tblakebraddy

God, I’d almost forgotten about 43 things! I’m still working on the novel, and it’s going well. I hit my first real bit of actual, true writer’s block last week, and it bled over into this week some, but I’ve managed to beat it back down into its dark place. The novel is well over 90,000 words now – it’s closing in on 100,000 – but the good news is that I’ll be done soon. I’ll just have to edit the beast down to about 80,000 words (which is the goal for length). It’ll need a good spit and polish, but this book has turned out a hundred times better than I could have imagined.

I finally hit 80,000 words…unfortunately, the first draft still isn’t done. I underestimated how long the denouement and other third act elements would take to flesh out, but it’s all right. I’m optimistic. It might be another ten to twenty thousand words, but that only means I’ll have plenty to cut out for the second draft, which I plan on being a slender 75,000 words.

I’m still chuggin’ along on the book, nearing 70,000 words as we speak. The first draft with be at least 10,000 words longer than I had first anticipated, putting it up to at least 90,000 words, but I plan to cut a lot with the second draft. The first act drags quite a bit, so I’ll have to go in with the pruning shears and get rid of some of that flowery language that slows it down!

I finally hit the 60K-word mark this week. I got derailed over the last month with graduate school (excuses, I know).

It is going to take a week or two for me to get back into sitting at the desk and writing for hours on end, because the ‘get up and do’ bug has hit me pretty hard.

The story itself is still coming along well, though I know the revisions for draft two will be extensive, and I do NOT look forward to that!

I’m still on par to hit my monthly word goals, but this week I’m focusing on editing an earlier piece I wrote. It’s shorter than a novel – 40,000 words – and I only have about 11,000 words left to edit. Once I’m done with that, I’ll get back on top of writing ‘Boogie House’. It’s coming along nicely, but it’s about to ender the all-important third act, and I want to make sure I write it well, so I’m trying not to rush through it, as I have done in the past.

I’m going to try to begin working on learning Russian before July – when I am taking only one class instead of two – but sadly, it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. Argh!

I’m 56,000 words into the first draft of this novel. I’ve only been doing about 10K words/month, but that’s because I’ve been going to school and working on other writing projects.

It just hit me last night – as I lay in bed – that I’m 56K words in, so I think the first draft may be a bit longer than 80K, which was my original goal. I don’t want to clip the third act at all, but I also need to start moving in that direction. I’m crossing my fingers that this doesn’t end up @ ‘The Stand’ Length! J/K.

I haven’t updated in a while, but that’s only because I’ve forgotten to! ‘Boogie House’ is going well. I’m about three-quarters done with the first draft. I haven’t quite hit that 60,000 word mark, but I’m getting there. I’ve already begun thinking of a few changes I want to make for the next draft, and I’ve made notes about them in the document.

I had to quit my job last Thursday, b/c this summer I’m going to grad school full-time, so I am taking out a TON in loans. I will be in debt for a very long time, but this was unavoidable. What I can look forward to is making the loans last a very long time.

I’ve had an ingenious idea for how to deal with loans. I use ING Direct, and I have both a checking and a savings acct with them, so what I’ve done is put all of the money in the savings acct and then pull out a monthly amount which approximated how much I need for the month. I’m going to make it work!

My goal is to learn how to play drums, obviously. My fiancee has forbidden me from getting a set of drums until we get a house, into which I can build an utterly soundproof room to play the drums all I want!

I have not given up on finishing this novel, but it has hit a snag. I have basically taken two weeks off completely to finish up course work for grad school. I had to write a couple of papers and write a presentation, so the novel took a momentary backseat. I’m ready to get back into writing, but it’s going to take some time, I think, to develop a rhythm. I hope the novel hasn’t gotten stale for me.

Last week was not a good period for the novel. I wrote some stuff on Monday and Tuesday that I wasn’t crazy about – plot points that might be considered cliche – so I let the novel cool for the rest of the week. I spent the majority of my writing life re-working past stories, novels, etc.

I’m re-energized, though, and happy to dust myself off and work on the book again. I’ve already added a couple thousand words to the book and look forward to seeing how it turns out! That is to say, I have strayed from the outline a little, and I do like the direction the book is taking. Instead of controlling it, I feel ‘Boogie House’ is taking on a life of its own.

I finally hit the 40,000 words mark today. So, hopefully, the manuscript is halfway done. That means I’ve only got, like, three-and-a-half more months dealing with this beast before I can relax and then start editing it! Whoopee.

The “Word Count” method has kept me pretty honest on how much work on the writing I’ve actually been doing. I can’t ‘cook the books’ and lie to myself, because the numbers don’t lie.

I had a bad few days at the beginning of this week, writing-wise, but I’m back on track, and it looks like I’ll hit the 10,000 word mark this week!

I’ve been wonderfully busy this week. I had the GACE exam – the GA teachers’ certification exam – and a couple of presentations for grad school, so I haven’t been able to do the amount of writing that suits me, but I still managed to get down a little under 8000 words for the week. I’m happy with that.

I’ve still spent some money this week, but I’ve been more aware of what I am spending. I cut out a few unnecessary ‘gas station’ snacks this week and prevented myself from going out to eat all week, so I’m proud of myself!

Unfortunately, I’m car shopping, so I will have to spend some money soon. Hopefully, I’ll get a good deal, though.

The new system of keeping track of how many words I write is working quite well. I fell 1500 words short of 10000 words last week, but the difference between now and a year ago is that I now know it! I don’t have to keep any number information in my head; it is all onscreen, which is wonderful.

I’ve already written nearly 8000 words this week, not counting blogging, so I’m well on pace to hit the Big Ten (sorry for the football pun) before the end of the weekend. If I have some time to spare, I might even try to make up for some of the 1500 I didn’t get last week.

Also, I’m using a Word Doc Spreadsheet and some formulas, so I’m also becoming more familiar with “Excel” (intentional air quotes). Bonus, in my mind.

Recording daily progress in word count has upped my morale, I’m happy to report. I’m going to hit 30000 words in the novel today, twelve days before my projected goal of April 1. We’ll see how long this lasts!

I’ve been working on my novel ‘Boogie House’, but the writing process has been going slow, since I have also been re-editing past project to get them into salable shape. I normally keep up a pretty rigorous writing schedule, so the progress on ‘Boogie House’ has been a little disheartening.

To combat that, I created an Excel file to keep track of how much writing I’ve been doing with each work of fiction. It is set up like a calendar, by day, and when I open the document for the day, I record the word count in the Excel file, so I’ll know at the end of each week how the writing has been going.

Also, I set a self-imposed goal of 10,000 words a week, which isn’t that ambitious but attainable. With the new Excel file, I should be able to keep track of everything more closely. It seems like a lot of work, but hopefully it will keep me motivated. We’ll see how it goes.

This week, I spent too much money to put any away into savings. Shame on me! Next week is a new week, though, right?