Hi Folks,
I seriously considered taking a day off writing today. I was going to do some reading instead. But my fingers and my mind keep leaning toward my writing computer, so writing it is.
Last night I skimmed the 30 pages of introductory material in Working Days, which I’ve now learned is actually the book inside which Steinbeck’s daily journal is allegedly secreted. I hope to find the journal itself sometime later today during a break from writing. (grin)
Didn’t find time to look today. The search continues in a day or two.
Last night also I read half of a book by Algis Budrys titled Writing to the Point. Folks, this thing is excellent. Seriously. You can get it as part of a bundle right now (until December 27) at https://storybundle.com/nano. (On this book, I recommend from the beginning up through Chapter 6. After that, skip to Writing SF and Fantasy at the end. It has to do with more than SF&F.)
Seriously, go there. Check it out. In the same “basic” bundle (only about $15) you can get Rusch’s Discoverability and Zuckerman’s bible, Writing the Blockbuster Novel. Plus three other titles. If you go for the bigger bundle, for $25 you get a whole bunch of others, including some from DWS.
The Day
Rolled out a little before 3 this morning. Outside it’s a regular heat wave at 37 degrees.
Probably no walk today but we’ll see. (I was right. No walk.)
Today’s Writing
Well, I had a breakthrough with the novel today, but not the kind you might expect.
Yesterday I wrote that I thought it was going to be a sprint to the end of the novel. Wishful thinking, maybe.
Every time I’ve put my fingers on the keyboard for the past few days, something didn’t feel right. This wasn’t my conscious mind. This was that quiet little nagging voice inside. You know the one.
Usually when I feel like that it’s because I took a wrong turn somewhere. Everything I wrote after that was just compounding the wrong turn.
So this morning, I made myself start at the beginning of the story and just read.
Sure enough, about halfway through the current document, I found the wrong turn. It so obvious didn’t fit that it was ludicrous. I had allowed my conscious mind in. I was trying to force something into the novel that is unnecessary. So everything after that point was suspect.
So as I write this I’m still reading, keeping what is in line with the story, and cutting the unnecessary stuff. (I am putting it in a separate file so I can keep track of the word count.) When something new needs to be written, I write it. When that segment is finished, I go back to reading, etc. Once I get it pared back down to the story, I’ll fire on toward the ending. Yes, it will be that close.
Excellent writing day today, when you consider these are new words on top of all the cutting and reading.
Fiction Words: 4196
Writing of The Scent of Acacias (Book 9 in the Wes Crowley saga)
Day 1…… 3887 words. Total words to date…… 3887 words
Day 2…… 3092 words. Total words to date…… 6979 words
Day 3…… 3365 words. Total words to date…… 10344 words
Day 4…… 3077 words. Total words to date…… 13421 words
Day 5…… 4486 words. Total words to date…… 17907 words
Day 6…… 3739 words. Total words to date…… 21646 words
Day 7…… 1471 words. Total words to date…… 23117 words
Day 8…… 2843 words. Total words to date…… 25960 words
Day 9…… 1782 words. Total words to date…… 27742 words
Day 10… 3315 words. Total words to date…… 31057 words
Day 11… 4196 words. Total words to date…… 35253 words
Total fiction words for the month……… 14200
Total fiction words for the year………… 618191