Teetering on the Brink: Now Updated!
Oh, I am so tempted. The peer pressure is getting to me.
But: no plot whatsoever in mind. Or rather, six or seven, which is worse.
And... and... what about my blog? Writing 1,667 words a day, I'd have no time to blog! I just got started with this thing!
I think I will wait it out this year after all. And do it next year. Next year! Next year in NaNoWriMo Land!
Let me know how it goes, O Brave Ones.
Updated to Add: I'm in. Couldn't withstand Anna's brutal arm-twisting.
Good Lord, what have I done?
But: no plot whatsoever in mind. Or rather, six or seven, which is worse.
And... and... what about my blog? Writing 1,667 words a day, I'd have no time to blog! I just got started with this thing!
Let me know how it goes, O Brave Ones.
Updated to Add: I'm in. Couldn't withstand Anna's brutal arm-twisting.
Good Lord, what have I done?
posted by elswhere | 11:09 PM
6 Comments:
hey let me try this out. I visit you enough, I figure I should register. Looks like I couldn't STOP registering. . .
Okay, so what have you got for goals? Daily you're producing how many pages?
wait -- I can do the math! 250 words per page, you're gonna be writing about 7 pages a day, double spaced courier new.
Pfah. You can do it with one hand tied behind your back -- that is if you don't care about content. Is it appropriate to do a "I Suffered Worse'n You" moment here?
No?
Tough.
I had four weeks to write my second book (the one that's just out) I had to do 25-30 pages a day. Wanna see the scars?
Hey Kate-- Thanks. I was actually going to ask for the benefit of your advice and experience in these matters ;-)
I'll keep saying to myself, "at least it's not 25 pages a day. At least it's not 25 pages a day."
Also: "Don't worry about quality. Don't worry about quality. Volume, volume, volume." As one who can agonize for hours over a simple blog post (not always to good effect, but still, the agonizing remains), that's going to be the hard part.
OK, it's Angela again, mid-way thru writing my dissertation I did the math one day and realized I was writing about the equivalent of a 10-page paper every day--and I did it for months, and passed, and even had time to edit as I went along. Of course I was dropping in 200-word-long quotes every couple of pages. And I was doing it for 6 hours a day. One thing that helped: I made a rule I couldn't leave my computer unless I was
1. getting a drink of water
2. peeing (you can see the logic)
or
3. doing yoga
So I was limber, hydrated and, eventually, graduated. Plus a big chunk of those six daily hours was spent forcibly stopping myself from wondering about whether I would pass my defense--and luckily you can skip that stage. So I think you can do this and do it well. Maybe you'll finish before the deadline! Anyway, it doesn't hurt to be optimistic. I can't wait to see the outcome.
Another bit of advice:
DIALOGUE.
EATS up space and since in the world of publishers, it's 250 words per page no matter what (in other words they do it by page count, not computer word count) dialogue is wonderful. If you do it by computer word count? Oy.
Wow, I'm feeling so supported! Angela, I will add "worrying about passing my dissertation defense" to the list of things I don't have to do, so as to feel like this is a relative breeze.
Kate, it's by word count: supposed to be 50,000 words. So dialogue won't necessarily help me, though silly filler words will. And repetition! Maybe it can be sort of an experimental novel, where I repeat the same scene over and over with minor differences that somehow change the whole meaning! Then I can just cut and paste big chunks, changing little things each time.
That does kind of seem like cheating, though. [See: "kind of"-- perfect filler phrase. Likewise "just." If I had a nickel for every "just" I edited out of these posts, I'd... well, I'd have a lot of nickels.]
And Anna-- can you get your mom to watch TLM while you go, um, check your e-mail to see if an important message has come in? Then sprint to the computer, check e-mail for 30 seconds, and bang out 500 words or so before you have to go back out? Then you can at least keep your momentum up.
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