Clarion Write-a-thon Weeks 3 & 4
I forgot to do my summary post last week, probably because I was so busy writing! I wrote over 7000 words, which was like a sun coming out from behind a cloud. I am so in love with my novel right now, and the trick is to write as fast as I possibly can while I'm in this mode – lay down the words while I'm feeling the love!
This week I made it over 6000 words. Even then, knowing how well I had done the last fortnight, when it came to forming the above word meter (removing the 20K I started with before the Write-a-thon began) I stared at the maths blankly, not quite able to accept that I was nearly a week ahead of my goal.
Because, hell yes, that's the key to this kind of challenge. Define your terms, and make the goals achievable. I find that it's important to give myself a minimum daily word count, and not to allow any extra words to count the next day. In other words, just because I've actually written 1250 words a day for the first 4 days, doesn't mean I get the fifth day off. The only exception I have made for this is when I absolutely know my Sunday (the first day of my working week under this system) is going to be packed, in which case I have written a 'fake Sunday' worth of words the Saturday before. I have to do that this weekend, too.
The benefit of not allowing those extra little words to count towards future word count – by saying my goal is 1000 x 5 a week x 6 weeks as well as 30,000 words – is that those little scrappy extra bits add up, and before you know it, I'm ahead of the game. In 4 short weeks, I am 5/6 of the way to my goal for this Write-a-thon, but that doesn't mean I'm taking a holiday once I hit 30K next week, as I am now certain I will.
So yes, I'm feeling rather pleased with myself right now. I'm liking this current schedule of 1000 words 5 days a week, Sun-Thurs, so much that I am planning to continue it even after the Write-a-thon is done. I've also given myself a deadline of finishing the first draft of the novel before Torchwood: Miracle Day ends, which is nine episodes (eight weeks) from now. Discipline, how I have missed you!
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If you would like to encourage me over the next six weeks as I retrain myself as a writer and write 30K of my new novel, you can sponsor me at the Clarion Write-a-Thon. No amount too small, all funds raised go towards supporting the Clarion writer's workshop. I also accept encouraging comments, attagirls and anecdotes about your own times of writerfail and writerwin.
