Daily Writing

Daily Writing Check-in: April 4, 2019

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Words/Time:  30 minutes working on the new outline of “The Seeger Book.”

I did less outlining and more thinking today. A little bit of writing out some broad notes as I try to still figure out what I’m missing in the big empty end of act 2/beginning of act 3. I don’t know why this is giving me so much trouble. Maybe because I don’t really have a sub-plot. Maybe because a murder-mystery is just so outside of my wheel house. I just don’t know.

I made a decision to lighten the load for Camp NaNoWriMo. I wanted to set my daily time goal higher than what it’s been outside of camp, but I don’t think I can remotely keep up with my planned pace of an hour a day. Considering that I have only hit that 1 day so far, and it was very difficult to do, this just isn’t the month to push myself. The last few days, I told myself that surely things with my job will get better later in the month and it’ll be easier to get the writing in, and even get caught up. But if by then, I’m 10 hours (or more) behind, I just don’t see it happening. And frankly, it might still get harder before it gets better. I don’t want to burn myself out. And though winning Camp NaNo isn’t even as big of a deal to me as winning NaNoWriMo proper, I at least want to have a chance. So I decided that even just hitting the same 30 minutes per day that I was hitting before the work saga began would be a win for me this month, and I cut my goal in half.

Daily Writing Check-in: April 2, 2019

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Words/Time:  60 minutes starting on the new outline of “The Seeger Book.”

It’s still not going as smoothly as the outlines I created for the first 2 items on my current writing goals list. I still feel like I’m missing some big parts to the story. I am hoping more will reveal itself, if not during the outlining, then during the re-drafting. I think the story is still important, and still worth telling (though I have questioned whether I should just scrap it, with how difficult it has been), and I do think I have made some great strides toward making it a stronger and more interesting story than the first draft. But it’s been a battle.

I am still a little behind for Camp NaNoWriMo, but I also hit par for my goal today, so I’m not too bothered by being a little behind. I’m pretty proud of myself for hitting an hour today, considering that my work saga is still ongoing.

Daily Writing Check-in: April 1, 2019

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Words/Time:  35 minutes doing preliminary work for the new outline of “The Seeger Book.”

I continued my conversation with Jonathan about the events of this story, and read over my brainstorming from when I wrote the first draft. I think I might just have a more solid grasp on this story now. In any event, I’m ready to start laying out the plot points and see what it looks like.

Camp NaNoWriMo started today. I set my goal at 30 hours for the month, which I’m already behind on. But I am okay with that. I take Camp NaNo seriously, but not quite as seriously as NaNo proper. It will help me push myself, and that’s all that matters.

Daily Writing Check-in: March 31, 2019

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Words/Time:  20 minutes doing preliminary work for the new outline of “The Seeger Book.”

I continued my conversation with Jonathan about the events of this story, which I had not finished at the point that I took an unplanned break. The conversation is still proving very insightful, though I think its usefulness is coming to an end. Not because I have the events figured out, but because I’ve run up against the big, empty 2nd half of act 2 & beginning of act 3. The same late mid-section that I left empty in the first draft of this book. I just feel like there’s something missing, but I haven’t hit on what it is yet.

I don’t know if this means I’ll need to do some more broad brainstorming, or if I need to pick a different character to interview, or if I just need to let it sit for a while. Or even if I need to go ahead and write the outline I have so far, and even draft it from that, and see if more plot points come up during the actual writing (it happens a lot for me). It will be difficult to even decide where to go next.

It has not been the most stellar month of writing for me, but I’m really glad I had enough self-motivation to get even 20 minutes in today. Since I officially quit my job 2 weeks ago, but agreed to stay on to help finish a huge project and train other people, things have actually gotten worse at my job. I have taken refuge in the game Stardew Valley most evenings as a coping mechanism. As much as I’d rather say I use my writing, story world, characters, etc. as a coping mechanism…this is just too much to cope with.

Camp NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow, and I hope to be able to push past my emotional and mental issues caused by work, and be able work on my writing every day this month, with an ultimate goal of an average of an hour a day. I know that might be unrealistic at this time, but if I don’t set my goal higher than what I do outside of Camp, then it’s almost pointless to participate. I’m also well aware that I might end up crashing and burning in this attempt, but it’s worth trying.

Daily Writing Check-in: March 22, 2019

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I actually have no writing work of any kind to report, but I wanted to post to just say that I’m still here, and haven’t fallen into a writing hole. Since I’ve had this blog, I have seen those times where I do well writing almost every day for a stretch, and then just stop for months at a time. And one of those times turned into almost 3 years away.

This break so far has lasted about 10 days. The first few days I skipped were due to major stress related to my job. By evening, when I normally get to my writing work, I just wanted to do something mindless during my free time. That situation dragged on, and has actually led to me basically quitting my job, only agreeing to stay on in a minor capacity. Looking back and seeing how often, even in the last few months when I’ve had a better writing habit again, I skipped a day because of work, I can see why this was a good decision. Not because it kept me from my writing work, but because most of the time that I skipped a day or two, it was because of having a very rough day at work. And because of what I know causes that stress, it’s time to move on.

Though I do have what could be up to 2 months ahead of me before I can fully step down from my main duties, due to needing to train others, and help the company get past certain things that I am best-suited to help them with, I am already somewhat less stressed than I have been in a long time, just simply by making this decision.

Moving on, I didn’t do any writing work today, because I was gone until too late to get to it. Tomorrow is a maybe, because I have to work until evening and get up super early on Sunday. But I do plan to take some time on Sunday and really dive back into what I was last working on. I do not want this to turn into a prolonged break.

I also think it is likely that part of the reason that I dropped off so completely is that the current task I am working on is turning out to be very difficult. In my last post, I said that the goal I am currently working toward is going to be a marathon, not a sprint. So since the difficulties of the next few months are likely to continue to take an emotional toll on me, I need to be careful to not push myself  to do more in a day than my brain can handle, when working on an already difficult task.

Daily Writing Check-in: March 12, 2019

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Words/Time:  23 minutes doing preliminary work for the new outline of “The Seeger Book.”

First, I wrote out a couple of big questions about a major event in the book–mostly asking when and why this event happens. Unlike other times when I write out a big plot question that I’m stuck on and brainstorm all possible solutions, this time the answer didn’t readily present itself. I sat and stared at the page for little while, trying to decide how important this event was to the story at all. But I do think it’s crucial to the climax. And I think I have figured out the why, though I am going to wait to commit to the when.

I then continued my conversation with Jonathan about the events of this story, hoping it will lead me to the when.

I cut my time short tonight, even though I still have an hour and a half before midnight, because I have a headache and had a frustrating, emotionally taxing day. Figuring out the plot for this story is a marathon, not a sprint, so no need to push myself on a rough day. I’m going to veg out on video games now.

Daily Writing Check-in: March 11, 2019

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Words/Time:  50 minutes doing preliminary work for the new outline of “The Seeger Book.”

I continued my conversation with Jonathan, and we started to talk about the events of the story. We cleared up at least one mess caused by a terrible first draft, and then I realized I had a huge question about when a pivotal event should happen in this new, hopefully much better outline.

I also spent a little time tracking down a backup to my outline for “Unexpectedly” because I thought I had lost a lot of information somehow. It turned out it was just a setting in Scrivener that I didn’t realize I had triggered. Boy, did I panic though, because the info that I thought I was missing wasn’t in the backup either. But it’s all safe, so I’m good.

Daily Writing Check-in: March 10, 2019

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Words/Time:  25 minutes doing preliminary work for the new outline of “The Seeger Book.”

I continued my conversation with Jonathan, talking through the major players who are working against him in this story. I think we have them straightened out, so tomorrow, we’ll start focusing on the events. I may be ready to work on the outline relatively soon.

I didn’t do any work yesterday, because I just didn’t have the desire to do it. I’ve learned in the past that if I push past a strong feeling to not work on writing, it can lead to burn-out (in fact, it was NaNoWriMo 2015, when the first draft of this story was terribly written, that I learned that lesson). It can be a delicate balance, because if I just ignore my writing for too long, I can end up in a months- or even years-long slump, but I knew I was still enjoying doing the work, just didn’t feel up to it yesterday.

Daily Writing Check-in: March 8, 2019

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Words/Time:  1 hour, 5 minutes doing preliminary work for the new outline of “The Seeger Book.”

I finished reading the first draft of the book that was written during NaNoWriMo in 2015. I actually did that yesterday; it took me 8 minutes before I went to bed. Then yesterday, my husband and I went to a concert and we’re home until after midnight, so I didn’t do any other work, and decided it wasn’t worth typing up a post for 8 minutes worth.

The rest of the time was spent, both before I went to bed this morning, as well as this evening, having my first one-on-one conversation with the main character of this book–Jonathan. He’s been included in a group discussion in the past, but I needed some time alone with him to try to get a handle on this plot. It’s kind of all over the place. We’re making progress, but I anticipate this conversation lasting several days.

Daily Writing Check-in: March 6, 2019

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Words/Time:  1 hour, 48 minutes doing preliminary work for the new outline of “The Seeger Book.”

Today I continued with reading the first draft of the book that was written during NaNoWriMo in 2015. I’m near the end and plan to finish it as soon as I have posted this.

For the last 2 days, I complained about how bad this was, and today was no better. But reading the climax, and reading through the last 6500 words of the draft, which was really just my “out-loud” brainstorming what I was missing in the story, so I wouldn’t forget my thoughts in the future, I at least remember why I was excited about this story in the first place. Which is a great place to be when starting to work on the new outline.

The main thing I’m learning from the jumbled mess I’m reading, though, is that I don’t really need to try to hold very strictly to what was already written…because I clearly had no clue how I wanted the story to go. So I might as well start from scratch with the very vague idea of the Seeger Book being at the heart of a murder-mystery. The culprit will be the same, and that’s pretty much it.