Week Ending Sunday, April 26, 2015

Chapter 53.

949 words.

More to come today, but it's 2:41 a.m., so I should probably sleep.

...Okay, did that.

Chapter 54.

2,105 words.

So over 3,000 for this day so far.

I hope to finish Chapter 55 tonight.

So exhausted I'm making silly mistakes and the words aren't coming like they do.  I even made some saving errors, which is really bad.  But...


For the week (drumroll, please):


Chapter 49 = 689 words.

Chapter 50 = 372 words.

Chapter 51 = 3,002 words.

Chapter 52 = 803 words.

Query letters = 224 words.

Chapter 53 = 949 words.

Chapter 54 = 2,105 words.

Chapter 55 = 396 words.

Chapter 56 = 509 words.

Chapter 57 = 79 words.


9,128 words!  YES!!!  I can't tell you how great this feels.  And it even felt great doing it.


And now vacation ends.  I really, really hope I can produce even half this much during a workweek.

Week Ending Sunday, April 19th, 2015

Let's see...

--An honest-to-God letter sent out today to someone I don't frequently communicate with, but who's been an important influence upon me.  My sixth-grade teacher, if you can believe it.  I'm still at least minorly-acquainted with my sixth-grade teacher, my tenth-grade homeroom teacher, my eleventh-grade writing teacher, and my twelfth-grade Spanish teacher.  What can I say?  Teachers rock!

--Query letters, chapter fragments and small pieces of essays and poems.

--All of this since just yesterday, because a major project was due for work Friday, and it took up my week.  But now I'm on vacation, so stand back!!!

I'll estimate...about 1,500 words.  This will at least quadruple for next Sunday.

Week ending Sunday, March 29, 2015

Today I finalized 617 words of a so-far three-page poem that I think could be something special. 

I've always liked writing poems and I've been paid for a couple, but I've only sent out those two.  But as I've been researching markets for my stuff--which is what I've been doing most of the week, besides working at home at my job that pays The Man--I've seen a ton of places to send out my many poems.  I won't send them all out, maybe, but...

Well, not much this week, so I'm sure I'll get my butt kicked again.  Very, very frustrating week.

1,000 words earlier this week + 617 words of this poem + about 350 words, just a couple of pages of the next chapter of my almost-finished book.  ::sigh::

So let's just call it an even 2,000 words again this week.  I thought there'd be more.

Next week there will be.

March 8, 2015

Been sick with severe inflammation, seemingly everywhere.  I know I'm supposed to write when I'm sick.  I know, I know...

Chapter 47.  Very short chapter.  439 words.

BTW, should blog entries count?  If they do, I've done a few thousand more words in the past few days.

February 28, 2015

I've found, to my dismay, that I'm more of a weekend writer when the career is in full swing during the week.  Like it was this week, when it seemed I had 27 heads and 300 arms, and it all still wasn't enough to do what I had to do.  But at least I'm still writing.

Chapter 46.  2,023 words.

This chapter I'd feared for a week, but when I sat my butt down, it was smooth-sailing, very visual, and fun.  I don't know why I get anxious, still, but I do.  Maybe it's a good thing--shows I care, right?

February 15, 2015

Well, it's been almost a year.  I've written a lot since then: four or five short stories, almost twenty chapters of my WIP, countless other things...but it still felt a bit slow to me, and I languished at this like I feel I have at my writing, though people tell me I'm being more productive than I think I am.

Common, life-long curse.

I've been on a roll lately, though, and writers are loathe to break whatever's working well.  But I came across this blog again, and I felt I needed to either use it or lose it.  I'm not ready, for some reason, to lose it, so...

Chapter 42.  880 words.

Sunday, February 23, 2014

1,900 words.  Chapter 26 is done.  Really proud of myself, because tonight's writing came out very, very painfully, and slowly.  This was the kind of night that I usually let go because I didn't have the perseverance to stick with it even though it wasn't going to be my best.  But I don't have the time for some perfectionism anymore.  If it doesn't come out as my best, I'll make it that way when I go back again and again and edit it.

And that's what I did.

Vacation's over.  Back to work tomorrow.  I need to have the perseverance to write tomorrow, even if I come home from work and I'm beat.  I've got to do it anyway.  It's got to get done.

Saturday, February 22, 2014

2,166 words.  Done with Chapter 25, one of the longest in the WIP.  Made a couple of important decisions, split up a huge chapter from the previous draft.  Will create a new chapter tomorrow, then Chapter 27 will be the second half of what had been Chapter 25 in the previous draft.  Nobody likes really long chapters. 

Chapter 25 is a little longer than most in the WIP, but much of it's dialogue, and it was really important to set up a bond, no matter how minor, between the main character and a minor one.  This was a glaring omission from previous drafts.  Before, saving her had been just something he needed to do.  Now, her character's got more of a connection with him, which makes you care more for her character, which makes you want her to be saved, which makes his race to save her even more tense.

All in theory, of course.

Friday, February 21, 2014

1,178 words so far of Chapter 25 of WIP.  Working very hard not to make it an info-dump chapter, or just straight exposition, or just a straight-up flashback.  So far, so good.  And there are a few really important decisions I have to make in this chapter, which often takes more time than actually writing it.  Some chapters are easier than others.  But I'm very happy with this one.

Hopefully there'll be more to come tonight.  I can feel it, but I don't want to blow a fuse.  And life has to happen, too.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Four pages, 827 words, all of Chapter 24 of WIP.

A kick ass chapter.  Took a few hours, which felt like a few minutes.

1,258 words of what I think is one of my best blogs, ever, at this link: http://stevenebelanger.blogspot.com/2014/02/same-parents-second-faith-healing-death.html.  Oops, now that I look at it, I see I wrote and published this on the 19th.  Oh, well.

Yes, I know that's shameless self-advertising.  And, yes, long blog entries of a good quality count as writing.

And writing over 2,000 words in one day, when I've been struggling to write anything at all, is nothing to sneeze at.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

It's been almost a month since my last report, but not because I haven't been writing.  In fact, lately:

--I wrote a book review for a mystery website (more information to come) and went through a few drafts, for a total of about 2,100 words.

--I re-wrote a short story and sent it out.  Total of about 4,800 words.

--And I've written a few more chapters.  Total of about 7,000 words.

Not writing as much as I would've liked, but I'm not stressing it (like I usually do) because there's been lots of illness, lots of work at the main job, and a few other freelance things that made some money.

So I'm hanging in there and doing it--just not as often as I'd like.

But isn't that always the case, for almost every writer?

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Well, again, it's been a little while.  Tough time of the year to write consistently.  Still not feeling great, and job situation now hopefully resolved.

Am I expecting the impossible, or shouldn't I be able to write consistently every day?  I feel very guilty and almost ashamed when I don't.  Which doesn't help when I try to sit down and write next time...

When I finally sit down and get going, there's rarely a problem.

2,412 words. 

9 pages. 

Chapter 23 is done.

Saturday, November 30, 2013

Head still stuffed and woozy from cold / sinus infection.  Holiday entertaining over.

It's good to be back in the saddle again.  Not my fault, but it's been too long.

1,310 words of the novel.  Six pages.  Broke down a very long chapter of the previous draft.

(And 1,192 more words if you count the entries for three blogs I wrote today, for a total of 2,502 words.  Should those count?)

May we all write well, and often.

Resistance is the writer's real enemy.  (That's kind of a Catching Fire homage, there.  And a nod to Steven Pressfield.)

Monday, November 25, 2013

A little late today; lots going on.

Still not feeling well, and the holiday stress has started.  Gotta love the holidays.

990 words of Chapter 22, which is still not done.

Finally, a longer chapter than usual lately.

May we all write well, and often.

Sunday November 24, 2013

Chapter 21 of the current novel-in-progress.

Two pages.  (My chapters lately are short.)

454 words.  (Not bad as I fight through this head cold.)

Not too many words the last few days, but I'm writing each day.

Even just two completed pages per day gets a 300-page manuscript done in 150 days--or five months.

I'll take that.

May we all write well, and often.

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Struggling through an obviously-oncoming cold:

Chapter 20 of novel.

670 words.

Three finished pages.  Short chapter.

Not much, but not bad, through congesting sinuses and sinus pressure, especially behind my cheeks, my eyes and my forehead.  Hopefully I'm all right by Thanksgiving.

Feel free to leave your word count or page count below.

May we all write well, and often.