Spice Ralphie
Just wanted to say it’s done(ish). Still a lot of editing to do, lots of mistakes and inconsistencies to fix. I mean, I have people’s hair color changing from one chapter to the next, and they’re not even teenagers. But I did it, I finished the sequel to Kick, and I’m happy with the result.
I thought I’d spice-up my word count Ralphie this weekend.
Filed under Writing Experience
I think I’m going to invest in one of those word count tracker things for the blog. My problem is I have a wordpress.com site, and they limit the plugins available. I need to do more research. Meanwhile, this last week was touch and go for a while. By Friday, I’d only written 4,000 words. I’d hit a transitional point in the story (the middle), and had to go slow while I sorted it out. That’s right, I’m writing the middle 🙂 I actually wrote the ending first, the beginning second, and…yes, complicated and obtuse, but that’s how it happened. Anyway, sitting at 69k of fun for the whole family. I’d like to end it at around 80k, but if not, so be it. Who wants to read long strings of “very very very very” in front of everything? Anyway, it looks like the first draft of the sequel to Kick will be done in a week or two. During the editing phase, I may drop a few comments on how I’m doing with it, but that’s it.
Filed under Writing Experience
If you dare…
Filed under Awesome Indies, Grammar/Punctuation, Writing Experience
Sorry about last week. I was thinking more about the word count for my work in progress and posted 48k words (the actual count was 11k for the week). This week, I’m sitting at 60k, which means I manged 12k words in 7 days. Fun fun. Also, I’m very happy where the story is going, just need to seal the deal now.
Filed under Writing Experience
* Update * — I think my heading is a little misleading. 48k total for my work in progress, up from 37k last week, so my “word count” for the week is actually 11k. I’ll make it more obvious next week.
I’m actually writing this on Saturday night, but whatever, life’s too short — unless you’re Dan Jenkins.
This week has been amazing, from a word count perspective. No beta reading, just a little Koontz to keep my “random seed” fresh. And at the end of the week I’m sitting on 48k of fun for the whole family.
For those of you with writer’s block, here’s how I’ve been dealing with mine:
1) I’m in charge, not the manuscript.
2) All that expectation that the next book has to be perfect or I’ll go to 1-star prison? Whatever, talk to the hand, I’m in charge of this ship, and if I want to ram it into that reef over there that’s my business.
3) What else do I have to do today? Hmm, guess I’ll write.
4) Oh yeah, when I’m stumped for a thousand words, drink something with alcohol in it — it helps. (not a long-term solution of course)
Last week: 37,000
This week: 48,000
For me: wow.
Cheers.
Filed under Writing Experience
Friday rolled around and I was convinced I couldn’t do it. I’d seen three movies during the week, I’d been busy at work, I went to a company cookout, I went out for dinner once with my wife, and I was beta reading the sequel to Regulation 19 (it’s wonderful, how does this guy do it?). Also, I’d just finished a major point in the story and was about to start something new, which required thinking and even a little research…and I hit my goal anyway. 7k words in 7 days, with spare change for gum if I so desired.
If you have writer’s block, I highly recommend setting goals and making them public. It seems to have worked for me. Who knows what next week will bring?
Filed under Writing Experience, Writing in general
Hey, I think my blog’s got a new thing! Kind of like the Awesome Indies thing, or the “sometimes he writes funny stories” thing. So now there’s my weekly word count confession thing. Like over on Kristine McKinley’s blog.
Here’s how it’ll work:
If I’m happy with my word count, I’ll post a happy picture of Ralphie from the Christmas Story. If I’m not happy, I’ll post a picture of Scut Farkus.
Going forward, I’ll post my counts on Sunday.
But last Saturday, the word count was: 22,000.
Today, the word count is: 30,000.
That’s 8k words in 8 days. A quick glance at my scientific calculator shows an average of 1000 words a day. This will be the minimum daily average to put up Ralphie’s picture — a real incentive, because I love that picture.
Filed under Writing Experience
Filed under Grammar/Punctuation, Writing Experience
P.T. Hylton’s podcasts are short and informative, and today’s meshes with my post yesterday about my word count, and Kristine’s blog post.
http://www.pthylton.com/tips-productive-writer/
Filed under Writing Experience, Writing in general
Kristine McKinley is a rather brave author. The other day, she bravely posted all kinds of statistics pertaining to her writing. I thought it’d be a neat idea to post my own numbers (below). Though I don’t have the kind of detail she’s been keeping, still, it was a good week.
Word count as of last Sunday: 9500
Word count one week later, today, Saturday: 22,000.
I’ll be honest and say I wouldn’t have posted this if I didn’t feel like bragging. My normal word count has been horrible. But recently, thanks to various podcasts I’ve been listening to, and my recent interview with P.T. Hylton, and his videos where he talks about his own progress, things are turning around.
Filed under Uncategorized, Writing Experience
John L. Monk 
