When I started this month, I was just finishing up a Christmas story called "Klaus Kringle" I'd been working on for an upcoming collection of Christmas stories. At that point, I should have moved on to writing on my next novel, The Gauntlet. I couldn't, however, because I hadn't taken the time to get my preproduction outlining taken care of. I needed something else to work on.
Worst yet, I finished "Klaus Kringle" at 941 words for the day. I hadn't hit 1,000 words quite yet. I needed another 59 to meet my goal. I happened to be talking to Rish Outfield on the phone at the time, and he took the initiative to give me a story prompt. It went something like this: You come home from work, and hear the computer dinging, because your daughter has left her discord running. You click the program to see what is going on, and wish you hadn't...
I thought I could run with that. If nothing else, I could write an opening paragraph that I throw away the next day and never use. An opening paragraph was all I got that night. Enough to push me over the line to 1,126 words. The next day, in the shower, I started thinking about the fact that I needed to write some more, and I figured I better come up with something that the guy might see on his daughter's computer screen when he looked. I worked on it while I washed my hair and scrubbed my rugged well-muscled physique, and before I knew it, I had the story.
It only took two days to pound that one out. That one is called "Party Girl," and it runs 2,989 words. Now I found myself in the same situation as the other day, not ready for The Gauntlet, and no idea where to go next. That is what led to my big screw up, that I detailed in a previous post.
Worst yet, I finished "Klaus Kringle" at 941 words for the day. I hadn't hit 1,000 words quite yet. I needed another 59 to meet my goal. I happened to be talking to Rish Outfield on the phone at the time, and he took the initiative to give me a story prompt. It went something like this: You come home from work, and hear the computer dinging, because your daughter has left her discord running. You click the program to see what is going on, and wish you hadn't...
I thought I could run with that. If nothing else, I could write an opening paragraph that I throw away the next day and never use. An opening paragraph was all I got that night. Enough to push me over the line to 1,126 words. The next day, in the shower, I started thinking about the fact that I needed to write some more, and I figured I better come up with something that the guy might see on his daughter's computer screen when he looked. I worked on it while I washed my hair and scrubbed my rugged well-muscled physique, and before I knew it, I had the story.
It only took two days to pound that one out. That one is called "Party Girl," and it runs 2,989 words. Now I found myself in the same situation as the other day, not ready for The Gauntlet, and no idea where to go next. That is what led to my big screw up, that I detailed in a previous post.
Yeah, for the first time since January 19th, I failed to write a thousand words in a day. I did write, but it was only 132 words. At this point, I feel like I can fart out 132 words. Writing only 132 words feels like a major failure.
Rish suggested that I write double the next day to make up for it. I didn't think that was possible, but I could push myself harder for a couple of days in a row and make up for it. If I was going to beat March's total of 34,702 words in April, then I was going to have to make up for that screw up. I managed to get 1,682 the next day, which is about 500 more than usual. Two days later I made it to 1,558, another day of nearly 500 more than usual. Another day I got 1,798. it was becoming a habit. I was pretty sure I'd made up for the bad day, and with all the other above par performances, I was looking pretty good.
To beat March, I have to get 1,157 words per day. So far in April my average is 1,303. So, I could probably even slack off a little bit and still get by, and it might be smart if I do, because in May I'll have to beat April, and that will be really hard if I overdo it in April. Then again, wouldn't that be contrary to the point?
The new story I've been writing has been ballooning. As I said in that previous post, the story is another Christmas story that I pulled from a list of prompts. It's about an enchanted ornament. I'm calling this one "Crossing the Globe."
At first it was just a nasty little tale about some people with no moral center solving a problem in a despicable way, but when I told Rish about that, it made me think that I ought to try writing a sequel to the story where good people got the ornament, and dealt with it completely differently. Well, now I have collapsed the two stories into one story with two distinct parts, and I'm writing on that. I'm through the part about the despicable folks, and into the part about the others. Today, I'm at 11,582, and it's got a while to go.
It may end up as a novella, which is a story between 17,500 and 40,000 words. So far, I've only ever written one novella before. Seems like it would be good to have a novella to anchor a collection of short stories, though. So, it'll be cool. I'm enjoying writing the story, and that's what matters most to me.
So, as of today, April 14th, I am at 18,253 words. Here's my chart with the embarrassing blip on the sixth:
For the whole year, I'm almost to 150,000 words. I should hit that by the end of this week. Right now I sit at 145,635 words. Here's my year-to-date chart for you to peruse:
So, things are going good in April despite my one day memory slip. Maybe the memory slip actually helped, because I've upped my production some. This is looking to be the best month so far, and I can't complain about that.
I'll talk to y'all again when the month is up.
Rish suggested that I write double the next day to make up for it. I didn't think that was possible, but I could push myself harder for a couple of days in a row and make up for it. If I was going to beat March's total of 34,702 words in April, then I was going to have to make up for that screw up. I managed to get 1,682 the next day, which is about 500 more than usual. Two days later I made it to 1,558, another day of nearly 500 more than usual. Another day I got 1,798. it was becoming a habit. I was pretty sure I'd made up for the bad day, and with all the other above par performances, I was looking pretty good.
To beat March, I have to get 1,157 words per day. So far in April my average is 1,303. So, I could probably even slack off a little bit and still get by, and it might be smart if I do, because in May I'll have to beat April, and that will be really hard if I overdo it in April. Then again, wouldn't that be contrary to the point?
The new story I've been writing has been ballooning. As I said in that previous post, the story is another Christmas story that I pulled from a list of prompts. It's about an enchanted ornament. I'm calling this one "Crossing the Globe."
At first it was just a nasty little tale about some people with no moral center solving a problem in a despicable way, but when I told Rish about that, it made me think that I ought to try writing a sequel to the story where good people got the ornament, and dealt with it completely differently. Well, now I have collapsed the two stories into one story with two distinct parts, and I'm writing on that. I'm through the part about the despicable folks, and into the part about the others. Today, I'm at 11,582, and it's got a while to go.
It may end up as a novella, which is a story between 17,500 and 40,000 words. So far, I've only ever written one novella before. Seems like it would be good to have a novella to anchor a collection of short stories, though. So, it'll be cool. I'm enjoying writing the story, and that's what matters most to me.
So, as of today, April 14th, I am at 18,253 words. Here's my chart with the embarrassing blip on the sixth:
For the whole year, I'm almost to 150,000 words. I should hit that by the end of this week. Right now I sit at 145,635 words. Here's my year-to-date chart for you to peruse:
So, things are going good in April despite my one day memory slip. Maybe the memory slip actually helped, because I've upped my production some. This is looking to be the best month so far, and I can't complain about that.
I'll talk to y'all again when the month is up.
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