Goes Somer * Goesomer * Gossamer

I’m recovering from a cold and sprained my pinky toe.

You know, you don’t think about how useful your pinky toe is to walking and balance until you’ve damaged said pinky toe.

Last night’s writing session was not so successful. It got started late. We went across town for sushi, so that made it even later. And then I had to discuss the Danielle Steele books Stephie’s mom loaned to me. They were bad. I did not enjoy them. I think I vaguely understand their appeal; they have the feel of a quiet vacation. These books are for people who want to sleep in a La Quinta bed on a California beach, but never leave the hotel poolside. They eat at the hotel restaurant. Drink a martini. They’re bored to death and they LOVE IT.  

Ugh.

Danielle Steele is also the queen of tell, don’t show. That’s right. All she does is tell. And tell. And tell. Not in an interesting way. I might’ve enjoyed hearing a distinct narrative voice but that’s bland ad grating like sandpaper. Characters will start to have a conversation and three lines in, she cuts them off and summarizes the rest of their conversation. No joke. The character will start to have a serious discussion about a choice they need to make and suddenly, just when they’d have to argue their points, we cut to five LOOOOONG paragraphs telling me, ‘the characters chose this course of action for x reason’. It nixes all opportunity for any character to develop any kind of personality. Danielle tells me as a reader to sit down, be quiet, and here’s your spoon full of baby food: eat it, baby.

Ugh.  

But back to my progress.

I’ve written a bit this week in spite of catching a cold and spraining my toe. Did I mention I sprained my toe? I sprained my poor little piggly wiggly baby toe. (When I told my twin I was going in to the doctor to have it checked, she offered that maybe they’d cut it off and I could have it mummified or substituted for use in a ransom—this was the moment I realized MY TWIN IS BACK TO NORMAL, BABY!)

Ahem.

I haven’t done the math on what my final daily word count was for November but verily, it was not 450/day. This month, I need to make the goal be that I type up everything from November, at a minimum. I don’t think it’d be hard to maintain an easy word count of 100/day. It won’t hardly get anything done, but if I manage that minimum, I will STILL end the month 3000 words (a whole chapter, guys!). The moment my retail job ends sometime in early January, it’s going to be upped to 300/day. There is no good reason I can’t maintain that working only one job. If I get to work from home, it’s going to double to 600/day. Why? Because I’m hiring myself to do a second, part-time, self-employed JOB writing erotic short fic. With deadlines and shit.

So far, things that help me get shit done:

1. Outlines
2. External accountability (ya’ll see me posting this, right?)
3. Tracking my daily word count

When the retail job ends (no, I’m not starting right away because I’m not capable of working 3 jobs at once, guys—I have limits), I’m going to add, “framing this as a job where I have a set time clock to check in and out”. I’ll have a set number of hours I have to work every week (gonna start with 15). And also add, “Have set deadlines that are immutable because they are publishing dates”. It’ll take a while for me to roll out given that I need to have a few stories done before I can start publishing (I want a backlog of 6) but if I work as hard on this as I’ve worked my retail job, it won’t be a totally unrealistic expectation.

Time to cut myself off from daydreaming about my goals, eat lunch and then get some writing done this afternoon (work’s not super busy).

Go me!

I’ve maintained my 450 words/day average. Still. Go me!

The Holiday Trials begin next week; I work long, long hours and the twin is coming over with my niece and nephew. There will be so little time for WriMoing. I feel obliged to squeak in a few extra words while I can so when the month is over, I’ll have three rough draft chapters of my Doctor Who fanfic and a goodly portion of a short and smutty done. So much work to do but I’m doing it.

How good does it feel to write and see results? VERY.
 

I’m feeling good about this. Am averaging 475 words/day. That’s right; I’ve boosted my daily average. I couldn’t keep that pace when I only had one job. Writing’s writing. Can’t disparage myself for working hard, focusing, and taking advantage of the little time I have to squeeze in writing at the office, even if it’s not the 3,000 word/day I’d need to win WriMo. Whatever. Gonna drink meh coffee and get to work.

NaNoWriMo is a go, but I’m nowhere near close to my word goals. I don’t expect to win this year; I was hoping to get more done, but wow. Free time is a scarce commodity.  I thought I had no time before I started my second job; I genuinely have very little time. Am still getting more done than I did before NaNo, though--it's a good incentive. I’m averaging around 400/words a day. Not enough to win NaNo, not even enough to meet my person goal of throwing together short erotic stories  (novellas?) and finishing another chapter of my Doctor Who fanfic by January (I’m close! Maybe I can be done with that fic chapter by the end of my work day today).

I will do all I can without burning myself out.

My birthday party is Saturday! I'm going to have fun with my friends! (am tempted to call in sick on Friday to my day job to give myself a little writing time).