How did you all do today? Did you meet your goal? No?
I came in at 1,234, bringing my total to 3,704. Not too shabby -- but I have to say, getting that 1,234 done today was hard.
Which brings me to my motivational thought as we head into Day 3. Have you ever noticed that when you sit down to write, everything in the world will crop up to distract you? Today it was my publisher calling me on the phone to tell me that an e-mail I sent him yesterday has shown up in his inbox over 500 times. He blocked my address so it would stop appearing in queue, but he wondered if there was anything I could do about that. I spent some time online with Comcast trying to get it straightened up. Honestly, let's do some cyber-stalking -- how professional is that?
Aside from that, my kids were extra frisky and it was just one of those days.
So what do we do to combat those interruptions? I tell you what we don't do -- we don't give in. We put out the fire and we keep writing. We stop the bloody nose and then we keep writing. We kill the black widow, pay the pizza guy, chase off the door-to-door salesman, and we keep writing. If we let those distractions pull us out of the groove, we'll never get done.
Now, there are some interruptions that we must deal with. I think broken bones fall into that category. But by and large, they're just small things that we can deal with practically one-handed while we keep typing with the other. Click here to read some of my other thoughts on this: Tips for the Writing Mommy
What it all comes down to is your desire. How badly do you want to get this book done? Then make it happen. Click here to read my thoughts on that: Desire
So, back to me now, because I'm so much fun to talk about -- see, this book I'm writing is the third installment in a trilogy. My published novel "Nothing to Regret" is the first, then the second is "Forgive, Not Forget," and it's being evaluated for publication right now. The third is the one I started yesterday, but book 2 and book 3 used to be one volume. I split them in half, really changed a whole lot in the first half, beefed it up (it's really not the same book at all anymore) and now I'm working on that second half that I hacked off. But I ended up spending half an hour today looking for that second half. I know there's a lot in it that really stinks, but I need some of it, too (the non-stinky parts). I'm wishing that I'd gotten myself more organized before I started this, because I could have spent that half hour writing. But -- it's been found, finally, and I'm ready to forge ahead. The point to this long ramble -- take better care of your stuff than I have of mine.
We'll see you in the morning -- keep those updates coming in.
15 comments:
Today was my day one. Oh was it a day I tell you what. {My blog entry from this morning reveals more}
My daily goal of "writing for at least 3 hours" was not going to happen by a long shot today. I did persevere though.
While holding my 17 month old baby-who is sick- I was able to get in 602 words today!
I will second Tristi's comment: "What it all comes down to is your desire. How badly do you want to get this book done? Then make it happen."
For all of us- I hope tomorrow's forcast is pouring with productivity with a slight chance of over-achieving.
Until then...good night.
I meant to report my complete stats with my last blog entry. oops!
Novel in Progress:
emily
emalee
emmileigh
who am i?
Starting Date: 11 September 2007
Daily Goal: To write for 3 hours
Starting: 14,947 words {completed}
Day 1: 602 words - Total: 15,549 words
End Date: 9 October 2007
Hmmm. Well, I spent yesturday getting reaqcuainted with the book. I had 51,000 words but hadn't worked on this for over a year. I found myself really enjoying the book, but at the end I found almost 4,000 words of previously deleted scenes I had simply moved to the end of the book rather than put in a cuts folder. So, I had to cut it. Sigh. I'm now at 47,309--putting me 7,000 words behind where I should be today.
BUT, I will make it up and will be caught up sometime next week.
You know you're not in the zone when everything else is more important than sitting at the computer and just writing. I haven't given in to the urge to play a game of solitaire yet-and I'm determined I'm not going to-but my daughter getting locked out of her car in the school parking lot after the battery died did take a good deal of time today. Of course, my husband is TDY (temporary duty) in Texas this week so my time on the computer today was trying to find out how to unlock an old BMW that didn't have power to the locks. Still, I'm determined to get this book started. I started with a brand new file with the goal of 50 pages by the end of the week. I managed 1900 words yesterday, and I'm onto page 11. Now I just have to get into the ZONE!
It is so good hearing this. I really need to get myself writing and seeing your posts and dealing with what you are helps.
Thanks, Tristi!
You folks are amazing. Keep up the good work. There's always a new book out there somewhere.
Day three totals: 40 minutes and 1447 words for a total of 2,967.
How did I get nearly 1500 words in 40 minutes? Well, more than once I typed ctrl-c and ctrl-v, stealing prose and dialog from an earlier revision.
No point reinventing the wheel, right?
Josi,
Man, I hate cuts. I went in to an old file and copied in a whole bunch of stuff, and now I have to cut a bunch back out. That always plays havoc with the ol' word count.
Traci,
Wow, that was a major writing distraction! I'm glad it all worked out okay.
ajoy,
Sorry to hear about the baby! 17 months is such a cute age.
Don,
Utilizing old drafts is great. Saves a whole lotta extra typing.
Anne, Shanna,
Thanks for cheering us on!
Since you asked...
ctrl-c is "copy" and ctrl-v is "paste".
Thanks, Don! I'm going to have to give that a try. I've been doing the whole interminable click-click-click thing.
Tristi,
You sure are fun! I am stunned and in awe by how much you seem to accomplish! Someday I will join in on one of these contests/challenges. I love to be motivated! You're doing a great work!
852 words today. Woo-hoo!
I actually managed to write despite a potential water leak in the basement ceiling that my painters pointed out as they were getting ready to start after FINALLY showing up after 2 weeks of nagging.
I really wanted to finish a scene I started yesterday. *Confession* Perhaps writing was my way of procrastinating the basement nightmare.
Whatever the reason, I got 1400 words today. Yippee!
At the end of day 3, I'm up to 1,875. That's 1,005 words for the day! Woo-hoo! And this story is taking on a life of its own. It's going in the general direction I thought it would, but there sure are a lot of pitstops along the way.
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