In a mission to be more consistent with my writing schedule, I will be posting weekly reports to track my writing progress and to hold myself accountable. Big thanks to my blogger friends for setting an example for me (I'm looking at you Krystal :)) Feel free to join me on your blog and share your progress!
Week 1
Project: M4 - YA Fantasy
First Draft
Word count this week: 9,644
Total word count to date: 9,644
So as you can see from the image above, I normally track my progress in my writing notebook, but now I'll incorporate it into my blog post. The headers are date, start, end, and ww-words written. I usually draw a line per week.
After my writing slump with M3, I decided to shelve it and get started on M4. During my time with M3 it was really hard to focus. I ended up taking too many breaks from the story due to work and travel which I think resulted in my lack of progress. Nonetheless, it was a learning experience to set up my goals for M4.
M4 Goals:
- 70,000 word first draft in seven weeks (pretty short wc for fantasy, but normally after revisions it gets up to 80-90 thousand)
- Aim for about 10,000 words weekly
- Do not go back and revise chapters--write it completely, tack 'The End' when I get there, then leave it to stew a bit before revising.
If you had to put me in a category, I'm normally a 'pantser' until it's time to revise then I make a to-do list, a broad outline, and then my analytical side breaks out, organizing and detailing everything. This time around, I decided to do a skeleton outline - detailed enough to give me direction and an end goal, but sparse enough not to strip away the creativity process.
Are you a pantser? Or a plotter? Comment below :)
Btw, am I the only one that does writing selfies? Haha, I really hope not!
 |
| I make matcha green tea lattes on weekend mornings when I write :) |
 |
| Current writing desk. |
Look at you! I feel like I should keep better track of what I do on a weekly basis. And I'm definitely a plotter-pantser. It's mostly planned, but with enough breathing room to let me pants certain scenes.
ReplyDeleteNice! Now from yours and Krystal's response, I'm thinking that most people are like a balance of both!
DeleteAww! ^_^ I always learn something from every story I try to write. I've totally been wanting to do more updates. It keeps me from being a slacker. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely a plotter. I play around sometimes when I'm brainstorming, but I won't officially start until I have a basic plot summary so I know where I'm going and how it's ending. I end up pansting quite a bit as my outlines are usually pretty basic, but they are great for keeping me on track and focused, though they're usually incomplete, especially at the beginning, as I tend to pants those, too. Lol!
Look at Blair watching you write! ^_^
Yeah, I think it'll keep me from slacking too much :P I feel like I always know the beginning and endings, but closing the gap between them with the middle is like the hardest part!
Deletehaha yes, he's my writing buddy. He normally just sleeps as I read aloud to him :P
Oh, goodness, I didn't see Blair at first in that last picture. Too cute!
ReplyDeletehaha yes. When one of your writing buddies is a cat, life becomes a little bit more cuter!
DeleteThat's a nice writing desk. :) Ever since I turned into a "serious" writer, I've tried to put these sorts of goals on myself, and it sucked all of the joy I had for writing right out... so this month forward, I'm just going to try to "be creative" every day... and see where it takes me. I applaud you for your efforts!
ReplyDeleteThanks! Yours is a good approach to it. I'm just really trying anything to amp of my productivity since it appears to be waning this year.
DeleteThose are crazy high word counts, especially for someone with a day job! I'm impressed :)
ReplyDeleteThanks! I am trying to be more productive, but we'll see how long that lasts! Hopefully I don't run out of steam!
Delete