Write-a-Thon Week Six Wrap Up

Week Six was my least productive week, compounded by two things: a visit from my brother (which I would not trade for any amount of words) and by having to work out a plot issue/world building issue. Which I FINALLY broke through this morning.

I did manage to work some on the short story (codenamed “Forgery”) that I had begun prior to the Write-a-Thon and promptly decided to take a different angle and do a complete rewrite.

More on the Write-a-Thon later. (And congrats to the CW 2011 class on graduating!)

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Write-a-Thon Week Five Wrap-up

I’m just under the 25,000-word mark, which puts me at about 4,500 words for the week.  In spite of a hectic early part of Week Six, I plan on breaking 30,000 by the end of Week Six and to keep going from there. I’ll also have some concluding thoughts post-WaT. In short, I am ecstatic that I chose to participate this year.

I know I also planned on finishing a short story I had started prior to the Write-a-Thon. Tentatively, that’s still on the table, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to find time for it and to continue progress on the novel. At this point, the novel takes precedence.

If you’d like to donate on my behalf, you can still do so throughout next week.

Write-a-Thon: Week Four Wrap Up

Just a quick Week Four wrap up since I’ve been quiet lately. I endured a really bruising week at work and hit some major milestones. Glad it’s almost over and that I’ll get some breathing space in the weeks ahead.

I did break 20,000 words this week. I’m currently at 3,500 words for the week and aim to add more word count before Week Four ends. Except for Wednesday, I did manage to write before going to work, although some mornings, I only managed a few hundred words. Still, my Write-a-Thon goal is to write before work, when I’m fresh, and that I accomplished.

Write-a-Thon: Week Three Ends and Four Begins

When I attended Clarion West, Week Three was probably the toughest. I really had a hard time cranking out a story that week and just felt drained. Week Three Write-a-Thon was totally different, with me managing about 6,000 words and feeling pretty good about them. We’re in a different district of the Colors, and we have new characters on the scene, including a secondary I’m rather fond of.

Week Four means another busy week at work, so I have to do what I can on my off days. Tomorrow (Tuesday) will be absolutely crushing, as we have our annual Wade In and our annual river report card launch. And I still have to work on my report card spiel. While I can handle public speaking, I need the practice and prep to pull it off well.

Stats:

Friday: 1,700 words (broke 17,000 words)

Saturday was as productive as I imagined it would be. Meaning I didn’t scrape together many words.

I wrote about 800 words yesterday to kick off Week Four. I’m writing today, so we’ll see how well I do in a later post.

Write-a-Thon: Week Three, Part 2

Ah, to be able to wake up at 6:30 am and write. It’s actually working, even though part of me is actually surprised. Pleasantly surprised.

Words written: 7/6, 700 words; 7/7, 1,000 words: Having fun writing a secondary character and bringing the war a little closer.

The next two work days are non-standard. I will be able to write quite a bit tomorrow morning, but I won’t have time Saturday morning. I will aim to write at least a few hundred Saturday afternoon/evening to make up for the loss.

Write-a-Thon: Week Three, Part One

Yeah, yeah. I can’t keep up with the days at this point–so much like the workshop itself!

In any case, my nice span of days off will be coming to an end tomorrow, so I’ll be returning to my up at 6:30 am schedule and writing what I can before work.

Words: I crossed the 14,000-word mark today.

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Meanwhile, my story, “A Plague of Souls,” is online at Jabberwocky (along with the rest of Issue 6).

Write-a-Thon: End of Week Two

It is not an easy thing to type in a car. After I finally entered the beloved ZONE, a co-worker broke my stream with a valid question. So I gave up on Thursday and tucked away the laptop. (I did go crabbing a la trotline with my co-workers, which was a blast. I netted, and even more fun, ran the boat along the line for a number of passes.) Thursday was a very long day, however, so it wasn’t supremely productive.

Yesterday, I broke the 11,000-word mark, which means I wrote 4,000 words or so for the week. So while not as productive as Week One, I think that’s very respectable considering real-world intrusions.

I will be hanging out with two fellow 2009 Clarion West graduates today, hanging with an a fellow AmeriCorps alum tomorrow, then driving back south on Sunday. Since I’m off Monday and Tuesday as well, I’m hoping for some great productivity on those days. Crankity crankity crank.

I hope everyone has a boomtastic (and safe) Fourth of July weekend!

Write-a-Thon: Days Ten and Eleven

What can I say? Two days of being at work at 7:00 am have kicked my ass. I managed a few hundred words Tuesday morning and promptly had to rearrange them (and delete some of them) Tuesday night so they’d make–oh, I don’t know–a little sense.

I also have an early morning tomorrow. We’re having a “Resource Acquisition Day” tomorrow at work, which means a drive to Tilghman Island. Thankfully, I’m not driving (but I am getting paid to go crabbing, job +++), so I plan on carrying my laptop with me and getting some writing done on the way.

In other news, I have a short story idea, but it’s going in the notes file for now.

 

Write-a-Thon: Day Nine

Busy day today, but I wrote this morning and some this evening. The work week begins tomorrow, but I’ll be out in the field quite a bit tomorrow. I’m planning to squeeze in some early-early morning writing before I turn the key. The goal is to nail a few hundred words in the morning, finish the scene I’m working on, and start working or at least thinking about the next scene.

Words: 1,200

Music: XPN2 this morning; some Doc and Dawg this evening.

Write-a-Thon: Day Eight

It’s a day off and a productive one (in both wordsmithing and getting stuff done around the house).

Words: 1,700 (We visit the Yellow District for the first time.)

Music: Liszt. Lots of Liszt. Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 6 (“Pathétique“) ; Dvorak, Symphony No. 9 (“From the New World”).