48 Days and Counting - Minus Four

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Well. I managed to keep to my plan for the past four days.

 


 

At my desk by eight (or thereabouts). Head down for ninety minutes writing. Then another half hour reviewing, planning - throughlines that are either developing or needing refining, highlighting elements that need some research 

It slows me down - all those rabbit holes! - if I do it in regular writing time, so I do it in separate session. Right now my research notes include watching some videos of sandstorms in Middle Eastern urban areas, and to read more about djinns.

 I do keep a daily Journal and Notes so I can record what I have done, document names, wordcount, etc. etc. All in one folder on my Desktop. Also a scene list (photo included here) - extracted from my Reverse Outlining template - on which I am recording early info on each scene. At this point I don't worry too much about overall 'plot'. I know the beginning, the end, the main story questions and story goal, so first write the most dynamic scenes as they come to me.

The four columns on my Scene list are: Scene Goal / Emotion / Main action / Notes. And in the Scene Goal column I include a code for scene type - P (Pre-Scene), SC  (Main Scene) and SQ (Sequel).
More about how I use Reverse Outlining in another blog post.

The individual scenes will get 'cobbled together' later.

Stats to date.

  • 2 previous scenes reviewed and refined.
  • 4 new scenes drafted
  • 4440 new words to date - I work 'quick and dirty', only going over the draft before filing to clean up obvious typos, etc. and perhaps add more notes of observations in the J&N document. But no rewriting. 

Overview

I feel my 'writing muscle' - wherever it is located - getting more flexible. But not especially pleased with much that I have produced so far, although a couple of new threads worth following have emerged in that spooky way that only happens when I actually have the fingers on the keyboard. 

I am rereading  the little gem How Fiction Works by  James Woods.

And trusting in my own advice, "The more you write the easier it gets. The more you write the better it gets."

 

 

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