Monday, October 29, 2007

On track

I have had a very productive writing day today. I'm beginning to implement my new plan for getting writing done. As I mentioned in this post, I will be attempting to write 750 words a day, every day, in order to reach my goal of finishing this draft by April 30. One change I made in order to facilitate this goal is to start writing by hand again. I have always known I write more quickly by hand, but I've been resisting it because I thought it would be more efficient to write on my laptop. I was trying to train myself to write first drafts on the computer. However, it's not more efficient if every time I open Word, I stare numbly at the blank white space and am unable to put down any words. After reading of many others who write their first draft by hand, I decided to give in to the urge. I will be writing by hand, and then editing later as I type up the results. It's how I wrote 90% of my college papers, and it worked well then, so I'm just going to give it a try. It definitely won't make things any worse. ;)

Also, because I backed out of NaNoWriMo and because I'm attempting the goal of writing 750 words every work day, I've decided to participate in NaBloPoMo and write a post every day for the month of November. I will be re-implementing my wordcounter in the sidebar to keep me honest, and I will post the number of words I write every day. Currently it only contains my words from chapters 1 & 2 because I am rewriting everything else as I go, so it looks really low.

In other news, my desired autumn weather arrived with a crackle of thunder this afternoon, followed by a downpour of rain so hard I thought it was hailing. Tonight friends are coming over to carve pumpkins and roast the seeds with us. I'm also making mulled wine. Mm mm. Bring on the rain, the fun has moved indoors. (Except when Drew needs a potty break, of course. Ahem.)

Words written today: 1,032

9 comments:

Lane Mathias said...

Rooting for you here! You can do it:-)

Jenny Beattie said...

Ooh, Angie, please can I come tonight? It's so horribly hot here and I want Autumn to come.

I think if you work best in longhand, that's what you should do, without a doubt. I write loads better on a pc, and really find writing by hand difficult. So I lug my laptop everywhere!

All the best with the words!

JJx

Alix said...

Hello
Came over from hellojed's site. Good luck with Nablopomo, I'm doing it too, and with your novel.

Kristen @ frostingandfroth.com said...

Writing by hand sounds like a great idea. Whatever makes you most efficient/inspired. On another note, I am totally jealous that you had a pumpkin carving/mulled wine/thunder storm event last night. That sounds so cozy and fall-like. Sigh.

Anonymous said...

I prefer the keyboard for my drafts. More at ease with corrections. My handwiritng is horrible and I start getting tense after a couple of sentences. Anyway, nobody's way can be everybody's way. Keep on as you feel more efficient.

Caroline said...

*waves* I have been lurking here too :)

You can meet the deadline. Go you! I am wearing a cheerleading outfit especially.

:)

x

Angie said...

Thanks, Lane! I'm rooting for you on your Dec goal too. :)

JJ, come on over! I'm sure it'll feel cold compared to Bangkok.
I wish I wrote best on the laptop, but I don't seem to, though I do lag it everywhere cuz it's cool. ;) Ah well.

Alix, thanks for stopping by and welcome! I stopped by your blog and enjoyed it. Good luck on Nablopomo too.

Kristen, efficiency and inspiration are important, I suppose. ;)
We'll have to do a mulled wine (thunder storm?) evening when you come back.

Alfaking, I edit well on the computer, but the inspiration doesn't seem to come on the keyboard, though I wish it did.

Caroline, thanks for visiting. Glad I'm not the only lurker. ;)
Oo, I get the special cheerleading outfit? Hurrah!

Yvonne said...

Congrats Angie! I do most of my writing on the computer but I do all my planning by hand. Strange huh?

Angie said...

Thanks, Hellojed. I think there's something intrinsically creative about planning/writing by hand. I'm really good at editing on the computer, and I think that's why I struggle to write on the computer...there's too much temptation to go back and fix, whereas on paper, I just draw an arrow with any additions/changes and move on.