Time for Writing
I had such a lovely time in Baltimore, and I don't wish they lived closer, because my brother has his dream job in Baltimore, and I don't wish I lived closer, because I love Cincinnati and I'm just really starting to get my hands dirty here, but I wish it was easier or feasible for us to visit more often.
Now I am home, and I am tired and grumpy and faced with the challenges of my everyday life. I've started using Weave, a kind of project-oriented to-do app for the iPod. As you can see from the screencaps at the link, they kind of expect legit business owners to be using it. My projects are mostly writing things, with sides of general housework. Somehow I seem to add more things to it than take things away.
Really, I wanted to write about writing yet again because it is (as always) on my mind. Tonight I skipped actual writing in favor of doing a little research (library books due back soon, you see), and I keep getting caught up in the brain-trap: How can I make this book shorter/better/sweeter/smarter? I can't let go of it, but progress is slooooow. Progress was slow BEFORE I started stage-managing a show with rehearsals three nights a week. It is much slower now.
Writing is hard. Writing is always hard. I mean, most of the time. My general average seems to be around 1200 words/day, but there are days when I sit there and make 1000 awful words just to make my daily quota, and some days when I can't stop writing and then I look back and I'm like, "Hey! 5000 words!" And that is nothing compared to revising!
Actually, I am afraid to work on anything but AEFB. I have a lot of projects queued up but you know me, I am very fickle, and I can't focus on more than one project at once. Also, I want to finish this. I don’t want to take the lazy way out and work on something random just so I can say I wrote that day; AEFB NEEDS EDITS, DAMNIT.
This is how this part of the process (draft five, round two) is going:
-I read through a chapter, cutting spare words and sometimes rewriting as I go.
-Same for next chapter.
-And the next.
-And the next.
-Repeat the next day.
-Repeat on every chapter until I’ve cut a thousand words from it. Then that chapter gets taken out of the queue.
Ideally, I'd have three chapters going at once: one that I'd finish, one I'd still be working, and one that I'd just have started, but I don't think it's going to work that way. I find I have trouble managing more than three chapters at a time (three chapters seems to be enough to make my daily quota, but I can throw more in there as needed).
Most of the time, I cut between one and two hundred words per round for the first few rounds, and as I read the chapter more and get more impatient with it, I get more ruthless and cut more. So far I have only finished five chapters (3 - 7); the average amount of passes it takes to complete a chapter seems to be around seven.
However, this is moderately preemptive, as if things continue at this pace, then the total wordcount when I'm done with draft 5.2 will be somewhere around 118,000, which is at least 18,000 words still too long. D:
(Again, I say: I am never writing a long book again.)
I am trying to think my way through those last 18,000 words, and I think of all those authors I love that managed to write so much in so little space, and I think that maybe I should just rewrite the whole damn book.
It is disheartening. And difficult. And on days like today, when I stayed late at work to help make up time for tomorrow's doctor appointment, and then I had to go take care of my dad's cats, and it was late when I got home and I had to make dinner and I'm so tired and I had to work on my library books so I can return them this week--well, writing becomes low-priority. And it will be low-priority again tomorrow, when I have rehearsal.
I am irritated and frustrated by this. My priorities get a little skewed sometimes, but admittedly my favorite time to write is just before I go to bed, which can lead to staying up too late, unfortunately.
(My brother has long lectured me on the very bad habit of procrastination, but I think it's not even that anymore--not entirely--it's just being tired and massively busy.)
This has been a longish and nonsensical ramble to reflect the tired and confused and frustrated depths of my mind. Enjoy!
Now I am home, and I am tired and grumpy and faced with the challenges of my everyday life. I've started using Weave, a kind of project-oriented to-do app for the iPod. As you can see from the screencaps at the link, they kind of expect legit business owners to be using it. My projects are mostly writing things, with sides of general housework. Somehow I seem to add more things to it than take things away.
Really, I wanted to write about writing yet again because it is (as always) on my mind. Tonight I skipped actual writing in favor of doing a little research (library books due back soon, you see), and I keep getting caught up in the brain-trap: How can I make this book shorter/better/sweeter/smarter? I can't let go of it, but progress is slooooow. Progress was slow BEFORE I started stage-managing a show with rehearsals three nights a week. It is much slower now.
Writing is hard. Writing is always hard. I mean, most of the time. My general average seems to be around 1200 words/day, but there are days when I sit there and make 1000 awful words just to make my daily quota, and some days when I can't stop writing and then I look back and I'm like, "Hey! 5000 words!" And that is nothing compared to revising!
Actually, I am afraid to work on anything but AEFB. I have a lot of projects queued up but you know me, I am very fickle, and I can't focus on more than one project at once. Also, I want to finish this. I don’t want to take the lazy way out and work on something random just so I can say I wrote that day; AEFB NEEDS EDITS, DAMNIT.
This is how this part of the process (draft five, round two) is going:
-I read through a chapter, cutting spare words and sometimes rewriting as I go.
-Same for next chapter.
-And the next.
-And the next.
-Repeat the next day.
-Repeat on every chapter until I’ve cut a thousand words from it. Then that chapter gets taken out of the queue.
Ideally, I'd have three chapters going at once: one that I'd finish, one I'd still be working, and one that I'd just have started, but I don't think it's going to work that way. I find I have trouble managing more than three chapters at a time (three chapters seems to be enough to make my daily quota, but I can throw more in there as needed).
Most of the time, I cut between one and two hundred words per round for the first few rounds, and as I read the chapter more and get more impatient with it, I get more ruthless and cut more. So far I have only finished five chapters (3 - 7); the average amount of passes it takes to complete a chapter seems to be around seven.
However, this is moderately preemptive, as if things continue at this pace, then the total wordcount when I'm done with draft 5.2 will be somewhere around 118,000, which is at least 18,000 words still too long. D:
(Again, I say: I am never writing a long book again.)
I am trying to think my way through those last 18,000 words, and I think of all those authors I love that managed to write so much in so little space, and I think that maybe I should just rewrite the whole damn book.
It is disheartening. And difficult. And on days like today, when I stayed late at work to help make up time for tomorrow's doctor appointment, and then I had to go take care of my dad's cats, and it was late when I got home and I had to make dinner and I'm so tired and I had to work on my library books so I can return them this week--well, writing becomes low-priority. And it will be low-priority again tomorrow, when I have rehearsal.
I am irritated and frustrated by this. My priorities get a little skewed sometimes, but admittedly my favorite time to write is just before I go to bed, which can lead to staying up too late, unfortunately.
(My brother has long lectured me on the very bad habit of procrastination, but I think it's not even that anymore--not entirely--it's just being tired and massively busy.)
This has been a longish and nonsensical ramble to reflect the tired and confused and frustrated depths of my mind. Enjoy!