Hullo, hullo! I'm back, for a brief
time.
First of all, how's the writing coming
along, folks? Those of you I challenged to finish a novel before
August 15: tired of writing yet? ;) I'm not, praise God!
All right, do you want the bad news or
the good news? Well, they're connected, so I'll give them to you
both at once.
The good news is, my word count is
5,586, and I plan on writing another 2k tonight. (Here's some more
good news: when I say I'm going to write 2k tonight, I usually do. I
have a 3/3 winning record right now. :D) The bad news is, my word
count is 5,586.
How can it be good and bad, you say?
Well, I'm pleased that the writing is going fairly smoothly; the
words are coming along and I'm definitely interested in the story.
The very best stories practically force you to write them, after all.
The bad thing is, I'm still on chapter one.
Yes.
I'm still on chapter one.
I've
written two of the three scenes I outlined for chapter one, so I have
a good chunk yet to write in that chapter.
Granted,
I have a prologue in this novel. But even with the prologue, my
projected word count should
be less than 4,500 at this point.
The
way things are going, I'm going to end up with chapters longer than
3,000 words. While that's not bad in itself, it means that I'm going
to have to write a LOT of words in a short amount of time...because I
have 23 chapters left to write. I'm hoping that my shorter chapters
will balance out the longer ones.
If
the trend continues, however, my novel may very well end
up past 80,000 words.
That would be great
- if I wasn't trying to write it in one month.
Eurgh.
To
make matters worse, I just learned that, in all probability, I'll be
severely detained past August 5th. Like,
snatch-a-word-or-two-every-couple-minutes kind of detained. The kind
of detained that makes writing extremely hard.
Eurgh.
Well,
I've always liked challenges. Wouldn't it be glorious if God gave me
the inspiration and stamina to write eighty thousand good
words
in a month? (:
So
far, however, I haven't gotten to the
I'm-going-to-drop-dead-and-my-writing-is-junk stage yet. That
usually kicks in after day two or three, but I have no symptoms thus
far. I'm loving the writing. Maybe it's the outline?
What
about you? Are you at the do-or-die stage yet? How's the story
a-coming?
Au
revior - I've got to write another two thousand words yet tonight,
and it's already eight o'clock here! (Looks like another late night
of writing is ahead of me.)
UPDATE-1:
The word count's past 6,000 now and rising. Still on chapter one, but
the scene is nearing a close. I'm hoping to hit 8,000 words tonight.
UPDATE-2:
The word count is 6,450 and chapter one is finished. On to chapter
two!
UPDATE-3
Word count is 8,045 and I've just finished chapter two (which was,
blessedly, a shorter chapter). Remarkably, I'm still not tired of
the story. While I don't want to write more tonight because it's
late, I still have
yet to reach the I'm-writing-junk stage. But anyway, I'm going to
bed. ^_^
[Post-script:
This was written on the night of the 18th, by the way. Some
statistics (such as my current word count) may be outdated.]
9 comments:
That's awesome; good for you! (But you're still crazy)
Currently, I'm still stuck on Chapter One, and what's really bad: I've only written 643 words. It's ridiculous! All of my inspiration threatens to go flying out the window! I used to be able to write 5,000 words in a DAY. Where did that go? Oh well, I guess I can blame it on Summer School. I'm almost done it though...
Who will beat whom, eh?
Wooooo! Good job Jake! And everyone else! Looks like your making great progress thus far! We can do it! I'm glad your outline is working for you. I think that a detailed outline helps with quick writing.
I have mananged to write about 7,000 words since your last blog post and I am happy to say, I got a HUGE chunk of my writing done and out of the way! My characters have been stuck on an island for the past few months (in the story timeline and in real life) and I finally got them off and back home! In one day! Yay!
My hope is to get the first re-write of my novel completely finished by August 15th and start the second re-write. Then hopefully I can go over with my editor (three cheers for Editor-Mom-Lady!) a few times and it will be completely finished by the end of August or early September. Then of course I have to think up a title.... and a cover.... But that will come in time, I'm sure. =)
Can I ask you a question?
You live in Africa with your family. Are you there as missionaries? If so, what sort of missionary work do you do?
I have done a grand total of zero words. How lame am I? Meh. Life, busy life, has gotten in the way once again. But congrats! Wow, when I say I'll write any amount of words, it usually means I won't. Oh well. I think you'll get this! At this pace, it seems, at least. :-D
I hit the "man my writing stinks" two days ago, but managed not to succomb too badly(i.e. I had to hit my head against the table a few times and then go look at inspiration LOTR pictures and read encouraging articles from Christian authors--and it worked!!!) I'm think I'm floating somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 words. I'm pretty happy so far!
Ely Gyrate
Unfortately, I did hit the I'm-going-to-die writing stage. O_o I wrote a grand total of three hundred words yesterday (which I promptly deleted when I got up this morning). I need to reach at least 10,000 words today and hopefully write even more, but this chapter is the worst in my entire outline. xP It's giving me loads of trouble.
Great job, everyone! Keep on writing!
@Abbey
"You live in Africa with your family. Are you there as missionaries? If so, what sort of missionary work do you do?"
Hm, a good question! The short answer is sort-of-yes, we're a family of missionaries, but we're a different kind of missionary. We're doing something called Business As Missions (or BAM). My dad originally worked in the business world, but now he's using his skills to run a business here. Instead of fundraising like a conventional missionary, we use the business to sustain our expenses. The business itself is run by investors in America who want to provide jobs for the desperately poor Liberian population.
But besides this, we're doing "unofficial" ministry that isn't really measurable in the terminology of "mission work". Basically, we're living among the people and trying to shine a light. My mom does a teen Bible study for teens in the neighborhood and my sister helps out the neighborhood kids (of which there are many) with her rudimentary knowledge of medicine to treat things such as cuts, sores, etc. The thing is, we're not sitting here and preaching the Gospel; we're living life with the Liberians in our neighborhood and letting our actions speak for themselves.
@ Jake,
That's very cool! Thanks for answering my question. I really think that the best way to witness to people is to life among them, experience what they do, grow relationships with them, and share hope with them.
I think it's pretty cool what you do. =)
GO YOU!!!!! And don't be afraid about the I'm-going-to-drop-dead-and-my-writing-is-junk stage. I hit it a few times during Camp NaNo and I just kept writing. Remember: You can ALWAYS delete stuff, but you won't get better if you hang around in that evil time and let those thoughts get to you. I found out in June that if I just kept writing and ignored it all, I got a lot more writing done.
I sat down and wrote three thousand words last night in about two hours - maybe less. Wahoo! I think I have another twenty or thirty thousand left, though. *sigh* Oh, well. Going camping next week equals a long drive, plus time by myself, so I'll be doing a lot of writing on the way there and back and some plotting when I don't have my laptop. : D
daughteroflight
When I read that you were still in Chapter 1 at that many words, I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. Sounds like something I would do. =)
I concur with Pathfinder. Still praying for y'all. Onward brave souls!
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