August 10, 2003
Weekly progress report
I think it's easier to keep up with all the statistical stuff on a weekly basis, so I'm going to try that for a while--if only to spare you the daily "1,000 words today, blah blah blah". If you want that, you know where to go.
Weekly word count: 5803
Last week: 10,031
Highest day: 1765 (today)
That should tell you what sort of a week I had. I tried to push myself to get this week's count up to 6,000, but ultimately I couldn't do it. Well okay. I could have, but I would've had to start the next scene, and I want to tackle that one when my brain is freshly scrubbed and caffeinated, not dealing with the after-effects of too much Sunday dinner.
The plot is progressing nicely, with little subplots springing up like crazy weeds all over the place. A new one popped up just today, resulting in the bizarre LJ post I made earlier. One of the drawbacks to being a monomaniacal (or is that meglomaniacal? I should ask
I'm definitely going to have to go back and rework some of the earlier chapters, because I'm starting to get a clearer sense of the world I'm working with here, and some things I threw in at the beginning just don't quite jibe. I can't decide whether to try the reworking now (as I've done when Major Contradictions show up at my door), or just wait and fix it on the rewrite. As I'm trying to build up the momentum I had two weeks ago again, I'm thinking the latter.
Feeling ready to jump in and tackle things anew tomorrow morning. Whee!
Lazy Sunday
Well, lazy weekend, really. I took yesterday completely off, but managed about 1700 words today. I figured out that I'm about three days behind my "1500 words a day" projection. Considering the horrific week I had last week, that's really not so bad. I'm just dealing with a little touch of frustration, because I feel like I could be pushing myself harder than I am. I mean, on the one hand, that's silly. I'm getting myself into a regular writing schedule, and I'm doing it almost every day, for at least three hours a day. I guess I feel like I could be doing MORE with that three hours, or that I have more than three hours to spare, given my uniquely open schedule at the moment.
Before you all comment and smack me upside the head: I know. I know I'm probably expecting too much of myself. There're just days when five pages a day doesn't seem like a lot of output. On days like that, I end up taking too far of a step back and look at the wall I'm building, then look at the brick in my hand and get discouraged. Labor Day is looming. I really want the first draft finished by then. I have to start accepting that it may not happen, that September 30th may be a much more realistic goal, if only because this is going to run longer than the 60,000-70,000 words I'd originally envisioned. And in the long run, it's better to take longer to turn out a good quality first draft than to spend the extra time ripping my hair out over a crappy first draft.
If only I could continually remain convinced of that fact...
