finish writing my novel

I’ve been doing this cool thing…

I tend to do a few visual/tactile sort of things when I am writing, like color-coding ‘themes’ to see if there is a pattern, or cutting things into scenes and trying to find shape to it all. I don’t tend to write linerally…I just start with an image or a line or and wander around until I have gathered a lot of fragments and scenes.

At some point in this process, I get curious to discover its overall shape…

Large, white walls are good for this…which I had in my old place; unfortunately, the place I live now, an attic, is all slants and angles.

However…Workmen are constructing a dormer, and, wa-lah!, I have a ‘temporary’ 9’by 25’ foot wall to shield me from the workers and the elements.

It’s really helping many of the novel’s elements to fall into place. It’s ‘taking shape.’

Am attaching a photo I took the first night I began the project….there are LOTS more pages and bit and pieces now…

After getting totally knocked off my feet for a few weeks by something draining and entirely unexpected…I am back to writing.

I still kept track of the word count for each day…1 week per post-it….on the wall beside my desk. So, that means I have 5 post-its with BIG red X’s on them, meaning ‘no words this week.’ A VERY visual record of what throws me off my writing routine.

So, I’m back to writing again. Thank. God.

Word count:
Tues 3-11: 458
Wed 3-12: 358
Thur 3-13: 581
Fri 3-14: —
Sat 3-15: I > Fri, Sat, Sun worked on novel ‘structure wall’
Sun 3-16 :—

Sunday: 125
Monday: 460

I spent 7-8 hours this weekend working on the novel. A lot of it was research that I’ve been putting off, reading about an aspect of a character that requires getting the right balance, and it paid off: it got me out of the ‘stuck’ place I’ve been in, and writing again. I was able to get words on the page…only 125 in the actual novel, but eight pages of handwritten notes which got my mind moving in the right direction. It’s the process…I need to keep that in mind, and keep moving it forward.

why can’t i get in there????

look at it…isn’t it a sweet little writing place??

I accomplished the baby step I set this morning: I sat with the novel for an hour today and I wrote 377 new words. It feels really great to have finally gotten in there again.

This is the most important item on the list to me. I completed a collection of stories in ‘02, and have been ‘tinkering’ with the novel since…making notes, making ‘lists,’ developing the characters, trying out ideas. I’ve got 130 pages written, plus a lot of random ‘bits & pieces.’ It’s morphed and shifted so much since I began it. In November, I decided to make a committment to sit down and write a specific number of words a day. First it was 1,000, then I reduced it to 500, because 1,000 was beginning to feel draining—I had nothing left when I went in the next day. I told myself I could drop it to 300 for the December holidays (because I work a lot during the holidays, but I wanted to stay in its world), but…I stopped on December 22. I’ve tried to get back in there, but it’s hard. I’m resisting for some reason. Still, I know that ‘the blank page is my worst enemy.’ The novel won’t get written without my putting words on the page! Even if they aren’t the best and most perfect words. I want to get in there today, sit with it for an hour, and write at leat 300 words.