Becoming the writer I want to be

1564 words today, finishing the chapter.

 

Wrote about 700 words on the article. I intend to begin revising an old poem called "Van Gogh (Lust for Life)" this weekend and will finally get back to my novel next week. Everything's been crazy this week but I feel determined and ready to sit my butt down and get these three things done this month.

 

5813 words this week, up to 263 pages.

 

Sky cracks asunder.
Heaven's light streams down for us.
God is good indeed.

 

1537 words today. I think I can get this chapter done by midweek, but I'm not going to rush it completion.

 

Well, I didn't get to work on the novel today ( :/ ) but I got two haikus written and since Monday's are usually my catch up day, that's usually when the least amount of writing occurs. Plus, I'll be working on the article as well. So maybe I'll work a bit on that today so that I can be prepared to do novel writing tomorrow. Idk yet but I'm just eating. How's the poetry coming along for everyone?

I love this!! Are you a religious man or no? Either way, this is beautiful and such a vivid setting. How many haikus are you up to now?

 

I am not religious in any meaningful capacity, but I sometimes get inspired to write religion inspired stuff regardless.

 

926 words today. Chapter, as short as it is, is nearly done.

 

Ah okay. There's nothing wrong with that then! Sometimes, it is nice to write something different from a viewpoint you don't often hold.

 

Well, I finally got rid of all of the old material that I wasn't going to use or didn't like from the first draft of the chapter. I now have a clear count of where my work's at and it's currently at 2,830 words. I can now begin the work of completing it and I intend to spend this week working on it as much as I can.

 

At 11:20pm I got back into it again with a plan. Im note carding and mapping each chapter to watch the pacing.

I edited and note carded the first 12,000 words. I then ran Grammerly on the 1st 6,000 words again.

It felt great! I'm done with the first 10,000 words. I've never gotten something final draft ready.

Tommorow I'll finish the grammer edit on this first section tommorow. I'll ask my wife if she thinks I should cut 2 paragraphs, then the entire "book into" will be done.

I normally sleep more than 7 hours a night. I need to wake up in 3 but it feels amazing.

(Also, beta reader dude was wrong. It's going to be good. This is going to be my best shot when it's done.)

 

2057 words today, ostensibly finishing the chapter, but honestly I am not happy with what I wrote today. I cant really explain why, it just doesnt feel up to my personal standards. I've had this kind of gut instinct kick in before, so I'll do what I always do; take a full day where I dont look at the work, then read through it see what I think of it. Chances are, its probably not actually bad, and just needs minor edits to bring it in line with everything else.

 

I'm up to 3,005 words on the chapter. I'm happy that I've gotten some writing in this morning and finally am getting myself back on track. I'll probably write some more for a while.

 

Oh, I've felt this way before and if I'm usually not happy with what I've written, I'll completely delete it or toss it and begin again. Sometimes what we write isn't on par with what we'd like to see, but we've got to have a few bad eggs every now and then to show us that there's always something we can improve on. Maybe taking a day off and just read or relax might help. If you still don't like it after the edits, you can go back and rewrite everything until it falls in place.

 

My problem is a specific section where I explain how a piece of technology works. I wont go into detail but the way it functions could almost be perceived as me inserting a fetish into the story. Now, dont get me wrong, this WASNT deliberate, but I cant not see it now the realisation of it has dawned on me, and I feel like it could spoil an otherwise innocently cool moment for others who notice it too.

Problem is, I also dont want to just ignore this technologies basis in some sort of reality, as people will then think "this shit doesnt make any sense." I need to think of a way to handwave a certain aspect of it without undermining the moment.

 

I went back to it because I knew it would bother me if I didn't. I reworded it to imply certain details as opposed to outright state them, and it doesnt seem anywhere near as egregious as a result.

 

It takes me 4 drafts to feel like it's not a steaming pile of crap. I can't get the emotion of the scenes without clearing out the junk. It takes me 8-20 rounds of edits to be happy lol.

I add too many extra words and I don't describe things well in the first pass but I generally like the story I lay down. I don't get writer's block and I can crank out 1000 new words per hour, so my average productivity isn't bad. If I was full time I could write a novel in 10 weeks. Making time to write is my issue.

They said I was dyslexic in highschool, so I think that adds a few extra rounds of edits.

 

Everyone's process is different. I tend to alternate between a similar output to yourself to spending an hour deliberating over a handful of sentences. It generally depends on how energised I feel and what part I am specifically writing. I think a good rule of thumb however is to try and get to a nice middle ground where you can churn out words fairly quickly and efficiently, but also have those words not be all crap you just need to completely change. What you are doing, focusing on the technical aspects of the plot first is probably the best way to go. Its way easier to insert better character moments, descriptions, and dialogue during editing than it is to alter a key plot point.