Continuing my delayed challenge. 1500 new words today. Not words that belong in a final draft, but this is an outline/first draft freewrite, and I came up with at least 4 new scenes today, even if I just jotted down a couple paragraphs about what should happen in each. This jumpstart is doing what it needs to.
940 new words today. Those came after a few hours of re-reading, light editing, research, and note-making. Big conceptual strides here, not the least of which was getting a glimpse, at last, of the large structural elements of this novel. It feels both more do-able and more daunting!
I forgot to check in but I didn’t forget to write a good couple thousand yesterday! :) I hope everyone else is feeling good however many words they did (or didn’t)!
Feb 10, 2022·edited Feb 10, 2022Liked by Jami Attenberg
2237 over two days; a fight scene as seen by a child. I like writing tense conversations with unspoken pressure building up; environmental details that reflect what's going on. I've learned that four handwritten pages in my Muji notebook gets me to 1000 words, so that's something!
1323, hated every second of it. I'm at that 50-page mark, where things start to slow for me, so I shouldn't be surprised. Here's hoping tomorrow feels better!
1028. I thought, well, Jami wrote about sex all day, and I'd been having trouble writing about that very thing, so maybe, let me just write "notes," write some scenes that are separated from the characters and the forward action of the novel, and, well...woohoo. I started writing about breasts, and, umm, one thing led to another. And I learned some things about my characters I didn't know. Thanks for modeling, Jami!
Today really got away from me. But I made sure I wrote. Not 1000 words, but close. Tomorrow should hold few distractions, and I plan to pull together some things that are starting to coalesce. I'm more excited about this story than I had been, because (I think, I hope) I'm finally learning how to let my character drive it. That's big for me, even if I didn't hit my word count goal.
1276. I finally began to take the lid off the stewing, silent pot. I knew it was coming, but it has been simmering so long. Painful. Why do we do this?
It took roughly five hours to get to 1000 words. I got stuck at 636 words. Then 712. Then 877. Then 930. My lord. A tea, a latte, and three sparkling waters later....I made it to 1030.
I wrote just shy of 1000 words today, i think around 950 words (I'm revising though I need to write some new stuff too so it's a bit hard to gauge). Grateful for this challenge. Always helps to have a goal.
Today, the day almost got away from me. Rather, this morning, I let myself get distracted by the freezer aisle at Trader Joe's. And then I didn't think I'd get any words down because I always tell myself that I can only write in the morning. But you know what? I sat down late this afternoon and banged out 1,007 words. Not at my optimal time of day, and with my kid periodically interrupting. But they got done. Point being, if I can do it, you can!
1380 between revisions and new stuff. Only 180 yesterday, but that's ok. I like writing scenes where I can imagine myself into the space I'm writing about.
Feb 9, 2022·edited Feb 9, 2022Liked by Jami Attenberg
I like to write things that move a reader.. "music to wring tears from the stars" or something like that. (Madame Bovary). But my current writing project has felt a bit too dull for me -- necessary stuff to cover but not fun for a reader. So after reading your note today, I skipped ahead and wrote a sex scene that belongs there but is chronologically ahead of where I was. Hard to do well, but I got a good draft of a scene I needed to write at some point.
Continuing my delayed challenge. 1500 new words today. Not words that belong in a final draft, but this is an outline/first draft freewrite, and I came up with at least 4 new scenes today, even if I just jotted down a couple paragraphs about what should happen in each. This jumpstart is doing what it needs to.
940 new words today. Those came after a few hours of re-reading, light editing, research, and note-making. Big conceptual strides here, not the least of which was getting a glimpse, at last, of the large structural elements of this novel. It feels both more do-able and more daunting!
I forgot to check in but I didn’t forget to write a good couple thousand yesterday! :) I hope everyone else is feeling good however many words they did (or didn’t)!
2237 over two days; a fight scene as seen by a child. I like writing tense conversations with unspoken pressure building up; environmental details that reflect what's going on. I've learned that four handwritten pages in my Muji notebook gets me to 1000 words, so that's something!
838 today, still not 1000 but better than yesterday!
1323, hated every second of it. I'm at that 50-page mark, where things start to slow for me, so I shouldn't be surprised. Here's hoping tomorrow feels better!
did not get there (yet). got lost in the research. but still going in the wee hours before bed…
1020. Left it till the end of the day so I wouldn't be able to overthink it.
1028. I thought, well, Jami wrote about sex all day, and I'd been having trouble writing about that very thing, so maybe, let me just write "notes," write some scenes that are separated from the characters and the forward action of the novel, and, well...woohoo. I started writing about breasts, and, umm, one thing led to another. And I learned some things about my characters I didn't know. Thanks for modeling, Jami!
Today really got away from me. But I made sure I wrote. Not 1000 words, but close. Tomorrow should hold few distractions, and I plan to pull together some things that are starting to coalesce. I'm more excited about this story than I had been, because (I think, I hope) I'm finally learning how to let my character drive it. That's big for me, even if I didn't hit my word count goal.
1276. I finally began to take the lid off the stewing, silent pot. I knew it was coming, but it has been simmering so long. Painful. Why do we do this?
It took roughly five hours to get to 1000 words. I got stuck at 636 words. Then 712. Then 877. Then 930. My lord. A tea, a latte, and three sparkling waters later....I made it to 1030.
I wrote just shy of 1000 words today, i think around 950 words (I'm revising though I need to write some new stuff too so it's a bit hard to gauge). Grateful for this challenge. Always helps to have a goal.
Today, the day almost got away from me. Rather, this morning, I let myself get distracted by the freezer aisle at Trader Joe's. And then I didn't think I'd get any words down because I always tell myself that I can only write in the morning. But you know what? I sat down late this afternoon and banged out 1,007 words. Not at my optimal time of day, and with my kid periodically interrupting. But they got done. Point being, if I can do it, you can!
1380 between revisions and new stuff. Only 180 yesterday, but that's ok. I like writing scenes where I can imagine myself into the space I'm writing about.
I like to write things that move a reader.. "music to wring tears from the stars" or something like that. (Madame Bovary). But my current writing project has felt a bit too dull for me -- necessary stuff to cover but not fun for a reader. So after reading your note today, I skipped ahead and wrote a sex scene that belongs there but is chronologically ahead of where I was. Hard to do well, but I got a good draft of a scene I needed to write at some point.