Sunday, September 12, 2010

Off to a Good Start!

It was amazing how easily I got back on track with writing every morning!  I got up every day this week a little before 5:00 AM. (A couple of days I woke up earlier than that, eager to get started. I resisted the urge.) I wrote non-stop until 6:00 AM, when I forced myself to stop and get ready for my day job.  Every day I exceeded 1,000 words.   I've added a word count log on the side banner of this blog.  It's fun to keep track of progress towards my goals.  I do it with exercise and savings, and I'm going to do it with my writing as well.

I decided to start with Marathon Nightmare which had kind of gone off the rails in the spring when I quit on it.  Not having written any fiction for months, I decided to get back on track with this one, which can be a "throw away" if I can't pull it back out of the ditch.  I am eager to dig into a couple of stories that are going to be more personal (and emotional) than most of the stuff I have written in the past.  Before I do that, I thought it would be a good idea to practice on something that won't be too taxing but will get me back in the groove.

That seems to be working out well. I came up with a new twist for Marathon Nightmare that will allow the story to move forward.  I was kind of afraid I had solved the mystery too early.  Turns out that the resolution I thought had been achieved was a false alarm.  Bev's on her way back to Florida to resume her investigation into a hotel fire that turned out to be more than merely arson.  I'm having fun with the story again.

I think I'll spend September and October finishing the first draft of Marathon Nightmare.  In November, I plan to join the NaNo craziness again. That's always fun. I'll have to really work hard the first part of the month, because I'm going on vacation at Thanksgiving and may not have time to write much that weekend. I am noodling around with a couple of ideas for that event.

I plan to move in January, so I'll probably back off writing in December and January due to packing and moving.  After I get installed in my new home, wherever it turns out to be, I will get down to business with the story I have been referring to as In All of Creation.  One of the first orders of business will be to change the name.  Current ideas include: The Genius of Libbie Pohlman; The Joyous Ghost of Pike County; Where Madness Lies. That one is still simmering just below the surface of my consciousness, but it's definitely there and it's about ready to be born.

It was nice to take a break for the summer, and it was wonderful to do so much reading after too many years of doing nothing but writing.  I hope I can achieve some kind of balance where I can do both in the future, but whatever I do, I want it to include writing something every day.



2 comments:

  1. I'm still on break...
    I often wake up at 4:30 in the morning. Maybe I need to just get up and start writing.

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  2. You have to be a true morning person to get up at 4:30 AM to write. Fortunately I am a morning person. That puts me out of synch with most of the rest of humanity, but it's good for writing.

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