The end of this month will mark the anniversary of when I first started really working on WIP2. I’d had the idea, the first chapter, and scene sketches since January 2011, but was still stubbornly working on my Hot Mess of a first novel.
Now, after a few breaks, a few re-visions (one of which was a POV switch from first person to third. Now I’m back to first), and a few weeks of seriously considering shelving it, here I am a year later fleshing out WIP2. And, this is by far, my most exciting re-vision yet.
I’ve been able to commit to, and complete, 2K words a day. It’s only been a week, but any progress is great progress, especially since I’ve been regularly writing 1K a day before.
Recently, I stumbled upon this article via a retweet by @LauraJMoss…
Was just reading Rachel Aaron's article on going from writing 2K to 10K in about the same time: bit.ly/svD6J8 Anyone ever try it?—
Holly Black (@hollyblack) June 03, 2012
…and was intrigued! I loved the Knowledge, Time, and Enthusiasm metric, and was tickled to know that I already do this in a vague form. I’m already excited that I was able to increase my daily word count to 2K, but I would love to see it an extra push, especially on my days off from the paythebills job.
With that, I’m going to be a bit more diligent and aware about my most productive writing time. Most days, I’ll need to take what I can get, which is usually an hour before and after work. But maybe I can find better circumstances like before or after I eat; or, before or after a workout.
Speaking of workouts, I’m ashamed to say that in my excuse of focusing on WIP2, I gave myself permission to stop focusing on my health. Which is silly, because that’s like saying I gave myself permission to stop living!
So, in the spirit of 2K a day for my word counts, I’m also logging in 2K a day for my workouts. Not that I sprint 2K* each day or that I use 2K in any way for my weights, because that’s kinda weak, but that I have the mindset of pushing myself and challenging myself to be the best me I can be each day, including incorporating my strength training, which should never ever have stopped. Lesson learned. Moving on.
(*Besides, I just simply liked the phrase, “word counts and workouts.”)
I already have a big obstacle in the form of my Very Important Work Conference that I get to go to next week. It’ll be non stop, go, go, go, activities (which works well with the workout portion of my challenge…especially with their onsite weight facilities), but I may have a hard time crunching out 2K words between the activities during the day and the celebration dinners at night.
But, at least I’m working out a plan before I even leave: chapter outlines! So even if I’m ridiculously bone tired, I have a road map to help me churn out words regardless. At any rate, I remember my days of writing my Hot Mess and coming out of NaNoWriMo with 50K words while working two retail jobs in the height of the holiday season. Working out a way to write around the activities with the VIPs of my company for four days should be cake!
Have you tried any of these fast drafting techniques? What are your thoughts on them? For those who attended Candace Haven’s Fast Draft class at DFW con, do these principles seem familiar?
(For those interested in my views on fitness/health/mindset, I recommend Jason Ferruggia’s site. He is focused on making athletes bigger, stronger, faster, but when you read with discernment, he has a wealth of knowledge on his site that anyone must know. Fair warning: he uses strong language and his posts are littered with scantily clad women, but they don’t bother me. I actually view most of them as a visual to shoot for. 
My favorite posts of his are: Life Wasted, My Personal Journey, The Main Ingredient.)
I haven’t tried any fast drafting techniques. I find that, while I’ve done 2k days before, I’m most consistent if I go for 1K a day (7K/week), tops. That way, it’s a little more likely that I’ll meet my weekly goal, and accomplishing my goals on a weekly basis puts me in a better mood for continuing a story
I love accomplishing all the little goals, and I’m usually content with a daily count of 1K words. BUT, we’ve been pushing for higher and higher goals for my paythebills job, so it only made sense for me to aim high for my writing as well! PLUS, I have a push goal for getting this baby polished up ASAP!
2k a day, no problem. Workouts? Yeah….
Outlining helps a lot. Being able to sit down in front of the computer and know exactly what you are going to write about does help to churn out more words. It’s not always smooth, but mostly you make good, fast progress.
I was so excited that yesterday I was able to push for 3300 words simply because I thought the scene was ridiculously fun! A side effect from upping these daily word counts that I didn’t anticipate was the wrist/arm strain! At least the strength training will help with that
Ummm, you are amazing! You’re basically living out my goal right now, which is 2k a day and a workout, lol. I’ve been seriously struggling with getting 2k words in one day, though, because I’m also used to 1k a day. Most days I don’t make it. But I just read that article about going from 2k to 10k and OMG. EYE-OPENER! The way she described how she used to write–”Writing this stuff out in words you actually want other people to read, especially if you’re making everything up as you go along, takes FOREVER.”–is exactly what I’m doing now. And the way she does it now, planning in advance, makes so much sense. I never realized how time-consuming it is to make it up as you go along. And what I like is that she’s not exactly plotting, she’s just planning each scene before she writes it. Have you tried it yet? Thanks so much for sharing it
And you can SO TOTALLY make your goals at the conference. It’ll definitely be super hard, but you can do it!
I basically do these techniques, BUT now I’m more aware of the story going in beforehand. My friends who attended Candace Haven’s Fast Draft class talk about ensuring you leave a “what happens next” note so that the next writing session you can pick up where you left off. Well, I found that I wouldn’t be specific enough, so NOW I’m very specific about what I want to see next, or (and this is more common now than before) I just push through until I finish the scene/chapter. I end up celebrating more words for the day, and am much farther along in the story!
Thanks for the encouragement, and maybe we can keep each other accountable to the 2K word counts/work outs! ^_^