Back after hiatus

Yes, I had taken a 7-week hiatus. Crazy, I know. My in-laws were out of town and I was reducing my medication doses. I just felt like I needed the rest more than I needed to write.

Well, that feeling disappeared and I'm back to writing now. I want to send my son to private school next year and I've found that money is a wonderful motivator! Sad? Perhaps, but whatever works, right?

So, I'm back to writing and feeling good about it. I'm back to my original storyline of VP, HR falling for the corporate lawyer. I feel better about this story than the other one, which was kind of contrived. This story is set only in Toronto (familiar setting) and in Muskoka. I've only been to Muskoka once but I remember it so vividly.

Anyway, I'll be back in a few days with more updates on the progress.

Moving to the Good Stuff

So, after another 2 weeks of procrastination and slow writing, I've decided to move to a new strategy. One that actually gets me in the mood to proceed further. I'm writing the scenes that are exciting and fun for me. The stuff that really gets the blood rushing. I skipped the initial chapters and moved to the part where the hero and heroine are finally realising that they have feelings for each other. I'm having way more fun writing those scenes than I was writing the first few chapters. I don't know what chapter "number" I wrote last night. All I know is that I wrote 1,500 in a little over an hour.

I'm at 19,500 words right now and still going strong. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Finally back on track

I've been absolutely terrible with my writing this past week. Just terrible. I wasn't motivated and I kept thinking that I was stuck. So, I went back to my outline and started all over again, refining it, rewriting the order of each scene. I finally broke down my outline my chapter and wrote an outline for 10 chapters. I finally see the finished product in front of me. The chapters flow together properly, the story makes sense, there's no sagging middle and I think it's going to be a page-turner.

I tried my best to keep all the scenes and dialogues I've already written so I just have to add things to my existing first draft. I refined chapter 1 and I'm very pleased with it now.

As far as word count is concerned, I'm at 16,600 words in total. Chapter 1's word count is 4,992, which is perfect since I'm aiming for about 5,000 words per chapter.

I'm hoping to complete and refine Chapter 2, 3, 4 and part of Chapter 5 by the end of this week. I know it sounds like a lot, but it's mostly stuff that I've already written. I'm just refining it. If I can keep up the pace, I'll be fine. I just have to keep myself motivated.

I discovered more writer's resources as I was procrastinating. One of them is the Merriam-Webster online thesaurus. I had been using the thesaurus in MS Word but it's extremely basic. Merriam's is a lot better. I've posted the link on the right. I also found a website called "Write or Die". It's really cute and it helps you stay focused and just write to meet either a word count goal or time goal. Check it out when you have a chance.

Gotta go now... lots of writing to do.

Update

I'm at 15,000 words so far. It's been slow this past week...

Burst of Energy

I went from 7300 words to 10,130 words in a matter of two hours. Of course, that was after I had procrastinated writing for two hours. It just goes to show, if you put your mind to writing, the words type themselves.

I spent a few minutes of those two hours researching my hero's car. The 2010 Chevy Corvette ZR1, a $120,000 car. Describing it was a lot of fun. My heroine, much like me, loves cars and in describing the interior, I felt like I was right there with her, experiencing the rush of the rumble of the engine underneath her. I'm still getting goosebumps writing about it.

Well, I'm calling it a night. I wrote 2,700 words tonight and almost made up for not writing yesterday. I'm getting to an exciting point in the novel - the hero and heroine's first date.

Cheesy and Unoriginal

I've been warned that first drafts can be disappointing. Every advice column or blog on the internet tells first-time authors to just write and not worry about the words that they're using or if the emotions are strong enough.

Well, that's exactly what I've been doing and I can't even begin to say how many times I've typed "obviously" or "gaze" or "smiled". Quite pathetic but I'm refusing to use the thesaurus unless absolutely necessary.

That said, I'm ignoring the critique and editor in me and just getting the story on paper for now. I wrote 1,000 words in a little under two hours. Just goes to show I can actually write 1,500 to 2,000 words a day if I really put my mind to it and if I'm not bothered with the words I use.

I've written 7,370 words so far and have completed Chapter 1. I'm going to call it a night now.

Creating the First Draft

On October 25, I started writing my first draft based on the last outline I had written.

I can't say that the outline I'm using to write my first draft is perfect because it probably isn't. In fact, I've already found things that I'm changing along the way. However, I doubt I would have got this far without an outline of some sort.

Another reason for getting this far in two days is that I'm not paying too much attention to finding the perfect words in each sentence. I'm just dumping the words on paper. I just want to get the story on paper from start to finish. I'm not aiming for any particular word count for the first draft. I just want to get to the "...and they lived happily ever after." bit.

Something I should be doing now is setting daily goals for myself. It's going to be difficult because, though I spend most days at home, I do have things to do around the house. I think a daily goal of 1,500 words is reasonable. As long as I focus on just writing and follow my outline as closely as possible, I'll be safe.

As of this post, I have written 6,322 words.