Words and Coffee

Words not Dollars

I hit 100,000 words on the first draft of my first novel today and feel like I’ll have things wrapped up within the next 10,000 or so. My original goal was 100k by the end of August, with the idea that I’d also have a complete story. That gives me 11 days to get to the end. I should be able to do it because I have the luxury of having 4-5 writing hours at least 5 days a week. I’m a lucky devil, I know. At the same time, I’m pretty excited that I’ve been able to make it this far, stay close to my goal and have a complete, if extremely unrefined manuscript. I read an interview with Lauren K. Hamilton where she says:

Seventy percent of a first draft is garbage and 30 percent is gold, but you have to write 100 percent to get that 30.

That’s probably conservative in my case. I figure if I get a quarter of good stuff, I’m in good shape. I have no idea how long revisions will take, but it should be a fun experience. Does anyone have any words of wisdom where revision is concerned? I’ve come across a few articles and read a few books on the matter, but I’d like to hear as many approaches as possible. I know there are probably plenty of ways to get to the same end, so I’m all ears.

Here are some articles I came across in my on line search that I enjoyed:

http://www.essortment.com/all/writebetternov_rtsk.htm

http://www.gonzalobarr.com/blog/?p=732

http://www.efuse.com/Design/wa-seven-steps.html

I found this one particularly entertaining:

http://buddha-rat.squarespace.com/shitty-first-drafts/

Hope you get something out of these.

Finish Line at Ancient Olympia

I hit 90k words yesterday. Things are coming along well enough for the first draft. The story lines are coming to a head and the ending is in site. I figure I’ll have about 110k first draft words after the dust settles.

With a little luck, some of it will be good and worth keeping. With a lot of hard work, I hope to fine tune the ms. and circulate it to a handful of trusty readers (those I trust to call a spade a spade and tell me how the book affects them, for better or worse).

As I’ve written these pages, I find myself wondering what I hope most writers wonder – am I doing it right? Only time and readers will tell, but I have to say that this has been a joy to experience. So far I’ve come away with the perception that dedication and determination will be the keys to succeeding. Yes, talent must be in there, too, but without the commitment, talent doesn’t mean a whole lot.

A Stylized Interpretation of Me Wrangling with My Laptop

I hit 80k words last Friday – it felt damn good. I added a little sumpin’ to the word pile on Sat, knocking out 1000 words in an hour. I am set to finish up within the deadline I set in April – the end of August for my first draft.

My laptop has other ideas. It crapped the bed, so to speak, yesterday. I headed down to the shed to get another stolen hour of writing in before we headed to a going away party for a friend of ours. I plugged everything in, got my writing mix rolling on the ipod, and hit the on button. Nothing. No lights, no familiar whir of the fan, no glowing reassurance from the LCD screen. Maybe it felt overworked or maybe it just didn’t like my work.

I check a bunch of stuff. I took the thing apart (I only had three screws left over once I put it back together!). I tested the AC adapter. It would seem the problem is in the box itself. Good times.

Plan B – I dragged down our 10-year-old desktop (Dell Dimension XPS T500 – phat.) from the attic after much searching and help from my wife. She has a knack for finding lost things. I got everything up and running by 12:30 AM and went to bed.

Turns out I lost my last thousand words, as I had not backed them up on my external hard drive. I’ve surpassed Google Docs allowance for document size and have not broken the writing up to submit in smaller chunks. I’m hoping I can retrieve it from my laptop, but in the meantime, upward and onward.

P.S. I’m considering dumping Windows XP for an open source operating system. If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to comment.

I much prefer the stationary grindstone for nasal contact

I managed to reach my 10k word count last week. The 2k per day goal seemed to work out pretty well as far as getting deeper into the story as a writer and establishing a flow. Therefore, I’m continuing with that goal for the foreseeable future. Last night I was up until about midnight – 3 hours in the shack – grinding out the words to reach my goal. It was probably not my finest effort, but I did manage to get some story bones down. I’ll rely on the second run to flesh out things where necessary and prune the deadwood.

I’ve enjoyed a number of great posts this week concerning writer topics such as motivation, looking to unconventional sources for ideas, dealing with the “Am-I-Crazies”, not sweating genre, and improving your odds of publication. As always, there are tons more items out there, but I enjoyed these the most. Oh yeah, I enjoyed the New Yorker interview with Ursula K. Le Guin as well. Thanks to jlake and bibliophile stalker for the near-simultaneous linkage.