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Wednesday's Word Count

Um. Where did this last week go? I think I'm being plagued by time snatchers. But, anyway...

Prior Goal: 6,000 words.

Achieved: 3,248.

Goal for new week: Finish draft by 05/15.

Excuses / comments: I have not finished yet. I know! I'm so close. And I am. I have one scene left to write before I'll consider this draft done. The problem is... it's a scene I've been putting off for several weeks and I STILL don't how to write it. It seems insane because I have all the ground work for it laid down. I'm just missing a key detail that the scene hinges on. But, Friday is THE DEADLINE (I see you stressing, Heather) so I'm going to just hunker down and do it. I'm going to write it however it comes out and worry about nailing it down later.

Which brings me to a Wednesday question. Do you write from beginning to end or out of order? I normally write linear but I've had to jump all over the place for this WIP to keep my sanity.

Have as great a Wednesday as you can!

10 comments:

PJ Hoover said...

Beginning to end, though recently in revisions I've been doing those more piecemeal.

Stephanie J said...

Fantastic! Every week I'm impressed by your progress!

Prior Goal: 10,000 words

Achieved: 3,378

Goal for new week: 12,000 words

Excuses/comments: So that wasn't even close but I do feel like the habit of writing every day is making my word count pick up momentum. I don't care how slow I look right now I still say I'll be done with this thing by July if it kills me! I've also noticed that I try to give myself all night to write but I end up wasting time the first several hours before hunkering down and cranking out words later in the evening. I think I might be draining myself that way so I'm going to start my w/c later in the evening next week.

I like the idea of writing from beginning to end but I keep getting stuck in the dang first act so I've been moving around in act II. We'll see how that works out...

Good luck! You will be finishing on my bday so it will be a great day! ;)

Eric said...

Good job. I don't have a process nailed down yet, but mostly I do linear writing, until I find that I one chapter actually belongs before the current chapter and then I find myself hopping all over. So I guess I'm still a mishmash.

Casey Something said...

I love hearing about the way you work, PJ.

I think switching around really kept me going but I think I'd have less inconsistencies if I had gone beginning to end.

You're doing awesome, Stephanie! Writing everyday really does help improve daily and weekly word counts. I can't wait to hear you finished.

I'm not really sure I've figured my process out either, Eric! I'll have to see what I end up doing in the future and how it works out.

Tyler said...

Like PJ, I go beginning to end too. On the computer for first draft, and on paper for rewrites.

I know EXACTLY how you feel with that last scene, Casey. When I was revising last year and coming to the end of my "new" novel, I was at a halt for like 2 weeks wondering how the I was going to work that final scene and make it realistic.

Keep at it, it'll come to you!

C. N. Nevets said...

Oh dear me.

There were two days last week I didn't get any writing done, and I'm behind on pulling the trigger on submissions, too. The past few days I have been so braindead. I have spent a lot of time on back-office stuff, but it's no good if I don't get the product out the door.

Somehow I let the time-eating gremlins get ahold of me and the allergy gremlins get ahold of my brain. I need to stand up and fight back against both.

Rose and I didn't get any time this week for writing work together, so our monthly collab goals are getting scarily close to falling amiss.

Jeesh.

I usually write beginning, then end, then straight through in the middle. That said, sometimes if I get struck suddenly by how to make a scene work, I'll go ahead and write it out of order.

As long as you have an outline, writing out of order can work okay. If you're writing without a structure, I'm not sure how well that could possibly work.

Heather Hansen said...

I'm officially ignoring this post. If I didn't see it, it didn't happen.

C. N. Nevets said...

Heather, don't like Bekah and Seth here you say that. LOL!

Sheri Perl-Oshins said...

Beginning to middle, back to beginning to further on in the middle, back to beginning to further still in the middle, back to beginning to almost near the end, to almost near the end, to almost near the end and now I seem to be a broken record - but at least I am no longer starting over!

Rhonda Helms said...

Go go go go go!!! You can finish it!!!

I write linear, but I will skip over scenes if I need to (e.g., I'll just write, "add a school scene where X, Y, and Z happens" and then move on). I hate getting hung up on scenes and stalling. Then when I'm done, I'll go back and add those scenes--and usually I can, because I'm more confident in the story by then.