Wednesday, April 08, 2015

so will someone come and carry me home tonight

The writing went really well today, and I feel like I snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. I woke up not really feeling it at all, and I admittedly procrastinated most of the morning. But I eventually decided to channel my procrastination into reading a book Anne had recommended to me ("Write Better, Faster"), looking for some tips on getting started with my book. And so after I ate lunch, went with Barbara to the store to get more wine + a latte (through a lovely bit of falling snow), and settled back into my writing nook (I've claimed the media room in my house, which has closing doors, a desk, and a couch), I stared down the blank page...and I ended up writing almost fifteen pages. *Yay*.

What was more shocking about this feat is that I did it in 90mins (with 90mins of breaks, so really in three hours). The book advocates tracking every minute detail about your writing process for a few weeks to understand when you're productive, what gets you more words per hour, etc. Granted, what I wrote wasn't fully polished prose; I fast drafted the first four chapters of the book, which is sort of like telling the story to myself (where they are, what they're doing, how they're feeling, maybe snippets of what they're saying) without including all the perfect witticisms and other things that take a lot of time to develop. But the idea (which I kind of used on the beginning of the last book) is to write enough to be sure that the plot is solid before investing time in the witticisms and descriptions, and I think it's the right approach even if I always seem to rebel against it by the midpoint.

So, I was supremely pleased by this, even if I was only able to keep going by fueling myself with m&ms and popcorn like every stereotypical writer out there. But I called it quits at six, took a quick nap, and then spent the evening eating pizza and drinking wine with my writer friends. And now I'm going to sleep and attempt similar feats of strength tomorrow - goodnight!

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