Category: By the Numbers Page 1 of 2

Milestones

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On June 8, 2013

In By the Numbers, Excitement, Just Keep Writing

I crossed the 100,000-word mark on the first draft of The Unseeing the other day. Woooo!

It was a nice feeling to check my word count and see six digits for the first time. I’m past my uninspired funk and I think I’m about 5,000 words away from the ending. Between here and there I’m not quite sure what’s going to happen though – my outline has been stubbornly vague and my head isn’t filling in the blanks either.

However I’m heading on an extended road trip tomorrow – 9 days of exploring the Pacific Northwest and northern California – and I’m sure all that time in the car will lend to some daydreaming and idea sifting. It’s our tenth wedding anniversary this month! Also the first time we’ve gone away without the kids – our last trip alone together was to Paris almost seven years ago, when I was pregnant with Kid 1. I ended up setting the books I’m currently writing in that city after I fell in love with it – I wonder if Portland or Seattle will become the inspiration for a new story?

And if you’re into that sort of thing, stay tuned for some exciting typewriter posts. I have four to pick up at a shipping drop point once we cross the border, and have been busy restoring another one at home for the past week. I don’t know if I want to introduce them one at a time, or all together, but the blog is going to get a little typewriter-heavy in the next while.

Lastly, I decided that rather than knocking down walls in my house to make space for a small office for myself, I’m going to build myself a little outbuilding in our backyard, insulate it and make it my writing headquarters. If all goes according to plan, construction will begin next month.

Big achievements accomplished, and big things on the horizon! These days it feels like everything’s coming up Nicole.

I Have A Plan

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On March 1, 2013

In By the Numbers, Just Keep Writing, Organizing, Planning for the Future

So after working out all my dilemmas about what I should be doing right now, I’ve made a decision about my next writing steps. I didn’t meet the last set of goals I set for myself, unfortunately, but based on how things have been going for me these past two months, that actually turned out to be a good thing.

With respect to my current WIP, I’m going to write until I reach a point in the plot that’s a major transition, and then I’m going to stop for awhile. It’s a good place to pause because at that point the way I’m going to be writing will be changing significantly. The perspective is going to get complicated, and I think I’m going to have to be very, very good if I’m going to pull it off. Basically my main character will be experiencing something akin to locked-in syndrome (with a bit of a paranormal twist), written from her perspective. Oh, and she’ll be blind. Poor Callie. So I think it will be good for me to take a bit of a break and mull over how I’m going to accomplish that.

It will be hard to stop writing for awhile, since I’ve been making such good progress lately. I just got back from a ten-day trip to California with my kids, found time to write on seven of those ten days, and eked out 15,000 words. I should be sitting at around 40,000 total when I pause.

In the meantime I’m going to go back to my first book and do another round of edits, then (for real this time) start querying. I know what changes I want to make, and although I’m sad to make one in particular, I can see that it’s not really relevant to the story arc and just serves to slow things down. My goal is to have the edits completed and at least one query sent by the end of March. I think that’s completely doable, especially since I expect I’ll be finished with my WIP by the end of this week, maybe even tonight.

Exciting times! I’m glad to have an outline I can follow for the month. Good things should come of this. 🙂

Panicking. Probably Prematurely.

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On February 23, 2013

In By the Numbers, My Failings As A Proper Novelist, Things That Make You Weep For Your Sanity, Writer's Low

It seems I’ve decided to take Secret Option C in reference to my last post on whether to keep writing my current work in progress or go back to my completed novel and spend some time editing – that is, to write and schedule a bunch of blog posts instead, thereby avoiding the dilemma altogether.

Anyway. I’m starting to look at my work in progress and what I’ve crossed off on the outline so far, and I’m feeling the  first prickings of concern in the back of my brain. I’m at roughly 23,000 words right now, and I’ve made it through a third of the points on my outline. If things remain consistent, I’m looking at a first draft total of around 75,000 words, which is too short, as far as I’m concerned. And I have absolutely no idea what to do about it, other than wait until I’m finished and see how it all turns out.

This, this here, is the downside of outlining for me. If I didn’t have one, I wouldn’t be obsessing about this right now. It’s utterly pointless, it is. But I can no more stop myself from doing it than I can stop myself from biting my nails or worrying about solar flares.

Some time will definitely be spent this week poring over the outline and seeing if there’s anything I can add to it. I like to have lots of extra words at the end of the first draft so there’s plenty of room for cuts. If I start out with only 75,000, I’m going to end up with a novella.

Frustrating. Ridiculous, but frustrating.

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Full Steam Ahead

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On February 15, 2013

In By the Numbers, Just Keep Writing

After taking a week and a half off writing to fight the worst cold I’ve had in ages, I jumped back in the game last night with a vengeance. I spent a couple hours at the window table of my favourite cafe and banged out over 3,000 words. Nearly an entire chapter!

(It JUST occurred to me that I spent Valentine’s Day alone in a coffee shop, writing, instead of doing something with my husband. The thought never even crossed my mind last night, but then, we don’t normally recognize V-Day. I wonder what the other people there thought about the poor girl sitting alone on Valentine’s Day, typing away and eating all the salted toffee squares!)

As I’ve mentioned before I’m using an outline for this novel, unlike the last one, but I’m enjoying how much freedom I still have and how many little scenes just pop up out of nowhere on a whim. The reason I’d resisted outlining for so long was because I thought it would be too rigid and there would be no room for spontaneity, but that doesn’t seem to be the case at all. Part of this often stems from dialogue, but from time to time it’s an entire scene that seems to just flow naturally from something in the outline.

I stayed at the cafe almost to the last minute before closing so I could hit this milestone:

I started writing just under a month ago and I’m a fifth of the way there. For me, that’s excellent progress.

The kids and I leave for a spring break vacation tomorrow, and I’m not sure how much writing or blogging I’m going to be able to do. Hopefully a decent amount of the former, because there are a couple scenes coming up that I’ve been really looking forward to writing!

Statistics FTW

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On February 2, 2013

In By the Numbers, Learning, Musical Interlude

Now that I’ve started my next novel I’ve been logging a bit more information about my writing than I did the last time. Whereas before I only kept track of word count by chapter (and only to see how much I was cutting during editing) now I have a spreadsheet made up where I’m recording all kinds of useful information on my daily writing habits. Word count, time of day, location, which scene I was working on, it’s all getting documented. And I’m starting to notice some patterns.

While I try to write whenever I have a bit of time, I’m far, far more productive in the evening than I am in the morning. Literally twice as much. And trying to write in the afternoon, when my kids are home, is pretty much pointless. I also get a lot done – A LOT – if I go and sit in a coffee shop alone for awhile. (I did this last night and wrote more than 2,500 words in about two hours, which while not impressive for some, is a lot better than my average, especially when there are people to watch and eavesdrop on). That doesn’t mean I’m going to give up writing in the mornings or when I also have to entertain the littles, but I am going to go easier on myself from now on when I feel like I should have gotten more done.

I also notice that my chapters (all three of them so far) are shorter in this book than they were with the last. They averaged just about 5,000 words in The Unravelling, but in the Unseeing they’re just over 3,000. I’ll have to write a little further before I can see how this affects the pacing, but so far, I like it.

And, some early numbers are in:

Not too shabby for seven (non-consecutive) days of work! I wish I’d kept track of all this info before so I could see if I’m keeping pace with last time. I would guess I’m going faster. Having an outline is helping to keep me organized a lot.

If you’re at all interested, this is what I was listening to at the cafe last night while I was writing:

Poor Callie and Matthieu. Most of the time I think she’d be the one singing it to him, but then I’ll listen to it again and change my mind.

I’ve got six sentences scheduled to post tomorrow. Enjoy and happy weekend!

I did it!

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On September 18, 2012

In By the Numbers, Excitement, Just Keep Writing, Writer's High

So I’m outing myself as a total noob here, but I’m going to do a little happy dance for a minute because I just achieved a very important goal to me, one that a year ago I would have thought was entirely impossible. For all those longtime authors with a few books under their belts this is totally going to be nbd. But for me it’s like, squeeee!

Crazy, hey? I was hoping I’d get it done tonight, and I did, adding about 1,400 words. I can smell the end now, it’s so close (and by close I mean within 20,000 words). I kind of hate to stop where I did tonight, but it’s late and tomorrow’s a school day for the grom. I’ll go to bed happy though, knowing I hit a milestone that I’ve been working toward for over six months.

Exciting! Yay! Exclamation points everywhere!!

The Final Tally

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On August 12, 2012

In By the Numbers, Routines, Things That Are Awesome, Writer's High

I went away for one week. Seven days of rest, relaxation, amazing weather, a view to inspire and extra help with the kids. And as I’ve rejoiced in a previous post, I spent it writing my damn face off. Every day, from 3ish to 5:30ish I sat on a chaise longue (and I have to stop here for a moment and point out that it’s NOT pronounced shayz lownje, it’s shayz long. It’s French for long chair, not lounge chair. End rant) and wrote. And wrote. And wrote. 2,000 word minimum, sometimes over 3,000. And then sometimes I’d do a little bit more before bed too. All told, I banged out around 17,500 words, an average of 2,500 a day. Four whole chapters.

This makes me realize how much of an effect my environment has on my productivity. Yes, it definitely helps that I don’t have to spend the time in the afternoon that the kids are napping with cleaning or cooking or working at my day job, but there was so much around me to stimulate my mind and keep me motivated to write – I looked forward to sitting outside in the sun every day. I certainly don’t spend my days at home eagerly awaiting the time when I can go sit in my cold, dark basement.

Anyway, I’m beyond pleased with how much I accomplished, although I did notice that when I write quickly like that (quickly for me, anyway) I tend to leave out some details or neglect to describe things in sufficient detail in my haste to get all the words out. Nothing a night-time review session with a glass of wine can’t fix, right? Right.

So, the tally:

You may notice the slight increase in the word count goal. There’s no way in hell this story is wrapping up in 13,000 words. I’m even skeptical 43,000 will be enough… 150,000 may end up being my final count. I haven’t been attached to a particular number from the start – it’ll end when it ends, and I imagine after editing that will come down significantly anyway, since I recall reading somewhere that the goal of editing a first draft is to reduce the manuscript by 10%. Crazy to imagine finding so much to cut, but I’m sure it’s there.

After a seven-hour drive today my brain is little more than mush, so there won’t be any writing tonight, but I’m curious to find out as the week begins if I can stick to even a part of my lakeside routine. Writing outside maybe? Saying to hell with the housework (and supper prep) and writing in the afternoon? Or should I be grateful for the break and everything I managed to do, and slip back into my home routine, with fond memories of the time when I felt like I could write forever?

My, What A Busy Week

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On July 31, 2012

In By the Numbers, Excitement, Planning for the Future, Revision

I took my kids to camp for five days, and what with their being in activities for a good half the day, I had a lot of spare time on my hands. Time that could be used to write, only I used most of it to read the book I posted about previously, make notes and analyze what I’ve already written based on what it suggests. It was pretty great – I identified a few issues and developed some more insight into the structure of my story. At some point I’d like to work on some detailed character outlines too.

The hardest part by far was summarizing my story into one short paragraph, but I’ve found that since I’ve done that, I’m a lot more comfortable with the “so what’s your book about?” question, which I’ve always dreaded and fumbled around.

Then once we got home, it was off to a quick 24-hour writer’s retreat by holing up in a hotel with two fellow writers. I love doing this. I want to find away to make it happen every month. I got so much done, had other people to bounce a few ideas off of and came out of it with almost a full chapter done, along with a metric assload of research.

The need to be accurate even in books that touch on fantastical subjects was something we talked about a lot. Even though my book has a strong fantasy element to it, I like the details to be logical and realistic whenever possible, so I don’t like to just make something up if there’s proven science out there instead. It sure makes for slow going at some parts – I think I know more about tsunamis and evacuation plans and the webcams of a particular city than anyone else I know, but I feel so much more confident in my writing than if I’d just fabricated something and pounded out the scene in fifteen minutes.

And then we watched The Day After Tomorrow. So satisfying to be writing an apocalyptic book while watching an apocalyptic movie.

And once again my iPod never fails to guide me when I need it – I triggered on a couple of major character/relationship dynamics while I was driving to a friend’s house today. Which I’m going to add to my “things to remember” doc immediately after this so I don’t forget. Something about the sunroof being open, it being a hot, sweaty evening and the right song at the right time brought it all together for me. Thanks, brain, for being so tuned in.

Since my experience with this last book went so well, I’m considering looking for one on how to revise or edit a novel from the first draft. Having never done such a thing before, I’m at a complete loss as to how to go about it. When I re-read a chapter every so often, I make little changes here and there, but that doesn’t feel like a proper revision.

Oh, and before I forget,

***drumroll***

Isn’t that something to see? And there’s still so much cool stuff coming up.

Longest. Thing. Ever.

By

On June 28, 2012

In By the Numbers, Excitement, Things That Are Awesome, Writer's High

That’s what she said. Am I right?

No really, check this out:

When I did NaNo last year, my story topped out at 53,789 words, and at the time it was the longest thing I’d ever written. Today, I surpassed that mark, with loads more to go. How great is that? Granted, that was over 50,000 words in 30 days, vs. the four months it’s taken me to get to this stage now, but that’s beside the point.

Now that I’ve passed the theoretical halfway marker – the story’s going to end when it’s going to end, I guess, but I’m aiming roughly for 100,000 words – I’m a little nervous because a lot of the second half is pretty murky in my mind. I’ve got the ending all figured out, and a couple key scenes before that building themselves up in my brain, but there are still a lot of holes. Then again, when I started writing the first half, months ago, there were a lot of holes there too, and they just seemed to fill themselves as I went along. So here’s hoping that trend will continue.

Halfway!

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On June 17, 2012

In By the Numbers, Excitement, Writer's High

That came about because I wrote more than 3,700 words today, which is absolutely insane for me. Looking back at last year’s NaNoWriMo stats, my best day was 100 words less than that, and I remember that as being an all-day effort. It’s not a pace I can keep up with, for sure, but if I could do it every Saturday, and the same amount again through the rest of the week, I could write a chapter a week and hopefully have my first draft done in a little under two months. And that’s a great feeling. I never actually completed my NaNo novel – I did the 50,000 words (53,000 as a matter of fact) but the conclusion remains to be written. By 50,000 words I was heartily sick of it, and still don’t feel that it’s worth the time to complete, but 50,000 words into this story and I’m falling more and more in love with it every time I sit down in front of my laptop. So that’s gotta be a good sign, right?

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