As promised, I'm checking in with an update on the writing challenge/space opera.
First up, the writing challenge.
As of Friday morning, I've written 9825 words total, give or take a small rounding error. That's just shy of 4000 words in the last week. For everyone doing the math, that's a little under 600 words a day. That number is unbelievably deceptive this week. I got hammered with migraines for several days this week. Thank you, constantly shifting barometric pressure and miserable heat wave. In fact, I only wrote fiction three days in the entire last week because I had to do my day job during most of the hours I could stand to look at a screen. On those three days I wrote fiction, it worked out to around 1000 words, 1000 words, and 2000 words. I didn't really set out to make up for missed days, it just worked out that way this time. The upside is that I'm still around 3000 words ahead of where I would be if I was only averaging 500 words per day.
Now, on to Rinn's Run or Eric's take on the space opera. At present, here's where that stands.
Total word count: 18,100
Complete chapters: 13
Percentage complete: Approximately 18%, based on a completely hypothetical 100,000 words for a complete draft.
I'd love to say that I used some cool trick to achieve those higher word counts on the days I did write, but there was no magic or trickery involved. I just wrote, and this week I got higher word counts. Being a little farther into the novel helps. I understand it's shape and where things need to go a little better. I also know the characters a little better, which makes writing dialogue easier. Basically, I'm better practiced at writing this particular novel.
If you're taking on a writing challenge like this privately, don't despair if circumstances mess with your schedule. It happens. You cat gets sick. You electricity goes out. You get migraines for three or four days running. Life doesn't always cooperate. Get right back on the horse keyboard as soon as you can. You only need a handful of higher word count days over the course of a month to make up any difference.
1 comments:
Thanks for the encouragement. My week included some days where I was short enough on sleep that I dozed off when I sat in front of my computer for any length of time. I tend to think catching up is harder than it really is, which makes it harder to get started at it.
Post a Comment