The Best Laid Plans,…

My poor under-worked MacBook Pro.
My poor under-worked MacBook Pro.

The great line from a poem by Robert Burns which John Steinbeck used for his novel ,.. “the best laid plans of mice and men, often go awry,” comes to mind as I look at my lack of progress during the NanoWriMo event this November.  I’d planned to be on fire to complete 50,000 words into my new novel by month end, but given that I’m only at 13,366 words, it’s not likely.

I’m liking the new novel and story very much, so that’s not really the problem.  I’m thinking there are a couple of things that have gotten me off track.

First and foremost is the guilt factor.  I have all the edit points noted on my hard copy of my first draft novel, ‘Inheriting S.O.F.I.A.’ that are ready for me to start working on my second draft, but I’d put that aside to do the NanoWriMo event.  I feel that I compromised on this as not finishing what I started makes me feel bad.  I’m into the new book already while leaving my first project to languish, thinking that I needed the NanoWriMo event to spur me on to get more writing done per day, but it just doesn’t feel right.

Secondly,…in my rush to ready myself for this month long event, I also compromised the way I write in that I normally complete an outline first, hashing out the plot details and discovering new twists I want to add in the process.  While I started my outline for my second novel, and have an idea of where it is ultimately going, I don’t have it completely fleshed out yet.  I probably don’t even have it completed enough to get to the 50,000 word mark, if I’m honest with myself, and that’s not usually how I’ve worked in the past on writing projects.  In fact, the times I didn’t have my outline envisioned were when I created long, rambling stories that didn’t come together all that well.  I like to envision the story in the outline process, but this new novel isn’t completely envisioned yet, so that’s been bothering me.

Throw into the mix that in November I had a very tense day job work event to deal with and a little holiday called Thanksgiving as well, and there was even more distractions than usual to keep my from writing.

So even though there is some guilt as well in not finishing the NanoWriMo event as planned, I’m pulling back on my overly ambitious plan for novel number two, and am going back, for now, to finish my first one.  Definitely a crash and burn situation on my NanoWriMo plan, but I think it’s best for my writing style that I deliver my first baby before working on the second.

In thinking about my outline first preference, I know that some writers don’t work this way.  They like to compose things by the seat of their pants and use the actual process of writing their novel as their way of exploring the possibilities of their imagination.  I guess I do this as well, to some extent, but I put that in the outlining process of dreaming up the whole story.  I never follow the outline religiously, as you’ll always come up with things in the process to make your story better, but it helps to keep me on track otherwise during the actual writing process.  This also seems to help me keep track of the details, which can be considerable in a novel, and allow me to concentrate on the creativity of the story details.  I think for my personality, it’s the best way for me to work, and actually allows me to extend the creative process out farther, in both the outlining and writing stages.

So that’s my elaborate excuse for failing at my plan to complete 50,000 written words in November.  Instead, I’m hoping to have my second draft of my first novel completed by year end, and then I’ll send it off to a proofreader and continue work on my second novel’s outline first.  To me,…that’s the right way to do things

2nd Novel, 1st Draft:  Burt’s Bots
November 29th, 2015:
Outline:  Partially done for the first part of the story
Novel Word Count:  13,366

 

 

November’s NanoWriMo is On!!

November's NanoWriMo Event

I shouldn’t even be writing this post as it’s November and I’ve committed to write 50,000 words by month end, but I thought it would be right to publicly state that I’m in it to win it.  I’m into my second novel now, making progress but I’m only a little over 10% there, on my fifth day, so I need to pick up the pace.

For some reason today, I’m not firing on all cylinders, so I didn’t get that much done.  I’m hoping I’ll gain more ground during the weekend.  I have a troubling work week ahead, so that might be weighing a little heavy on my heart right now, but I’ll keep plugging away.

So here I go, on my way,.. I hope, to a 50,000 word count by the end of the month.  Yikes!!

November 5th, 2015:
2nd Novel, 1st Draft:  Burt’s Bots
Word Count:  5,493

To Rewrite, or Write,…That Is The Question

A question I think I’ve largely answered in my mind, but will admit publicly here now.  I’ve already poured through the 1st Draft of my novel, “Inheriting S.O.F.I.A.” and have all of my notes down, but I still need to go through the second draft and do the rewrite on paper.  Sounds like a plan, you might say, but then enters the possibility of a new idea for my next novel that came to me shortly before completing the last one.  Add to that, the NaNoWriMo event in November, which challenges writers to complete a 50,000 page novel in the month of November.  I suppose I could use the NaNoWriMo event to do the rewrite, but considering I won’t be really writing 50,000 words in the process, it doesn’t seem right.

So I’ve decided to take a non-traditional route and use the November event to begin writing my second novel, even before completing the rewrite of the first.  Now this is the point where you might expect me to hang my head in shame,..but it’s not.  I fully intend, and am quite anxious to complete my first novel, but the NaNoWriMo event is quite motivating and I want to get the most out of it.  If I don’t have 50,000 words to rewrite on my 1st draft, I fear I’d waste some momentum.

So here I go, doing the nontraditional move and trying to get my outline together for book number two, before one is even completed.  Yes,…there is guilt involved.  My first novel isn’t even born yet and I’m looking forward to the creative process of writing the next one.  Admittedly,…rewriting your first draft isn’t as exciting as getting into a brand new story.  Realizing that you had characters start in one scene, then they just disappeared entirely, or finding sentences you’d written that you can’t figure out what you were trying to say.  These are the mechanics of rewriting your first draft, which still involves creativity to make the book  a hopefully good read, but isn’t as exhilarating as getting into an entirely new story.

But here I promise,… to the world and myself,.. that right after this NaNoWriMo event, I’m going back to the rewrite of my first novel to finish what I started.  And when that is done, I’ll find a good proofreader to make the final polish, and will then self publish “Inheriting S.O.F.I.A.” while also looking for an Agent to get it to a traditional publishing house.  From there, I can then work on finishing the first draft of my second novel, which won’t be completed even if I am able to write 50,000 words in November.  God willing.

Finishing the First Draft!

Finishing the First Draft!

I FINISHED MY 1ST DRAFT!  The last chapter has been written and I’ve finally finished this fairly large body or work and gotten my story out.  I had a great push in this last month thanks to the accountability of my Camp Nanowrimo experience.  This nonprofit website was create in a Spring Camp style and participants were grouped in cabins per the camp theme.  Most of my cabin mates had the same kind of 30,000 word count goals similar to mine. Well actually my estimate was just over 31 thousand words to complete my novel but I came up about 6 thousand words short of my projected end point.

This Camp Nanowrimo experience began on April 1st and with every writing session you were to post your word count totals.  I must admit that it really energized and standardized my writing efforts.  Since this was all being done part time, it’s taken me some time to get this done, but the camp helped me to get into the daily writing habit.  I had a great desire to keep my word counts up.  I was no longer writing all by myself, with no accountability.  I suddenly had peers, also with their own writing goals, whose progress I could see and whom I showed my progress to as well.  This was very motivating and really encouraged me to write often.  It’s a different experience when you are working in tandem with other aspiring writers, also working hard on their own stories. 

The site had a message board where each cabin member could leave comments on their progress, and often encouragement to others as well.  It was a really great experience and really helped me to make that final push to complete the first draft.  They have a more famous event in November where they challenge writers to complete their 50,000 word novel in that month alone.  I plan to take up that challenge with a new book idea that’s been percolating in my head, but that means I have to get busy on the next phase of this 1st novel,.. the rewrite!

While it’s a sweet victory to celebrate the completion of my novel’s first draft, like any other work, it’s going to need rewriting, polishing and editing.  This process promises to be easier than the first, but it’s still going to be a substantial amount of work.  This will be the phase where I’ll no doubt find multiple flaws and misspellings as well as intended elements I left out entirely, or repeated more than once.  The document I have now is definitely not ready for prime time for sure, but it’s my story, created out of thin air, and now out of my head.  Now comes the refining of what I’ve done.  Now comes the crafting of this story into a novel that I pray people will enjoy.

Your prayers are still welcomed as I enter this new phase of writing.  I’ll take a very short break and then will start by reading what I’ve created. Prior to this, I’ll finish reading a good book on the rewriting process so as to hopefully provide some useful times.  But for now, a minor celebration for my wife and I, and my thanks to God for helping me get to this point.

April 25th, 2015:
Current Novel Word Count:   78,198 Words
Percentage towards 1st Draft Goal:  100%
Title: Inheriting S.O.F.I.A.

3/8/15: Writing with the End in Mind

Writing with the End in Mind

I haven’t added anything to this blog in a while, so let me bring the blogosphere up to date.  As I stand now, I’m approaching a 62% completion rate, which isn’t very impressive given the time I’ve been working on this project, but it is progress.  At times, it’s a little hard to see what the end result will be.  It’s hard to imagine that my humble little story will end up as a novel that hopefully at least some people will enjoy. I don’t take the commitment of someone to read a novel lightly and I want my book to be an enjoyable experience that they find worthwhile of the decision to read it.

That vision is where I’d like this novel I’m writing to end, but having never done this before, I really don’t know if it’s realistic given the kind of writer I am. 

Perhaps it’s not good for an aspiring novelist to document all his hopes and worries in a blog like this.  It may not be the best way to build a “platform” as much of the literary world indicates I need, but I have faith in God that He’ll lead me in the right direction.  My status recording spreadsheet has the words “Pray before you write,. Honor God” written in a bold, yellow highlighted box so that it can’t be missed when I log in a session. This, I think, helps me to keep me on track and moving, although slowly, towards the ultimate goal.  

I pray that this book will be well received and that many people will like it, but in a sense, that’s really out of my hands.  I can only write the novel I feel is the right story, the story that has to come out of me.  The rest, I’ll leave in God’s hands.  That’s not to say I’ll just blindly put something out there without trying to make sure it’s the best it can be, or that I won’t look for ways to promote it, but ultimately, it’s up to God if its a success or not.  My life is in His hands, so if it’s an activity that He wants me to be encouraged in, something that truly honors Him, then it will work out.

I do realize that I need to step up my efforts to complete this first draft.  Sure,.. there are things going on in normal life that get in the way and have distracted me from completing this goal, but by God, I will complete this book, God willing.  What makes this even more important is that I’ve come up with an idea for my next book.  Ironic that this would come when I haven’t even finished the first one, so it gives me an even greater sense of urgency to get this story out.

I had purchased, late last year, the voice dictation program called Naturally Speaking from Dragon.  I’d gotten it to see if it would be helpful for my mom who is having sight issues lately, but in testing it, I found that one of their claims for the software is quite true.  Using it with my Scrivener writing program I realized that it significantly increased my writing speed.  I’m not sure if this is because it forces me to really concentrate on what I’m writing, or it’s the increased speed at which my thoughts go from my mind onto the document, but it makes me faster.  This may be a great thing that allows me to increase my productivity, although it’s not always possible to use since I have to basically speak my book into the headset microphone.  If I’m writing on the couch, next to my wife who’s trying to concentrate on a show she’s watching, or a game she’s playing, this isn’t practical.  Whatever the true reason that it makes me faster, this is a good tool that I plan on using in the future.

So here I go, trying to make another push to get this first draft done.  I’m entering into another very pivital scene which will take my heroes into a whole new realm within the story.  Things are getting very dramatic and there is about to be a lot of action.  Should anyone out there be checking out my humble blog, reading this recent post, please pray for me to complete this project and in a great way that honors God.  I can ask for no better thing, whether a handful of people read it, or it becomes a bestseller.  That’s what I really want to complete and I thank God for the ability to test my dreams in this way and for allowing me to pursue it.

March 8th, 2015:
Current Novel Word Count:   52,559 Words
Percentage towards 1st Draft Goal:  61.8%

8/11/14: Fabulous Fifty!

Fabulous Fifty!

Fabulous Fifty Percent that is.  As of this day, I’m past the fifty percent mark with the first draft of my novel.  As I’ve estimated the novel to come in at around 85,000 words, so this puts me at the halfway mark.

On one hand, I feel bad that it’s taken this long to get here, but on the other hand, I have to celebrate this milestone.  When faced with such a big project, it’s really the only way to do it.  So today I celebrate getting to this point with this self congratulatory blog post.

I still can’t reveal anything yet about the story itself, but my characters are now in the thick of things.  I will guide them through the rest of the first draft until I arrive at the 63,750 word mark which is my next milestone to work towards.  That will be the three quarters done mark and will really be an encouraging goal to reach.  

Hopefully I’ll make better time in getting to that next goal than I feel I did for this last one.  Maybe I should make a shorter goal, say to the the nine sixteenths mark?  Well,… maybe not.  Three quarters done feels like a real goal to work towards.  And I’m determined to make it there sooner than this last goal.

Considering that I’ll have less words to complete to get to this next goal, perhaps it won’t seem so daunting.  Maybe it will come much sooner than I’ll expect.  God willing, as I’d like to start to feel the project is getting closer to completion.  I’d like to see this dream realized.  At least with a completed first draft.

August 11th, 2014:
Current Novel Word Count:   42.541 Words
Percentage towards 1st Draft Goal:  50%!!!!

7/14/14: Blog Drought

Blog Drought


While California is currently having a terrible drought, I’ve also had one of my own in regards to posting to this blog.  My last post was nearly three months ago so I’m feeling rather guilty.  I guess in some way, I didn’t want to add to this blog as I didn’t think I had a lot of progress to report and that was a sense of shame for me.

As I look at my last post, I’ve only progressed another 15.6% towards completion of the first draft.  Not particularly impressive for nearly three months of time gone by, but I’ve been thrown some curve balls recently at the day job.  This has really sapped my attention and much of my time so I didn’t have a lot of extra unstressed moments to write, and when I did have time, I didn’t have much enthusiasm for it.  I can’t really say much about the distraction, but I don’t feel guilty for reacting this way.  Recently,… things appear that they may be getting better though, so I’ve been trying to step up my writing efforts. 

My next goal is to hit the 50% completed mark.  I’m fairly close to this, but still need to put in the hours.  Speaking of that, I’ve added another two cells to my writing spreadsheet.  One adds up the time I’ve spent in actual writing so far, which comes out to 81.2 hours.  If broken down into an 8 hour work day, that would be a little over 10 days. The second cell uses my average words per hour calculations based on recent writing sessions and projects that I can complete this first draft in about 21 1/2 days.  Needless to say, though, I need to pick up the pace.

I feel more confident that I’ll be able to increase my average words per hour count and get my first draft done sooner.  I’m in a very exciting part of the book which is fun to write, but also challenging as my characters are being pushed to the limit.  I’m hoping others will enjoy the story I am putting together but I have to complete it before I’ll ever be able to find out if they do.

I’m trying not to look too far ahead, but this will be only the first draft of this novel.  When this is done, after a brief celebration on my part, there will still be the second and third drafts to work on.  That won’t take as much effort, I’m hoping, as I’ll be tweaking and changing what I’ve already written, but it will still be a large block of work ahead for that stage of this project.

But for now, 50% is my goal.  How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.  (PETA,… I’m only kidding and would never eat an elephant)  So hopefully I’ll chug along at a better pace, but I’ll try to be better about documenting it here.  I don’t want to take too much time away from the novel, but will definitely check in on the Blog.  Particularly when I hit the 50% mark!

 

July 17th, 2014:
Current Novel Word Count:  37,236 Words
Percentage towards 1st Draft Goal:  43.8%

4/19/14: The Writing Mode

The Writing Mode

Normally I’ve been writing these blog posts after having written a good chunk of the novel first draft so this is a first as I haven’t written anything yet today.  I’m getting closer to being about a third of the way through it (hey what’s another 5 %) but my original plan of writing methodically in the mornings hasn’t really materialized.

I’m not sure if this has more to do with my day job or my writing preferences, but since I started I’ve never actually grabbed a couple of hours in the morning to write.  I’ve mostly been grabbing blocks of times in some evenings and on the weekends as it worked out.  I just need to know I’ll have that block of time and won’t get into writing for 20 minutes and then we have to go or do something.  I have to feel I have a block of time so that I can enter a sort of “writing mode” where I won’t be mentally interupted in any great way for a period of time.

If I were someday blessed to be a professional writer, it would be much easier to block off writing time and seclude myself for what would then be my full time job.  Writing would have it’s own set time to be done with no other competing occupation.  That would seem a dream job to me, although I’d miss the interaction with others, but it’s not a realistic dream job unless you have some measure of success as a writer.  But to have that, you have to write, so time for me to stop pontificating about writing my novel and get back to it.  I’ll put myself in writing mode right now as I think I have a little block of time ahead.

April 19th, 2014:
Current Novel Word Count:  23,990 Words
Percentage towards 1st Draft Goal:  28.2%

4/6/14: Progress

Progress

While my writing sessions have been a bit limited lately, I’m still showing some respectable progress as I close in on an estimate of 25% done with the first draft.  Well,.. 24.7% to be exact.  The spreadsheet has helped to keep me on track and has been surprisingly encouraging.  (See my last blog post on details)

As the numbers go higher, the end goals seems more attainable.  I really have to concentrate more on making time to write, but my day job work schedule has been somewhat sporadic.  I could work there less, not putting in so much unpaid overtime, but I’m the boss and have a responsibility to make sure things get done, so that’s not likely to happen anytime soon.

The story I’m working on is getting into some interesting parts to write, so it’s been challenging and fun at the same time.  For this particular tale, the farther I go into the novel, the more complex the interactions become between the characters.  The story also escalates in to more spectacular details which I hope will work well once it all comes together.

That hope that your story will be fun, entertaining and exciting is what both drives me, and frightens me.  I’m hoping everyone else will enjoy the story as much as I do, but that’s really the big unknown when writing.  From everything I’ve heard, you just have to approach the first draft and make it the best you can, allowing your imagination to go wherever it wants, and that’s what I’m attempting to do.  Only time will tell if I’ve succeeded. 

As I get into the sections of the novel that are really stretching boundaries, I’ll need to stay vigilant to allow myself the freedom to be creative.  In my last session I actually changed part of my outline for an additional scene I needed to add and thus strayed from the original plan, but I know it will work.  I just need to keep at it. 

April 6th, 2014:
Current Novel Word Count: 20,999 Words (Should have written 1 more word!)
Percentage towards 1st Draft Goal: 24.7%

3/9/14: The Sheet Never Lies

The Sheet Never Lies

One of the writing tips I’d read about previously was to keep track of my writing activities so that I could gauge not only how the overall project was going, but also how productive I was being.  So I have set up a spreadsheet to do just this and the results are very interesting.

I put a notes section in there so that I could quantify the conditions in which I’ve been writing and to no surprise, I’m more productive without any other distractions. When I’m writing with something else going on in the background, my word count per hour is not as high.  True that I can tune out the background noise, but I haven’t really been able to schedule secluded writing time only yet.  I have found time in couch potato mode, though, which has given me some good progress on the novel.  I guess that’s a sad commentary in and of itself, but that unproductive time is being transformed, so that makes me feel a little better about it.

Now to the results.  Although I was hoping it would show my average word count per hour would be somewhere around a thousand words, it’s actually been in the 450 to 760 word range.  The spreadsheet has been a good tool as it shows me as well, at this rate how many hours I have ahead to get to my 85,000 word novel goal.  Given the results, it’s also showing me that I’d be more productive, most likely, writing in a quiet time with no distractions.  That alone may prove to be the best observational value of the spreadsheet, if it proves to be true.

So based on the spreadsheet, I’ll make this a goal to grab that quiet time to write and with God’s help and my trusty spreadsheet as well, I’ll be able to hopefully reach my goal sooner.  It’s also helped, oddly enough, to encourage me, as I made a formula to tell me what percentage of the overall goal I’ve reached so far.  Currently it shows me as 16.8% complete towards my first draft novel goal.  I have 70,705 words to go.  That might not sound too encouraging to you, but I know where I was before, so for me, it’s quite encouraging.

So for you other aspiring novelist out there, I will attest to this being a good motivator as well as a general tool to help you gauge your normal productivity. It’s even funny how I seemed to have developed a competition with myself to be more productive in my writing time.  I’m happy when I see my numbers at a greater level and the percentage done is a wonderful thing to see climb higher.  Here’s hoping I’ll have much better progress to report next time.

March 9th, 2014:
Current Novel Word Count:  14,295 Words
Percentage towards 1st Draft Goal:  16.8%