fast drafting

At the end of week one of this new story project, I have 15,103 words written. I will add another 3000 words today. So far so good. Next week will be the test - week two is when the "ooh, shiny!" of working on a new story wears off all of sudden, and I'm left with slogging through. Having experienced a similar phenomenon with cello practice, I'm not too worried about it. Yet.

I've managed the increased word count this week by adding a second writing session. I normally get out about 1500 words in the morning, first thing. I considered attempting all 3000 words in the morning, but that would mean getting up even earlier, and with winter coming on, my hibernation instinct is already in full swing, so an earlier rising ain't happenin'. Instead, I do the other 1500 words in an evening writing session after my cello practice. It's worked well so far, seeing as cello puts me into a structural-considering mood, which I can then carry over into writing a scene. It's all working in layers and bits at a time, I tell you. Cello, writing, knitting, life. 's only way I get anything done.

I do have to push myself to do that second writing session though. I'm much less energetic in the evening and not feeling as creative after a day at work, so it takes longer to do that second set of 1500 words. Still, that was the idea of this experiment - to make it more of a challenge. And it is.

I've also had intermittent, right-side neck and shoulder pain this week. That's made not only typing a challenge, but cello practice as well. I've been doing short bursts of typing and practice so as not to further strain the muscle but still be able to get something done in each endeavor.

My outline for this novel is more detailed than usual. With about 60-ish scenes to write, I can write two a day, one in each 1500-word session, and that will get me to 90,000 words and hopefully all scenes written by November 30.

If this higher daily word count approach works, I may adopt it for future projects, whether I'm participating in NaNoWriMo or not. I like being able to get a complete first draft done so quickly. I find that the longer it takes me to do the first draft, the less steam I have for revision and publishing, which ends up causing a backlog of manuscripts that have been drafted, but not polished.

Speaking of which, I've gotten a few questions about The King Tree, which I had intended to publish at the end of the summer. The manuscript is done and formatted. It's the cover that's holding things up. I lucked out big with Tempus House. I found an image I liked, after much searching, and was able to get copyright permission in only a few days. I naively assumed the same would happen with King Tree. But alas, no. Once I had the cover concept perfected, I stupidly set my heart on it. Without copyright permission for the main image, however, I can't publish it. I'm trying to avoid a complete re-do of the cover, but that may be my only option. In a way, I'm not surprised. I had to change the title for Tempus House from the one I'd wanted, so to have to change the cover for King Tree appears to be establishing a tradition. That I don't like. At all.

I've been considering writing goals for next year, and I've decided they will actually be revision and publishing goals instead. That backlog I mentioned? That's what I'm going to tackle next year. It's like having too big a yarn stash languishing in a closet. Makes me twitchy not to have it serving a more useful purpose.