Writing Endeavor: 7 weeks in
So it has been about 7 weeks since the start of this little project. That is, my efforts to write for “one hour every day.” Here is a report on general progress so far.
Over all, I have been doing about 4-6 days a week. During the work week I haven’t missed more than one or two days: this is the easiest and best time. Weekends, though, aren’t so good. I have missed several weekends due to vacation travel, during which it would have been almost “too much” to make time for writing. As it stands, I have no problem with this. Tuesdays are also a bit tougher, because I telecommute. There is less room for natural “rhythm” and ritual when I don’t go to work.
In the 7 weeks, I have been writing into a single MS word document (called “Master Chapter Progress.doc”) where I’ve been writing a chapter at a time. I’ve been doing all Act I so far. All the chapters are mapped out (17-18 in totaly) I was doing chapters from here and there at the beginning, but soon got on a roll: I knocked out the second half of the Act consecutively (all but the very end), and then started back at the beginning to catch up in the middle. As of this entry, I have only one more chapter to finish before I can proceed to write the very last chapter of the Act (which may in fact be 2 or 3 chapters when told and done).
So 4-5 days a week, let’s say. No weekends. How do I feel about this?
Very good. For the most part, I have been doing more than the “one hour a day” goal. For the course of two solid weeks, I was writing for average of 90 minutes a day. This feels good, as it is clearly not something that I give the “bare minimum” (of effort) to. Hell no. That is the LAST thing this is about. This is the total opposite, in fact. If anything, I should be expected to over-shoot the goal, right?
The important part is that I would say I’m overall victorious so far. The battle is less over than ever, however. There is still so far to go and so much to learn. May I never stop being nimble on my feet.
Some additional thoughts:
“Fleshing Out the Body” — that is the general strategy of this “stage” of my writing. I’m actually writing the story itself… the actual words that consist of the eventual “novel.” Up until now, 90% of what I have wrote has been notes about the story itself, but not the actual story. This is all well and good and great and necessary — to an extent — but in the past year I’ve realized that I need to evolve. Writing notes about the story wasn’t cutting it anymore… I had too many notes, not enough organization. It is like a continent finally full of hunter-gatherer tribes. They can exist, but it is increasingly jambled and inefficient. In a sense, it almost seems totally expected for a higher form of organization to evolve.
The Rawness of the First Draft — since most all of this is a first draft, it is therefore the very first times I am writing most of this story in narrative form. As a result, I’m finding some of the ideas I wrote notes about as difficult to convey in narrative form (and properly represent the images in my head). But I write on anyway — as it is okay that this is not a masterpiece right now… it is not meant to be a masterpiece finished, polished, and refined novel. What it is meant to be is a rough draft — a masterpiece rough draft, at that — which is meant to include mere narrative for the whole story, from beginning to end. It doesn’t matter if it isn’t perfect, it just as to be. You can move from there.
Animating a Constructed Corpse — so if my efforts right now to “flesh out the body” in the very raw form I discussed above, I will one day be left with a complete body — though it will be unrefined and unpolished (ie, rough!)… or in otherwords, it will be lifeless. So we must bring it to life, just like “animating” a dead corpse (like Frankenstein). So bringing it back to life is what I’ll do after the “flesh it out” process. And I must never forget, when things are going slow or boring, is to simply piece it together — and don’t worry if its sloppy! This should never be boring or slow. Go fast, fast, fast — get the content together, and worry about bringing it to life later.
One Act at a Time — I’m working entirely on Act I right now. When I think about the following three Acts, I feel entirely overwhelmed, as it seems so much material that may not be as flushed-out to me as Act I is. So I’m worrying about one Act at a time. When I move on to Act II, as I plan to, I may well have a different strategy. I may not write entirely linearly. I may use a wiki to organize further thoughts and notes I have (in fact I plan to do this).
Weekend Rest — I’m looking at the weekend days as perhaps necessary days for rest/recovery. Thoughts of the sabbath come to mind, as do thoughts of acknowledging and harnessing the natural rhythm of things. Saturday AMs I think I should be able to muster, for the most part, so I’ll look into those. I don’t want to get in the habit of settling on 5 days only. But Sundays for rest — this seems like it could be very beneficial. I must not forget to write vigorously the other 6 days though, which is sort of the flipside (for better or worse) of recognizing the rhythm in things. If you take a rest or break, you must not apply your “rest” qualities to the rest of the week.
In the end, my general list of goals is 1) flesh out the whole beast and 2) bring the beast to life. There will be elements of #2 in the process of #1 (which makes it great), but as a whole I must not turn away from my goal to finish #1 sooner than later.
So there we are. I will be up to the last section of Act I by today’s end, and then I should give myself the rest of the week to finish Act I. Three days… can I do it? I see no reason why not, if I apply myself. And that is what it is all about.
GOALS :
Week of 8/19-8/25– finish Act I.
Week of 8/26-9/1 — notes and pre-writing before I start Act II. Chapter layout exercises, name creation exercises, exploration of Google Docs & wikis, etc.
Week of 9/2-9/8 — begin “Act II” (or whatever it is you’ll call it at the time).
