It’s only the third day of ROW 80 Round 2, so there’s not a whole lot to report. So instead, I have some stats and general geekery to share with you today. First, getting the basic update out of the way:
- BlackLion and I spent about 3 1/2 hours yesterday working on our co-written novel draft. We hadn’t done anything with it since last summer. We’re using Rock Your Revisions by Cathy Yardley. We finished reverse-engineering our scene chart! Now we’ll be moving on to create GMC (goal, motivation, conflict) charts for all main characters. This is a terrific system for revisions. I feel good about getting back on track with this work!
- I’ve done some prep work for some of my goals: started to update the outline for my Daily Spiritual Practice book, worked on clearing my desk a little bit, and bought a couple of craft books to read and study.
- I’ve been doing meditation and journal writing every day, and last night took an evening walk.
OK, now on to the geek stuff.
I’m a Virgo, and I like to keep track of things. I have a small notebook of lists that functions as my day planner. Each page is for one day, and has appointments, reminders of daily practices, and also projects that I want to work on or tasks to complete for that day. I check off the ones I do, and forward the rest to another day.
Because of this, I realized that I have a pretty accurate record of how long it took me to complete my Patterns in the Void first draft. It began as my NaNoWriMo project for this past November (2014). So, here are the stats I’ve compiled by going through my notebook of lists. A note: the amount of work done in any given day varies from an hour to probably 3 hours. I didn’t keep track of hours, but it probably averages out around 2 hours per day, as any focused writing session longer than that and my mind tends to wander off on its own.
- Pre-November plotting: 9 days
- 117,094 word draft written in the time period from 11/1/14 to 4/3/15. Total length is 164 days.
- Active plotting (outside of regular writing time) during this time period: 7 days
- Total writing days: 55
- This means a total of 62 days of active work on the novel (plotting and writing).
Obviously I took a lot of time away from working on the novel, post-November. December was consumed with family stuff and holidays. In late January and much of February, I had a slump where I just wasn’t working on it. I regained my motivation and did a lot of work on the novel in March.
This says to me that I can write a novel draft in a relatively short period of time, especially when I’m motivated. This will become important as I ramp up my writing career. I’m feeling really good about all this. I mean, it’s the first full-length novel I’ve ever written by myself. I think I’m doing really well, though I know I have a long way to go to improve both my quality and productivity.
The cool part is, I’m so excited about the whole process, eager to learn and practice. Onward and upward!