A Little Less Written, but a Little More Cut

Sometimes the idea of writing toward the word count goal must move aside for bigger issues facing the story.

Today was that day. Despite family underfoot and tearing down Christmas crud, I managed to squeak out almost a thousand words. But I also cut over 900 and shifted them to another file. I put in a lot of time writing, but I didn't make my lofty goal of 2000 words.

Technically, if I want to be kind to myself, I did work with almost 2000 words, but not in the way I wanted to: moving forward and adding words. Nope. Not today. But the truth is, I can't move forward in a clean manner unless I rip out useless roadblocks to my creativity. 

This is where the flexibility of my overall writing goals comes into play. If I had beat my head up against the goal and forced the words, chances are I'd be cutting them at some point in the future. Rather than waste valuable time writing crud, I chose to fine tune a scene, layer in elements regarding scene and settings and build my Villain's persona in a vignette. He's emerging for me and I must pay heed to him.

Now I've never written a true villain before with his own viewpoint. It's interesting to crawl inside his head and try to give him a three dimensional, conflicted personality. He isn't all bad. He's very flawed and needs help, but he's motivated by a need to be seen as good and valuable. Who isn't? I have no idea if I'm getting it right, but I'm trying.

That's all this writer can do...

No time to read today. Brain is dead. Stay tuned... I believe Maass's book is giving me a lot to chomp on and it's nourishing my writing efforts. 

BIAW-Day 5

I reached the mid-week hurdle and the worst part was my poor, sore derriere.I had to take my laptop into the living room and sit on the love seat tomake headway. Man, does my tush hurt! Wii balance at mid point today helped(hello? I am the champion of snow boarding now!)I forged ahead and made it through a few sex scenes (usually I write: insert sex scene here and fill in later but hand wave in front of face, why not layer now??), and then I was just so flippin' tired.

But that niggling issue re: my hero's role in the book bugged me to death.So I hopped into the shower, washed my hair with lavender mint shampoo, and voila, the solution arrived. I went to my chair and churned out another2-3000 random words-noted the change for revisions, and voila, I added a total of 6,633 words!

Now, I still think someone should invent waterproof index cards and pens.seriously.

Some of it is not lovely, but it is making me smile. I have a lot of wordsto fix!! And I like that!!

BIAW--Day 4

Today's totals:

*8023 words
*on scene 29
*know I must write in their heads first
*comments section very handy
*very very tired
*final total count over 40,000 words

The beat goes on... and to top it all off, I promised my kid that if I sold three books before her jr. year in HS, I'd send her to England for a leadership program... VERY LONG ODDS!

Book in a Week-Day Two

I got up this morning and my head was filled with bits and pieces for various parts of the story. I scribbled them down on post-its, brewed coffee, and poured water, and came into my office. I layered those bits in first, so I wouldn’t lose them, into the scenes where I felt they belonged. Then I went back to the scene I’d planned to start on and started working. I wrote pretty much all day, with a break for Wii twice (must move), and lunch. I poured a glass of vino about an hour ago and plunked onward. I had a few family interruptions (honey where are the donations receipts….for taxes? And by the way I had already given them to him, so he lost them—and what kind of ink do you need??). I managed to help hubby with clarifying that I didn’t have tax receipts, got darling daughter to unload dishwasher, held up hand in silencio when they came near my French office doors and tried to get my attention, and kept plodding on. I fizzled out about now.

So grand totals:
9,067 words
7 scenes since yesterday, one added scene
Have names for hero/heroine (first) and his partner
Have descriptions of her friends on index cards
Have notes for tomorrow
Learned washing hair is really really good for inspiration. I figured out a lot about how she’ll know him. And I am excited about that revelation.
Learned my inner critic turns on in the afternoons and needs LOTS of beatings and time outs—but she can be silenced
Learned that inner motivation and what drives my characters internally needs to be written out and it is my way of discovering who they are—lots of sequel type, introspection, writing and am in their heads a lot—so what if the world wants all the action? I can layer that in later.

Saved it all to memory stick as well as to hard drive.

Day One BIAW

Woke up, had water, coffee and did body test on Wii (yay, the scale is going down!!). Wrote for an hour, went upstairs and did two balance games on Wii. Wrote for another hour. One interuption: flowers for Valentine's Day.

Total writing time: 2.5 hrs.
Total word count: 3,000
Total scenes written: 2

Are they great? No. Are they usuable? Yes.

And I decided my hero is a private investigator. And there is a workshop about that coming up in my local romance chapter, so I can learn about that after the first draft is written.

Now, off to get the day rolling!

Inauguration

My daughter's student group arrived in DC after 24 hours in a bus trip from hell. They missed a lot of fun stuff, but ended up going to a great Italian restaurant, and then to the WW2 Memorial. Yesterday they were able to tour the city and see more memorials, and they got to visit their congressman's office. I had emailed the office about their plight on Sunday and they responded yesterday. The staffer followed up with calling the group and the chaperones. They were invited to see the congressman's office and get pictures made with him. I was pleased for them and very impressed with the man for following up. I told my husband I'd vote for him again because he did this one thing right for me. I know it will have an impact on the students' memories and my daughter called to say thanks as well.

I managed to write about one hour on Sunday, and three hours on Monday, MLK Bday. Also my actual birthday so lots of well-wishers calling. Then my DH took me out for a grown up treat: movies with wine and appies in the adult section of the theater. Very nice atmosphere. And the movie had Clint Eastwood in it--amazing actor and story.

Today I am writing the black moment--not feeling very good about the prior scene, but at this point, I am rewriting the entire thing, so I just need to get the story down--again-- for the zillionth time. I am so sick of this book. I can't wait to see the last page on my computer. I've cut 20,000 words!!!!!!!!! Argh -- I move forward, cut, move forward, cut again. I have approximately 53,000 words. The length of the BLAZE catergory is about 60,000. I easily have that many words with the cut ones LOLM, but I have to write new words. I WANT THIS BOOK OUT OF MY HAIR.

I gave myself a deadline: Friday the 23rd. I will finish it by then--late or early--and then weekend OFF. And then I start a new challenge--Book In A Week. I am looking forward to writing something completely NEW. I feel ready to start a new story, a new idea, anything but this swill I am serving up.

Now, off to read other blogs, pop back into bed and read for a bit, and then sleep again--I HOPE.