The Day
Rolled out about 2. Checked emails and other things.
Had another short walk today, right at 4 miles. Looking forward to a good walk tomorrow.
Sticking on one scene in Book 8 for some reason. Standard, average, typical day for me.
Topic of the Night: Eating an Elephant
There’s an old joke. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
That’s how you write a novel, too. One word, one sentence, one paragraph, one scene at a time.
I was looking over some old stuff, back when this journal was strictly private. Back in late October 2014, one of the new goals I set was to write “six novels in the next calendar year.”
Well, that’s when I expected to finish my first one by December 8. Then I was going to lay off until January 1, then start writing toward my goal.
As it turned out, I released the first novel on November 11 and the second one on December 7. Then I released the third one on December 27.
I was able to do that once I realized I can’t write a “novel.” The idea is overwhelming. But I can write a sentence, a paragraph, a scene. I can keep plugging away until the story is finished.
So this calendar year (thus far) I’ve written five novels and a novella. Those are in addition to the two “extra” novels I wasn’t expecting to have finished last year.
But not one time was I able to sit down and wrap my head around an entire novel or even the novella. Each time I wrote a scene, then another scene, then another scene. I ran through the story with my characters, and I wrote down what they said and did. That’s all.
And that ended up being eight novels and a novella, and counting. Oh, plus a short story every week. (grin)
So if you’re ever overwhelmed at the idea of writing a novel, just remember you can’t. Just write the scene. Don’t worry about how it connects to anything else. Just write the scene. Then write another one. Then another. Your characters will lead you through.
Today’s Writing
Not a lot to it. Finally knocked out the one scene and that’s about it. Things will break loose soon.
Fiction words: 1784
Writing of Book 8 in the Wes Crowley saga
Day 1…… 4125 words. Total words to date…… 4125
Day 2…… 2624 words. Total words to date…… 6749
Day 3…… 2766 words. Total words to date…… 9515
Day 4…… 1412 words. Total words to date…… 10927
Day 5…… 3441 words. Total words to date…… 14368
Day 6…… 1052 words. Total words to date…… 15420
Day 7…… 2486 words. Total words to date…… 17906
Day 8…… 3201 words. Total words to date…… 21107
Day 9…… 3186 words. Total words to date…… 24293
Day 10… 1585 words. Total words to date…… 25878
Day 11… 2178 words. Total words to date…… 28056
Day 12… 1730 words. Total words to date…… 29786
Day 13… 1083 words. Total words to date…… 30869
Day 14… 1784 words. Total words to date…… 32653
Total fiction words for the month…………… 23387
Total fiction words for the year……………… 429070