stepchild of the organization, and is floundering in the economy. They can't fill their salaried employees, so hourly tutors like me aren't getting referrals. Until today. It's just one student, but every extra $50 a week helps. And it's during The Son's school hours, so I don't need to fuss with finding more childcare.
All this tutoring is going to cut into my writing time until the May SAT, but I'll just do my best to keep up. Fortunately, the boarding school where I do my evening gig is going on spring break this weekend, so I won't be working evenings for the next 3.5 weeks. When I'm away two nights a week, I feel like I really need to (and want to!) spend the other five hanging out with The Husband. But when I'm not working nights, I can take some evening hours to make up my word count without feeling like I'm cutting into important "us time".
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Unicorn vs. Goat
1,006 words for today. I'm not exactly going the extra mile, huh? But I'm making my 1K per day goal, so it's all good.
I really love what I wrote today. Sometimes you think you know what a scene should be, but when you try to put it into words it all comes out wrong and you wind up staring at it, dismayed, like you had meant to breed a unicorn and instead wound up with a goat with a carrot sticking out of its forehead. Other times, you think you know what a scene should be, but when you put it into words it becomes so much richer and more vivid than it was inside your head. Today was one of those times. Akenam has just crashed a village party, and the metaphorical needle has scratched across the record as everyone turns to stare. End of chapter.
Next up: a panic, a beat-down, an invitation, and a scramble for power. In that order.
I really love what I wrote today. Sometimes you think you know what a scene should be, but when you try to put it into words it all comes out wrong and you wind up staring at it, dismayed, like you had meant to breed a unicorn and instead wound up with a goat with a carrot sticking out of its forehead. Other times, you think you know what a scene should be, but when you put it into words it becomes so much richer and more vivid than it was inside your head. Today was one of those times. Akenam has just crashed a village party, and the metaphorical needle has scratched across the record as everyone turns to stare. End of chapter.
Next up: a panic, a beat-down, an invitation, and a scramble for power. In that order.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Checking In
1,003 words today. Akenam's about to re-enter the story! I'm so psyched.
Man, it took me alllllll day to get those thousand. The Son went back to school today, and then my mother-in-law picked him up and had him all afternoon. I had one tutoring student for an hour, but other than that I had the whole damn day to write, and I just finished now, at 9:30. Well, to be fair, it was more like 1,250 words, since I wound up completely axing two paragraphs from the rough draft. And I haven't been feeling well. I had a migraine from Friday-Sunday; the pain faded away by Sunday night, but I felt really crummy while I was at my evening tutoring gig-- nauseated, jittery, achey, and just generally out of it. I couldn't tell whether it was "silent migraine" symptoms, or side effects from all the Excedrin I took all weekend, or whether I was getting a fever, or what. I'm somewhat better today, but not quite myself. To be honest, I feel like I did during early pregnancy. (Before The Parent reads this and gets too excited, let me hasten to add that I have firm cycle-based evidence that this is impossible.) With my luck in all things reproductive, it's probably menopausal morning sickness or something.
ANYway...
I've also been reworking the emotional toolbox profiles for Willa and Akenam. I had a version from the character work I did last summer, but it felt like it was time to revisit it. My characters tend to drift from my original vision of them as I get to know them better. And it's nice to have plot elements to tie them to. In fact, last night I went back and added some conflict to a previous scene because I realized there was NO WAY IN HELL Willa would be cool with what she just found out, and Tom had some 'splaining to to.
Man, it took me alllllll day to get those thousand. The Son went back to school today, and then my mother-in-law picked him up and had him all afternoon. I had one tutoring student for an hour, but other than that I had the whole damn day to write, and I just finished now, at 9:30. Well, to be fair, it was more like 1,250 words, since I wound up completely axing two paragraphs from the rough draft. And I haven't been feeling well. I had a migraine from Friday-Sunday; the pain faded away by Sunday night, but I felt really crummy while I was at my evening tutoring gig-- nauseated, jittery, achey, and just generally out of it. I couldn't tell whether it was "silent migraine" symptoms, or side effects from all the Excedrin I took all weekend, or whether I was getting a fever, or what. I'm somewhat better today, but not quite myself. To be honest, I feel like I did during early pregnancy. (Before The Parent reads this and gets too excited, let me hasten to add that I have firm cycle-based evidence that this is impossible.) With my luck in all things reproductive, it's probably menopausal morning sickness or something.
ANYway...
I've also been reworking the emotional toolbox profiles for Willa and Akenam. I had a version from the character work I did last summer, but it felt like it was time to revisit it. My characters tend to drift from my original vision of them as I get to know them better. And it's nice to have plot elements to tie them to. In fact, last night I went back and added some conflict to a previous scene because I realized there was NO WAY IN HELL Willa would be cool with what she just found out, and Tom had some 'splaining to to.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Take That, Funk!
1,004 words for today! The Husband took The Son bowling with our friend B. and his son, and I just got two hours of blissfully quiet house to write. This section is a big dialogue scene, so I pulled out my old trick of writing the dialogue first, then adding stage directions and introspection. After the last week of pulling myself inch by inch out of the parking lot using only my fingernails, I felt like I was driving down the highway in a convertible with Van Halen blasting on the radio.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
February Funk
About all I can say for myself this week is that I've opened the TOB file and made some progress each day, even if just a few sentences. The Son is an incredibly bright, funny, imaginative kid, but he is also one of the ten most talkative people on the planet and it is so hard to concentrate when I'm with him all day. I tried hauling the laptop to his various lessons and activities, but that's only a half hour at a time, and I can't seem to get out of socializing with the other parents without coming off as a bitch.
I'm feeling frustrated with how slow it's going and disenchanted with the scene I've been writing for what feels like years.
Bah. Whose idea was February vacation, anyway?
Obviously, I need to shake things up.
Fortunately, I just reached the end of the last section I had a rough draft for. There are five more sections remaining in Act I-- probably 6,000 or so words worth of story. I am going to write 1,000 words a day until I reach the end of Act I, then go back and do a second pass through. Maybe writing fast and furious again will help pull me out of this February funk.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Steady On
Made a good start on the next scene. Willa is reading about Alfred the Great, so I had to use some of my writing time to research. Did you know he probably had Crohn's Disease? Just like The Husband! Freaky!
Sunday, February 19, 2012
A Bit o' Progress
Grandparent visit + bringing my laptop to the library = finished the scene. Whew. Feels good to make some progress at last! And good to be sunk back into the story world. I pasted the rough draft of the next scene into the document and fiddled with it a bit, but it's very far off from what it needs to be, and I really need to look at the scene sheet (which I forgot at home) and work out a better outline for it before I proceed. But I'm hopeful that I'll be able to take better advantage of the time I do have this week.
The Son has swim lessons every morning M-Th, and karate class T-Th afternoon; if I bring my laptop and act antisocial with the other parents, that's three hours of writing time. My mother-in-law will take him for an afternoon so I can tutor, but maybe I can squeeze in another hour of writing in between students. I think my friend M. plans to still do our weekly childcare swap even though she doesn't have work, so that's another 2-3 hours. Add in a few hours for afternoon rest times and one evening of not hanging out with The Husband, and that's a respectable 12 hours for the week. I would love, love, love to be done with this second draft of Act I by then, but that may be pie in the sky. I just feel like it's crawling.
I'm trying to remember what a mess my first drafts usually are, and that what I'm producing now is at least as good as my second draft usually is. So the slower pace is because I'm doing the work of two drafts instead of one. But still: I'm antsy to move forward. Exciting things are afoot in Act II!
The Son has swim lessons every morning M-Th, and karate class T-Th afternoon; if I bring my laptop and act antisocial with the other parents, that's three hours of writing time. My mother-in-law will take him for an afternoon so I can tutor, but maybe I can squeeze in another hour of writing in between students. I think my friend M. plans to still do our weekly childcare swap even though she doesn't have work, so that's another 2-3 hours. Add in a few hours for afternoon rest times and one evening of not hanging out with The Husband, and that's a respectable 12 hours for the week. I would love, love, love to be done with this second draft of Act I by then, but that may be pie in the sky. I just feel like it's crawling.
I'm trying to remember what a mess my first drafts usually are, and that what I'm producing now is at least as good as my second draft usually is. So the slower pace is because I'm doing the work of two drafts instead of one. But still: I'm antsy to move forward. Exciting things are afoot in Act II!
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