orrenm Posted May 31, 2011 Report Share Posted May 31, 2011 Saturday morning, I was looking at a long weekend, 91,000 out of what I thought would be 115,000 total words written in my first draft of my second novel. My goal was to finish those potential 14,000 words by the end June. So I figured, if I could write a couple of thousand words per day, I'd be really ahead of the game, and have no trouble finishing by June 30th. So I started writing. All day. I didn't stop for anything but the occasional bathroom break and to shovel a little food down my throat. And I wrote late, into Sunday morning. And then I thought maybe I could do this again. And then on Monday, I got so excited at how close I was to finished, I not only wrote all day, but most of the night. Bottom line: by Tuesday morning at 3am, I had written 30,000 words, almost exactly. I have finished the first draft of my second novel, which clocks in at 73 chapters and 121,000 words. 3 days and 30,000 words. YIKES! That's 3/5ths of a NaNoWriMo in 3 days. How did I do it? 1) Wife and dog were gone for the weekend. I had no other responsibilities. 2) Used the internet for research only. No social networking/posting/distractions 3) I had plotted out what each chapter was about, so I didn't end up spending hours trying to figure out what came next, or going in a direction that required rewriting previous material or that dug me into a corner. 4) Storyist let me have my notes and research always up, so I never had to dig around for anything. So I managed to stay focused, alert, enthused, and actually write *reasonably well* for all that time (I say that not arrogantly; I've written enough words in my life that I know when I'm writing shoddy, "just get on with it" copy, and when I'm being fluid and creative). It's a wonderful feeling to have the first draft finished! The plan now: * Sit on it for a few weeks, then come back and do a rough edit—this is quick, a couple of weeks. I'm too close to it to do much good. * Send it to a professional editor, to give it a really thorough development edit. This may take a month. * Revise/rewrite based on the edit. This is the second draft. Which is basically "the rough novel." This may take a few months. * Send the 2nd draft to a copy editor to make sure I didn't screw it up with half-deleted sentences, butchered copy/paste, and so on. This may take a month. * Finalize the third draft. This is "the finished book." This will take a few weeks or month. So with luck, I may be finished in 2011, depending how severe the changes in for the second draft are. As I think about it, I can already imagine beloved sub-plots and the like that I'll likely end up getting rid of in order to tighten the story. It's always sad to do that, but it makes for a better novel. Onward and upward! A very sleepy Orren Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marguerite Posted May 31, 2011 Report Share Posted May 31, 2011 Wow, Orren, that's very impressive! Congratulations! M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve E Posted May 31, 2011 Report Share Posted May 31, 2011 I've done a few thousand a day but never ten thousand a day and certainly not for three consecutive days. This is an awesome achievement. Congratulations Sleepy Orren. You strike me as a man with a plan. But remember how Mozart died. The poor genius worked himself to death. Expecting wonderful things. - Thoth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joolissa Posted June 1, 2011 Report Share Posted June 1, 2011 Congrats Orren! That's really impressive! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexasRunner Posted June 1, 2011 Report Share Posted June 1, 2011 Fantastic, Orren! Great Work. Congratulations! -TR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astillac Posted June 29, 2011 Report Share Posted June 29, 2011 Oh man, I love 10k days. My body hates me, but they are so awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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