Fast Draft Day 13: Monday

Some­times, Mon­days are bet­ter than week­ends. Date/Words/Total 12–13/3190/42417 12–12/3001/39228 12–11/3070/36227 12–10/3007/33157 12–9/5584/30150 12–8/3003/24566 12–7/3043/21563 12–6/3075/18520 12–5/3110/15445 12–4/3093/12335 12–3/3014/9242 12–2/3131/6228 12–1/3087/3087


Fast Draft Day 12: Marathon

It would’ve been easy to not write today. I’m ahead of quota. Lots of stuff hap­pen­ing. Too many dis­trac­tions. None of these make the dead­line go away, so I keep slog­ging until the quota was met. Date/Words/Total 12–12/3001/39228 12–11/3070/36227 12–10/3007/33157 12–9/5584/30150 12–8/3003/24566 12–7/3043/21563 12–6/3075/18520 12–5/3110/15445 12–4/3093/12335 12–3/3014/9242 12–2/3131/6228 12–1/3087/3087


Fast Draft Day 11: Piecemeal

Sat­ur­days are hard. Everyone’s sched­ule is hinky, and errands that should take a few min­utes take hours, espe­cially on cold and wet Decem­ber days. Still, if you’re stub­born and are will­ing to write in quick snatches, you can meet your quota. Even if takes twelves from the time you started writ­ing until you fin­ish. Date/Words/Total


Fast Draft Day 10: Skipping

I got to a scene that didn’t feel right, so I skipped it. I made a note in my draft diary to return to it later. Date/Words/Total 12–10/3007/33157 12–9/5584/30150 12–8/3003/24566 12–7/3043/21563 12–6/3075/18520 12–5/3110/15445 12–4/3093/12335 12–3/3014/9242 12–2/3131/6228 12–1/3087/3087


Fast Draft Day 9: Stretch

Today’s goal was 5000 words. I wanted to get the draft to the mid-point today so that I could ana­lyze the story events. A good story is bal­anced, and I feared that it was tak­ing too long to get the motor run­ning. Sadly, I was right. While the mid-point of the novel is exactly at


Fast Draft Day 8: Backfilling

After yesterday’s fast draft ses­sion car­ried me away from the story on a wave of dia­logue, I knew I had to go back today to fill in more detail. I did just that dur­ing the first hour of writ­ing today, and I’m pleased (for the moment) with the results. Like all of the scenes, it


Fast Draft Day 7: Fatigue

The best thing about fast draft­ing is at the end of three weeks or so, you have a soldi first draft to work with. The draw­back is you get really tired of writ­ing every day! Today’s writ­ing ses­sion was a les­son in patience. When I get tired, I allow the char­ac­ters to take over the story,