Reckoning

Week one is over, and I’m at 2590 words – 910 words shy of my goal.

I knew when I set the goal that 500 words a day might be steep for some days – let’s face it, there are days when the words don’t come easy. But then there are others when they flow like water. Overall, I think it’s an average worth trying to maintain.

I will make two changes to my plan, though. The idea being to grow into a writer, I’ll file these under “learning”, and just get on with it. First, I need one day off. So I’ll now aim for 3000 words a week, with my “treat” still at 4000. Two, I will start fresh at the beginning of each new week, and not carry with me the debt of any unwritten words from the previous week. It’s a bit slower than I thought, but I do have other commitments that are important – crucial, actually. I guess aiming to write a novel in six months might (cough) be a bit of a stretch. But I’m not giving up, I’m just saying. There will be good days and weeks, too!

I learned something else about my style this week. When I first sit down to write a scene, what comes out is very shallow, pale. But if I write it anyway and walk away for a bit, it soon occurs to me what Lauren said next, or what happens then, so I scurry back and put it down. And repeat. At first I was grumpy about it, but then I saw a pencil drawing of my DH when he was little, and I realized what it is I’m doing. I sketch the scene as in pencil, drawing the bold strokes and shapes first, and only then can I even see what’s there.
This contributes to the trouble in meeting a word goal, to be sure. It’s a very stilted process. I suspect that when I’m more accustomed to using the outline I’ll develop the muscles I need to power me through. I’m going to start working on more than one scene at a time, that will help.