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McAnally's (The Community Pub) => Author Craft => Topic started by: meg_evonne on July 08, 2014, 07:58:44 PM
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So Jim posts this AM that he finished 4500 words in 2.5 hours to almost finish a book. (A time in writing that I slow to a snail's pace.) Yes--I'm not to compare myself and I'd never stack up to Jim anyway, but that text precedes a tech day from hell. I lost a full hour of my writing time. I was stupid and left my wallet at home so I was writing office-homeless without a seat in Panera or Starbucks. (I live out in the country and didn't want to give up precious writing time to commute.) Since it was 7AM, my mom was willing to wake up and lend me 20 bucks. Back to Panera, but they were out of their lovely 4 cheese pastry. My laptop battery died shortly after that, but I had the plug in stuff.
With my sad-ass mental attitude, I should NOT have attempted editing/revision work, but I did. I hated everything. I hated what I'd completed. I knew I was going to hate what I was going to do. Hey, it happens. Life happens and it bleeds into our writing lives. On the other hand, I'd been building up to this god awful day from hell anyway.
SO.. when I reach that point, I need to reset.
I went back and removed all the bloody red ink and all the comments and cautions. Those the editor made and those I set for myself. Then I put aside my fear that I couldn't do it--and read my manuscript. I just sat back and read my words. I read my shit and It. Was. Good. Sigh.
I can do this. BUT first I'm going to finish reading my manuscript. I'm going to laugh and cry and enjoy every glorious sentence. Then I'll take the scalpel and reconstruction tools to revise and edit again.
And tomorrow, I'll write from home...
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So Jim posts this AM that he finished 4500 words in 2.5 hours to almost finish a book. (A time in writing that I slow to a snail's pace.) Yes--I'm not to compare myself and I'd never stack up to Jim anyway, but that text precedes a tech day from hell. I lost a full hour of my writing time. I was stupid and left my wallet at home so I was writing office-homeless without a seat in Panera or Starbucks. (I live out in the country and didn't want to give up precious writing time to commute.) Since it was 7AM, my mom was willing to wake up and lend me 20 bucks. Back to Panera, but they were out of their lovely 4 cheese pastry. My laptop battery died shortly after that, but I had the plug in stuff.
With my sad-ass mental attitude, I should NOT have attempted editing/revision work, but I did. I hated everything. I hated what I'd completed. I knew I was going to hate what I was going to do. Hey, it happens. Life happens and it bleeds into our writing lives. On the other hand, I'd been building up to this god awful day from hell anyway.
SO.. when I reach that point, I need to reset.
I went back and removed all the bloody red ink and all the comments and cautions. Those the editor made and those I set for myself. Then I put aside my fear that I couldn't do it--and read my manuscript. I just sat back and read my words. I read my shit and It. Was. Good. Sigh.
I can do this. BUT first I'm going to finish reading my manuscript. I'm going to laugh and cry and enjoy every glorious sentence. Then I'll take the scalpel and reconstruction tools to revise and edit again.
And tomorrow, I'll write from home...
Ignore everything that has come before and keep writing to finish your manuscript? Of if you are editing, just keep on keeping on.
I've decided my next book needs to be split in two, because its going to be too long. So all I need to do now is finish the first half and then I'll start powering into the next one. On top of that I am moving at a pace a slug would sneer at.
You just have to keep your chin up and keep after it.
Best of luck, Meg,
The Deposed King
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4,500 words in 2.5 hours is 1,800 words an hour. Very doable if you're writing regularly with few distractions. In college I'd come close to that when writing essays. Don't get hung up on someone else's wordcount, especially not when you've got a ton of things going on to make it difficult to get into a flow.
We all have our bad days. After a disappointing book launch last year, I still get into a funk sometimes and don't feel like writing at all. I've only just started getting back into regular writing and it's been a tough slog.