It’s my fifth milestone of my Operation 50/50. It’s really going by fast! Only two more weeks to go. I’m seeing a sliver of light in my tunnel where I’m still tackling 50 scenes in 50 days.
At least in theory anyway, ha.
This past week? Sigh. Just a little shade of crazy. Worked three 14-hour days in a row trying to get a software project finished and I was working on about 4-5 hours of sleep. So this week’s scenes suffered a bit.
But then I remember this was NOT a stressful writing challenge. My main goal was to “expose” myself to my manuscript on a daily basis.
So I did a little of what I call “set direction” — making notes on what I want to happen in each scene. My writer friend Laura Pauling helped me out with some of her Fabulous Plot Posts. I also got some revision and draft dialogue done.
Hey, it was better than nothing, Dude.
How did it all end?
Wrote dialogue for scenes 28-32.
Revised scenes 32-34.
Got a chance to do my type-in from last week’s longhand so I have two milestone updates:
Total from last week’s Milestone #4: 7822
Total for this week’s Milestone #5: 894
Total for Operation 50/50: 18,445 words
The things I learned this week:
Other than appreciating the priceless gift of sleep, I learned something about my “set direction.” I noticed that there was either too much going on or not enough tension. For the scenes where there was too much “excitement,” I’ve decided that maybe I should break those out into smaller moments/scenes. And then where there was nothing going on, trying to figure out a way to create tension. For me, I think scenes are most effective when they are focused on one particular desire and/or tension point.
Any of you tackling your own Operation 50/50? What was your progress this week? Other writers, do you try to identify a focal point for a scene or chapter while writing draft or do you work on that during revision? How important do you think it is to be able to identify the focus?
Three days of 14 hours of work in a row?! That is some kind of crazy! You poor thing. I always have a focal point in mind when writing a scene. I think without it a lot ends up getting cut that isn’t relevant. Congrats on your progress by the way!
I think I’m going to take some of these tips and apply them to my editing and revising. you are making great progress!
The important thing is that you are accomplishing what you set out to do, working your MS :) Great Job! and thank for the links :D
Karen, you’re so right. Any goals we set shouldn’t cause us stress but help us. Sounds like you’re doing awesome!
And thanks for the link! :)
Good for you for pushing yourself to write this week despite your crazy work week and limited sleep! You should be proud of your progress. I’m going to go check out Laura’s plot posts. :)
Good work this week! You deserve a nice long break this weekend. By the way, drop by my blog sometime. You have an AWARD waiting for you
Wow, it’s amazing you managed to do any writing at all! With that kind of schedule, I would have just given up. I hope next week is less crazy for you!
I love reading about your progress. It uplifts me!
This week: I revised up to the second third of the novel. I look forward to the next two weeks. Thanks again for the 50/50 community you founded. :)
That is great progress during such a busy time with the day job.
Heather: Totally ridiculous but believe it or not, this ALWAYS happens around a software release. I’m actually sort of used to it.
Hannah: You should definitely go over and check out Laura’s plot posts! They are fab.
Saba: You’re welcome for links! And thanks so much for the b-day wishes! :)
Laura: Stress? Ha, I leave that for the day job — no need to stress out in the writing too. And you already know how much this plot chick loves your posts. :)
Ghenet: I was really happy to get those 800+ words considering the limited time I had. Check out Laura’s links! :)
Nutschell: Thanks so much for the award! I’ll definitely check it out! :)
Anna: Book Twin! :) It will be much less crazier this upcoming week. I hope to get more writing done too.
Nathalie: That’s great to hear about your progress! I hope that you get losts done during the next two weeks! :)
Medeia: The day job can be SO crazy! But I just try and make it work. No need to add stress about it. I just work around it! :)