So here we are, just finishing up week 2 and it feels like déjà vu all over again. Stuck in the morass of loss of motivation. Nothing new once again. 45k down and just over 2 weeks to go. It would usually be at this time when I would give up and tank yet another project because I am behind. If this year has taught me anything, it is we have to give ourselves a little grace; forgive ourselves if life just gets to be a little too heavy. But I’ll stay off of the therapist’s couch with this post, and allow the other authors to report. They are feeling the flow and good things are coming from them.

Joe Scipione

Over 20,000 words and I’m almost halfway there.

I really settled into a good routine this week. As talked about in last weeks post, I have a hard time writing more than 1000 words in a sitting because my brain is trained, I think, to produce those 1000 words and call it a day. Because of that I’ve gone with double sessions this week and it’s working extremely well. I’ve set my alarm a little earlier and got up before anyone else in the house, then I just sit down and punch out 1000 pretty good words. After that, I go through my day as usual and then get to my usual night writing time. It’s been long enough by then that my brain is ready and able to produce another 1000 words (if not more) and I’m putting out at least 2000 words for the last five or six days. As long as I can keep going with the double sessions I feel like I’ll be in good shape.

As far as the story itself, I feel it veering off a little bit from the direction I intended it to go, but I like the changes I made. I still have the major events in there and a few more coming up soon but I think overall the changes I’m seeing in the story are making it better overall.

Until next week....

Bud Fugate

Twenty one thousand words! Yes, I am spelling out the number to get my word count a little higher, so sue me. Work has been busy so I have not been able to write at all at my ideal time for writing, first thing in the morning, so all my writing has been done at night which makes me feel sluggish and I can’t get as many words out as I do in the morning. The daily goal is 1,667 and writing in the morning when my mind is clear before I’ve bombarded my brain with a million things is easier than at night, but what am I going to do? Of my daily word count about 75% comes from writing the section I am currently working on and the other 25% is from me going back and reading the last 3-4 days worth of material and adding a little bit here and there. I’ve been focusing on being succinct with my stories before November popped up, staying under 1,250 words but now I need the words. So I write whatever comes to mind to get through the section knowing in a few days I’ll look back and add more. Doing this, I’ve added nine new characters which add a bit of depth to the story and have been able to paint a picture of the setting a bit better.

Each day when I finish I make a little post on twitter with my word count and a little commentary. It was on the night of the 12th when I realized I might not have planned correctly. You see, the first 20k words of the novel cover a 6 month time frame and the next 30k words are only going to cover 6 hours. Yikes! Scary? A little bit, but this is the part of the story where all the scary, violent, stabbings, dismemberments, voodoo cults and werewolves are going to happen. That’s my favorite stuff to write and I think I will have no issue meeting my word count but just in case, I googled the sunrise/sunset times for New Orleans Louisiana in August and it looks like I have 10 hours to write about 30k words instead of just 6.

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Written by Dave, Joe, and Bud!