Book in a Month Redux: Days 5 through 8

So you might have noticed that I'm not posting as many blogs as I did the first time around. And you might be wondering why. I will explain.

Like most people, I'm crazy busy. Not that I have kids or anything so super life-consuming like that (though that would be nice). No. My business comes from everything else going on in my normal life. See I have a day job that I must work full time so that my hubby and I can actually make money and, you know, subsist. I also am incredibly active in my church, which means I have youth group on Wednesday (which I love), church on Sunday (which I also love), small group on Thursday (yup, love that too) and other random church events scattered throughout the month. Then there's the whole family/friends thing, which means making time to actually see them. Oh and I have to sleep and eat and write and exercise and, because of my joint issues, spend a lot of time resting my joints between all these activities because if I don't I can't do any of them. All that is to say, that as much as I love posting on my blog (now that I actually do, and kind of have something to write about), it is often the casualty of my hectic life. I will, of course, still post, but, at least for the foreseeable future,  it will only be every couple of days. :)

So, now that my guilt-fueled over-sharing has been taken care of, I bet you want to know how the writing's going, especially after the trouble I was having last week. The answer: it's going really well. I realized at some point last week that I was trying too hard to write something totally different from my original draft and it was making me lose my connection with the story. The original (unfinished) draft of the story was, for the most part, pretty decent, if rough. But I thought that I needed to write the same situations in a completely different way. Thus, the writers block.

Once I realized that I could incorporate the original ideas and dialogue and whatnot, tweaked to match-up with the new POV and changed to make a little more sense, the writing started flowing again. And that makes me super happy.

Sometimes I get so caught up in changing what I think are problems with my stories that I forget that sometimes I had some pretty decent ideas to begin with. And when I let myself get back to those ideas, under controlled circumstances, the story comes so much easier. :)

So here are the numbers for the past few days.

Pages Written for Days 5 through 8:  24

Total Pages thus Far: 48

Words: 6,179

Total Words thus Far: 12,579

Book in a Month: Day 18

Still a day behind, but that's okay. I'm not too worried about it.

It's hard to believe that I'm actually nearing the end of this BIAM. I still have a little over a week, but that's not really all that much considering how fast the rest of this month has gone. It's crazy to think that in as little as seven more days, I could have a completed draft of my story. It's awesome.

It also shows me that I can do this. I've always made writing a second priority, after so many other things. Now though, I see what I can do when I make it the main priority. When I actually set aside the time and make myself write, I can get a lot accomplished. It makes me want to do it again. :) And I love that feeling.

Okay, so here are today's numbers.

Pages: 8

Total Pages thus Far: 144

Words: 2,681

Total Words thus Far: 46,932

Alright, well I'm off to exercise.

Book in a Month: Day 14

I'm still so exhausted from yesterday. I don't know what I did, but whatever it was my legs are more sore than they have been in months. I actually can't remember the last time I was this sore. It hurts to walk, to move. Sitting down and standing up are particularly painful.

And my hands are bothering me again. So I'm keeping this short. Just the numbers today. Here they are.

Pages: 8

Total Pages thus Far: 112

Words: 2,290

Total Words thus Far: 35,960

Book in a Month: Day 13

Just another quick post to update my numbers. I walked dogs today at the Humane Society, so I'm kind of pooped.

Here's the numbers.

Pages: 8

Total Pages thus Far: 104

Words: 2,711

Total Words thus Far: 33,670

Book in a Month: Day 12

Just another quick entry to update my numbers. Work was a pain today and my hands are really bothering me thanks to the typing and the weather. So here are the numbers:

Pages: 8

Total Pages thus Far: 96

Words: 2,863

Total Words thus Far: 30,959

I'll try and post a longer entry tomorrow.

P.S. I'm over 30,00 words! Yea!!!! And only about half done. This is awesome!

Book in a Month: Day 11

So I don't have any deep or abiding thoughts today. Work kind of sucked any of those out of me today. Though I did realize that I was actually ahead a bit on my page count. So I decided to take advantage of that and not write quite as much as I have been. It was a long day, so I needed a little lighter writing day. Which is why this is basically just the numbers today.

Here's the numbers:

Pages: 5

Total Pages thus Far: 88

Words: 1,437

Total Words thus Far: 28,096

Book in a Month: Day 6

It was harder to write today than it has been the past few days. I think mostly because it's Saturday and I take a break from everything work/writing related on the weekends. But I made myself write, though I split up the time. I wrote some before I went to the Humane Society (I volunteer there on Saturdays. I walk dogs. :) and the rest after I got home.

Today I got to write my first magic lesson scene. Which I wasn't planning on writing, but I really liked it. I am officially getting to the middle of the book, and that is the hardest part. It's the least concrete. I'm struggling with what exactly I want to keep from the previous draft, while still making it interesting. I think I've figured it out, but I'm not totally sure. I'll let you know.

Anyway, I wrote about magic today. My character is having to learn to use the magic she's been born into, and it's not going to be easy. I'm actually excited about this because I've change my magic system a bit from the original idea. I hope it turns out well, but I'm pretty sure it will.

Now for the numbers:

Pages: 8.1

Total Pages thus Far: 52

Words: 2,672

Total Words thus Far: 16.305

Book in a Month: Day 5

This is just a quick update to publish my numbers from today. I was going to write up an actual entry today, but got distracted by life.

So here are the numbers:

Pages: 8

Total Pages thus Far: 44

Words: 2,127

Total Words thus Far: 13,633

Book in a Month: Day 4

I hate conflict. It's a fact. If there's conflict, I run screaming the other way. Well okay, I actually slink silently the other way in hopes of avoiding the conflict, but you get the idea. This is a bad thing for a writer.

Conflict is the staple of a story. Without conflict, there is no story. So how do I, as an avid flee-er of conflict, put it into my stories? Good question. It's one I'm still figuring out actually.

When I was younger and was just writing because I loved making stories up, I didn't really get that I needed conflict. Or, rather, I didn't get that I needed lots of conflict. I didn't understand that the big conflict wasn't enough, that everything in the story need to conflict with the protagonist. Everything has to go against her and make it harder for her to get to her goal. Or almost everything.

I thought it was enough to just have the journey be the conflict. And to be honest, I was scared of hurting my protagonists. I was worried that if it was too hard, they wouldn't actually make it too the end.

But as I've gotten older, and read more great books, I've realized that there must be more conflict or there's no point in getting to the end. Things have to be hard, or my protagonists aren't going to need to get to the end to get the resolution. Without the hardship, the hurt, the pain in all its forms, the resolution isn't a resolution. And a story isn't a story. Or it isn't a good one.

That's what I've been learning with this rewrite. So, I'm trying to be more conflicted. It's not easy, but the more I try, the more I realize that it's actually kind of fun to throw things at my protagonist. She's strong. She can handle it. Or, if she can't she'll learn from her scars.

Anyway, today I wrote eight more chapters. Here are the numbers:

Pages: 8

Total Pages thus Far: 34

Words: 2,479

Total Words thus Far: 10,987

Book in a Month: Day 3

Day three is done. Fitting in the time to write isn't easy, but it helps that I broke it up throughout the day. Work was slow, so I took a few breaks and wrote then. I just now finished up that last of the pages before youth group started.

I have to say, I'm only on day three and I already feel really accomplished. Sitting down and actually meeting a goal, even a small one like writing eight pages a day, makes me feel pretty good. And seeing those pages add up is really great feeling. I'm already up to 26 pages. Which is awesome cause normally it takes me forever to get that many pages, but now they're just piling up

But my wrists are hurting, so I'm going to cut this post short. Here are the numbers:

Pages: 8.5

Total Pages thus Far: 25

Words: 2,903

Total Words thus Far: 8,490

Book in a Month: Day 2

Writing eight or nine full pages in one sitting is HARD! Okay that sounds ridiculous, but it's true. And not because I have writer's block. Granted, every once in a while I get a little stuck trying to figure out exactly what to say next. But that usually passes very quickly. The most difficult parts are the actual typing and the not going back to rewrite stuff as I go. Why?

The rewriting part is hard because I am a re-writer. I write something, then decide, no that doesn't sound right, so I rewrite it. But then it doesn't mesh with something I'd written before, so I have to go and rewrite that earlier bit. And so on. This can really detract from forward progress (which is probably why it takes me so long to finish anything). But I do it so readily that not rewriting as I go is really hard. Really, really hard.

The other thing, the typing, that's just hard cause it hurts. Literally. My hands don't do so well with extended periods of typing. Or really any repetitive motion. They start hurting really quickly. So I have to rest them. But if I rest them, then I lose the momentum I had been building up and that stinks as much as the pain does. So it's always a game of how long can I push myself before the pain just becomes too overwhelming.

But enough of the boring downer stuff. Here's today's numbers.

Pages: 8.5

Total Pages thus Far: 16.5

Words: 2,977

Total Words thus Far: 5,587

I'd say it was a good writing day. :)

Book in a Month: Day 1

So I started this thing today called Book in a Month. I'm going to write an entire draft in 30 days. I decided to do this, mostly to see if I could, but also because it's a great way for my to get a draft done quickly. It's (hopefully) going to help me buckle down and get the draft done in an actual, measurable amount of time. I have to focus and write a particular amount each day to accomplish this in 30 days. I'm excited and super nervous about this.

So what am I writing this month? I've decided to give this first try to my first full novel that I ever wrote. I am rewriting it in first person and changing some of the plot elements. This is an attempt to make the story flow better. Doing it in thirty days makes me feel like I won't have wasted too much time if I wind up hating what results from this. It's only a month.

As for my daily goal, it's to write a minimum of eight pages per day for the entire month. I've already written my eight pages for today, and they felt pretty good, though it was a little difficult to write for eight pages without getting distracted or giving up. But I think the longer I do this, the easier it will get. At least I hope so.

The results of my day today -

Pages: 8

Total Pages thus Far: 8

Words: 2,607

Total Words thus Far: 2,607

I will update this count daily, just so I have something to keep me accountable.