Tag Archives: word count

Morning Pages Entry – July 31, 2014

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Wow, looks like this is the last day of July, and I suppose this is a long weekend coming up. Today, I’m supposed to go sailing with Wayne and Joyce at around 9:30. That should be fun. I’ve always wanted to go sailing with them, just to see how they do things. I’ve been on other boats for sure, and everyone has sort of their own way of doing things, but Wayne is a guy I’ve learned a lot about sailing from, and while he’s come out on my boat to give me sailing tips, I’ve never been out on his. So that should be interesting.   Continue reading →

Morning Pages Entry – July 30, 2014

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Too many options. Time to focus. I need to concentrate on what’s important, which of course has always been the writing. But there is other things floating around the whole writing thing. There’s the reading, and the marketing, and the networking, and a bunch of other stupid distractions like FaceBook and surfing stupid sites, that have nothing to do with my life, but only serve as distractions. I need to be more focused. Continue reading →

Morning Pages Entry – July 28, 2014

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So, can you do it? Here you are, up at the boat for a week all on your own. Nobody else’s demands, nobody needing you to cook, or clean, or do things on their schedule. Not other responsibilities, but yourself and your work. Can you do it? Do what you may ask? Why of course, can you write your ass of, and have a good time doing it. That’s the real question, and not the question I was just asking before I started to write that sentence. The question I was thinking when I started that sentence, was can you write like 10k words or some big number per day? And, if I really start to think along the lines of “write for love”, then the better question is the one I actually wrote … can you write your ass off and have a good time doing it. I really do enjoy writing on my own. For me, writing does seem to be a deeply personal thing. Something I do my best, when there is no one else around to bug the hell out of me. When, there’s no one else to pester me, or look at me, or ask me questions, or do whatever. For me, I think, that writing is a deeply personal and private affair. Of course, once the writing is done, then I want it to be in the hands of every damn person on the planet, but the process of creative creation, I think is a seriously personal and private one for me. Just having someone else in the building is incredibly distracting … at least, that’s the theory I have going on in my head at the moment, and, it’s one I think, that has some merit. So, it’s just a theory. A theory that needs pursuing … that needs proving actually. Can you write your ass of this week, and have a good time doing it. Can you get yourself back on schedule and get a shit load of stuff done. And still enjoy it. You should be able to … I hope. Now, there goes that damn inner critic barking his head off at me about stupid shit again. I need to silence that bastard, and every other bastard around me. Oh, and yes, I do need to do that one thing, and send Pat Lozon some info on getting started with writing on Kindle. We got talking about it the other day at the CPA reunion party, and it was kind of cool. He was pretty interested in submitting his books. I knew he had books written. He’d written a big one a few years ago, that I had read, but of course going the traditional publishing route, he was getting no love from the big publishers. So, he’s really, another perfect candidate for this sort of work. We got talking a bit, and he was pretty excited about it. So, today, send him off some stuff about the writing, and see if he can get going. I think, his book was big enough to break down into a series and set the first one to free. That would be pretty cool, if he could start to make a go of it. Now, back to you … let’s see this week, if we can really fall in love with the art of writing, and make something good to put out there for your readers all at the same time. I know, that my first attempt here may not be Stephen King kind of stuff, but there’s no reason, it shouldn’t start making a few bucks for you. At least, enough to buy yourself a better laptop to work on. This old one is doing some strange shit. It actually ran a chkdsk when I booted it up this morning. Not something I was too pleased about. So, you should get your ass and gear, and get your happy writing pants on, and make a masterpiece. Writing 10K today, would be pretty cool … and even cooler, if you could do a 10K every day for the next bunch of days. 50K in a week would be fucking remarkable. I would love to see that happen. I was testing the battery on the boat this morning, my new volt meter, and both batteries read fully charged. Not sure what that is about. I’ve got the battery charger off now, and waiting to see which one dissipates faster. This could be a good little interesting test, to see what happens. They were both are 13v without the charger on, and when I put the charger on they were around 13.3v. Interesting.

TIGERBLOOD: some DAILYMOOD: ok LOCATION: bayfield boat WORDSWRITTEN: 0 PUSHUPS: 4:00 wall sit TODO: write, email Pat, fix a few boat things TV: none BOOK: none GAME: none EXERCISE: none WEIGHT: 170 BREAKFAST: bacon & eggs LUNCH: none DINNER: steak, brussel sprouts SNACKS: 2 orange, grapes, almonds ALCOHOL: none BEDTIME: 3:00 AWAKE: 9:00

 

Morning Pages Entry – July 05, 2014

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Not a great start to the morning. I thought, I was doing good as I rolled out of bed around 6 but didn’t last long writing. I kept falling asleep at the keyboard. I ended up going back to bed, and not getting up until like 10. Not so good for the word count. In theory, I could have had close to 5K words done by then. I’m starting to wonder, if this MRC format is slowing me down too much. I did a bunch of them yesterday for the next scene, but they really seem to be a bit too structured for me. I wonder, if I should just go back to making a few point form notes, and going from there. It might be a better approach. Then, just write as you will. Like I did before for the first 25K week. Man, I need to get back to doing that. Then, I could really get cranking out some books. Maybe just outlining to the scene level is enough with a few notes to get me started with each one. Not sure. Worth a try though. Gonna have to get a better routine worked out. Perhaps, I can think about the MRC style of writing as I’m going along, and that may work out better. Or, maybe, I just need to get used to writing these MRCs. They do make sense, and I’m sure they would add plenty of structure to the story, but maybe I just need to practice more with them. They could be boxing me in too much. I’m not writing anything like the way I write these journals when I just pound out whatever comes into my head. I need to get closer to that with the novel writing I think. Too much structure … perhaps. Today is Saturday, and the rest of the family is coming up to the boat today. Gotta get a few words in, before they arrive, but it’s looking doubtful. Certainly not going to make my 5K at this rate. I really need to crank the stuff out … gotta get back into a better rhythm. Just a few point form notes are the way to go. Work on that will you. Don’t let the structure kill the creativity. Or get better at letting the structure stimulate the creativity. That maybe the trick. I do need more words on the page. I’m sure I could at least get a thousand in today, if I focus on it for a bit. Gotta do it. So, the family is coming up in a few days, and that will be exciting this week for sure. Mom seems to have a new guy in her life and that’s got her all worked up. She wants to bring his 94 year old mom to the boat next week. Not sure, how that will go, but it should be intersting. I’m sure Karen will have a few things to say about that. Man, I need to get writing my novel at the speed that I can write these morning pages. Think, about how things work out in a movie or tv series, and play it in your head while your writing. That’s what you need to do. Don’t get too hung up on the structure and just write. Geez, I do need to get these cusions on the boat dry cleaned. They stink something awful. And, I would like to see, if I can get the dinghy working for next week. That would be sort of cool, if I can sort that out. Take the dingy pump home and give it a go. Why not? I’m sure that Una and Tristan would have fun riding around in the dinghy with us between the cottage colony and the boat. It would be sort of fun. I may, even may able to hang up the dinghy out of the water using the new halyards on the boat perhaps. Will have to give that a go. Ahh, so much to do, and so much energy required. I was just so spent this morning, there was no way I could get the story out that I needed to. Not like now, I’m just flying through these words. Just write, make up shit. Your brain works faster than your hands, so there’s no reason why you should ever have to stop typing while your writing. I think, that that damn inner critic really likes it when I try to structure things. It just gives him another bone to chew on. Write WRITE WRITE!!!

TIGERBLOOD: not much DAILYMOOD: ok LOCATION: boat WORDSWRITTEN: 3500 PUSHUPS: none TODO: write TV: none BOOK: none GAME: none EXERCISE: 2 short walks on beach WEIGHT: 170 BREAKFAST: bacon & eggs LUNCH: none DINNER: beef, avacado, carrots, peppers SNACKS: orange, almonds, apple, 2 naked bars, 2 lara bars ALCOHOL: none BEDTIME: 12:00 AWAKE: 6 and 10

 

Morning Pages Entry – July 04, 2014

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Not going to almost forget today. I’m happy to say, that I did manage to get up at 6am or maybe 6:05 this morning, and got a decent amount of work done before Jessica decided to wake up at 8:30 and give me dirty looks from across the table waiting for her breakfast. I let her have a banana for crying out loud, and I did go grocery shopping, and get some eggs on the table by noon. That would officially count as lunch in Jessicas book. And, here we go getting my morning journal done at 3:04 in the after noon. Which is fine. I have managed to pump out about 3295 words on the journal today before the grocery shopping, which is not bad, but not up to my PB. I did do 5K per day every day for a week, back a few months ago, but maybe something is different this week. It could be that I don’t have enough of the pre planning going on, or it could be, that I’m writing a bit differently then I did before. I think, I’m a little more concious about what I’m writing, and try to get things better during the first draft then I cared about that week. I still think though, that I should be able to do better with the word count, then I did so far today. I think, I’ll try and crank out a few more words today, just for fun. It would be nice to get that total at least over 4K before calling it quits. The whole scene/sequel with the MRCs fitting into those sections is working out pretty well. I’m actually kind of please with the way they’ve gone. I think that while I’m writing, I am still deviating a bit from what the MRCs lay out, but that’s ok. At least there is a ton more structure and purpose to what I’m doing now then what I was doing before. It could be part of the reason why I’m slower, but it’s likely just that I need a little more practice. We’ll see how things progress. The trick is, I think, to get up every day, and do some writing. Like, even tomorrow, I should wake up at 6am, do some writing for say an hour at least, then go out and paddleboard. It is the weekend, so say, you can get at least 1500 words before hitting the water, that would be great. I need to keep working the plan, and do the best I can. I am committed to delivering 50K words every 3 weeks to editor Emily. That doesn’t start until Aug 11th, so I still have time to step the pace up. I think, just spending a bit more time up front coming up with some interesting MRCs will make all the difference. You should feel free to deviate from them, add to them, embelish on them or perhaps drop them altogether as you go along. One thing I noticed the scene/sequel planning did do for me, is to stop me from going to long with the current scene. The one where Chaz makes it down to the lower section of the health facility and has a little discussion with Patient Zero. Still not sure, if that needs to be capitalized or not. Anyways, I realized, that my one MRC at the end of the scene, was actually bleeding over into the sequel for the scene. So I had to do a little cut and pasting, but it all worked out. So, the next priority for today, is to get some better MRCs setup, so I’m not scratching my head in the morning wondering what it is that I’m supposed to be writing about. I had to come up with a couple of them this morning before I started the writing. If I lay a few of them tonight before going to sleep, then I should be in pretty good shape com tomorrow at 6am. I’ll go for another 5K, tomorrow if I can. Don’t care if it’s a Saturday. Any day I can cram a bunch of words in is great for me. I have about 30K words in the new novel of a planned 50K, and 17K or so of those have already been proofed. With any luck, I can have that book ready to go for the middle of the month. Maybe sooner, if I somehow manage to pull off a miracle and get a few thousand words done each day next month with the family around.

TIGERBLOOD: yep DAILYMOOD: pretty good LOCATION: boat bayfield WORDSWRITTEN: 1500 PUSHUPS: none TODO: write draft and MRCs TV: none BOOK: none GAME: none EXERCISE: short walk WEIGHT: 170 BREAKFAST: bacon & eggs LUNCH: none DINNER: big ass salad SNACKS: orange, grapes, 3 lara bars ALCOHOL: none BEDTIME: 12:15 AWAKE: 6:00