Just finished up the 5th week of the Challenge. It’s like a part of my life now. Ha, ha.
I hit a milestone of sorts by breaking into the 20K range, which is good progress. However, I’m still having trouble. Last week, I had trouble with trying to revise while writing new draft. This week, I was conflicted with bad writer on my right shoulder and good writer on my left. Both of them were competing and messing with my sanity.
Bad Writer:
“This sucks.”
“You’re never going to get this right!”
“$#%#~! Nobody cares anyway!”
Good Writer:
“You can’t revise a blank page.”
“You only have 323 words left.”
“You can’t quit the Challenge!”
I did plan ahead and do some double duty on some nights this week since I knew I would be out celebrating for the holiday weekend. However, I did find some time this weekend to work on my outline for the middle part of the novel.
I like to work in a 3-act structure, so now that the first act chapter drafts are done, it’s time to deal with the second act—the dreaded middle. July is officially “Middle of My Novel” month. Pray for me.
Anyway, I have an idea of how the second act will end (totally different from the previous version), but not how to get there. We’ll just write through it. I’ll let my subconscious figure it out. If I get the same type of revelations that I got last month, it may turn out even better than expected.
Here’s the stats for Week 5:
Total for Week 5: 4,608
M-726; T-1,069; W-578; TH-1,319; F-916; S-0; SU-0
Total for the Challenge: 22,001
Hopefully with this progress, I can make my own special goal of 60K by August 31st (although the Summer Challenge goal only about 45K).
Gearing up for Week 6, here’s a quote from Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott.
“Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something—anything—down on paper.”
That’s some advice to take to heart next week as I delve into Middle of My Novel Month.
Off to put something down on paper…
