Last week was my challenge week. The goal: Write 2,000 words every day, Monday through Friday. The plan was to end the week with 10,000 words of new material written for Her Midnight Hunter, the next book in my current paranormal trilogy. HMH needs to be done before I move on to something else, but it had been a while since I wrote, so I needed to get back into the swing of it.
On an average day, when I’m writing on a daily basis, I get about 500 words written. In an average month, I log a total of around 20,000 words, doing a little extra on weekends and in stolen time. By that standard, 10k would be half a month’s work, packed into 5 days. I wrote a little about how I was feeling after every session, which I’ve pasted below. Here’s how it went…
Monday
That was exhausting.
I dropped Eevee off and headed out to the garden right after. I picked a spot and took a couple pictures to share with the people who knew I was doing this today, then sat down and got out my stuff.
Before I could do anything, I needed to reread everything I’d written so far. I haven’t touched this story in a few months, so I need the refresher. I got caught up editing a little along the way, but it didn’t take too long, as I was just shy of 12,000 words into the story. After I was done reading and knew where I was starting from, I copied my outline paragraph for that chapter over to the story document and started work at around 10. I brought headphones to shut out the sound of the sports the hundreds of kids here were doing, so I was in my quiet little bubble on the other side of the garden. It’s beautiful, so it’s hard not to be inspired there.
I thought it would be easier to just pick up and go, but I was picking up at an action scene, which is one of the harder things for me to write. I really struggled through the beginning. Well, I guess I really struggled through the whole thing. I haven’t written in so long that I really had to buckle down and when it hit 11 AM and I only had 700 words, I wasn’t sure I was going to make my goal.
But it did get easier as I went. I stopped at 11:55 with 2,206 words. I can’t say how happy I am with those words, but it’s the better part of a chapter, and at least it moves things forward. The first half of the week is supposed to be beautiful weather, so hopefully I can keep this up.
Monday’s word count: 2,206
Tuesday
I started earlier today, finding a shortcut into the garden. I started writing at 9:15. The first hour was the most productive this time, starting a fresh chapter and refining my outline and plans as I went. But after an hour some other people came out to enjoy the weather and it got pretty loud. It was hard to concentrate after that, so even though I got over a thousand in my first 45 minutes, it took me another hour to reach my 2k goal. I stopped at 2,142.
I think I’ll be able to do 2k comfortably each day after Eevee starts school, but working at home will probably be easier then. One issue is that I can only go that hard for about two hours, then I’m exhausted. I took a break at 11 and explored the library and enjoyed the weather until 12, then sat down to write a bit more. But I was tired, so I didn’t get much farther. Rough.
Overcoming that mental fatigue will be the hardest part and I think it’s a big challenge for this week, too. How much can I do in one week with consistency? Will I burn out and wear out before I reach the end of the week? Today was okay, but maybe tomorrow I’ll sit in a different place with fewer tables and see if I can keep things quieter for more of my work time. It would be pretty cool to break 3k one day, but I won’t push it. I made 2k and got extra. That’s progress, so I’m satisfied with that.
Tuesday’s word count: 2,464
Wednesday
I didn’t charge my laptop last night, so I sat down with under 30% battery. Whoops. Still, that got me almost two hours of work time. I wrote from 9:15 to 11, though I worked faster in the last 45 minutes. Funny contrast, compared to yesterday. I overslept this morning and ended up in a mad scramble to get ready and make it to the church, so I was still groggy when I got to the garden. I imagine that’s why. I wrote until I got a low battery warning and just barely squeaked by 2k.
I’m all right with averaging a thousand words an hour. It’s not great, but I’m trying to strive for quality as I work, so you sacrifice speed when doing that. It makes editing way easier later on down the road and I’d rather have easy editing than a document full of horrid word vomit to sort out later.
As of today, the document is about 250 words shy of the 20,000 word mark, which means it has almost doubled in length in the span of 3 days. If I can write this way full-time in August when Eevee starts school, I will be content. Working in the morning may be better for me, instead of putting off writing until the evening. I am not sure how I’ll fare with writing before I do any housework, though—having dirty dishes and undone laundry tends to distract me. That’s one nice thing about coming and writing in the garden. It’s impossible to do anything but focus on my work while I’m here.
I suppose one possibility is coming to the garden to write even when Eevee is in school. I’ve been sitting in a beautiful portico (I went back to the same spot, since there wasn’t anyone else here this morning) so I could come even on rainy days, as long as it’s not too hot or too cold. At 2k a day, I could finish a 90k word book in 6 weeks. Leaving room for editing, that means I’ll be able to put out about 4 books a year. My fantasy stories will probably average around that, so that would be great. But if I can get up to 3k a day (including weekends) and do that consistently, I’d be able to complete a 90k word book every month, which would put me great strides forward in my author career.
I can’t be greedy, though. Maybe tomorrow I can try for 3k. Since I stopped at 11 today and my laptop’s battery is depleted, today is not the day. But tomorrow, if I stop for a short break in the middle to stretch and clear my head, I might be able to do it.
Wednesday’s word count: 2,089
Thursday
I can’t seem to push any higher. I’m wiped out. Exhausted after days of early mornings and late nights, because I still have to go home and tend Eevee’s needs and get my normal amount of work done on other projects. I felt like this morning was going okay at first, but then everywhere got crowded. Dozens of people outside in the portico, hundreds in the lobbies. I tried to find a different place to sit. Noise and people everywhere. I can work around noise okay, but I can’t work around people. People are distracting. So while I did make it to 2k, I couldn’t seem to push much past that, and it took from 9:20 to 11:50 to get that far. At that point, I was too worn out to keep going, so I decided to call it good enough.
I dream of someday doubling that word count, but I have to keep reminding myself that this is good enough for now. Especially knowing I normally only accomplish 500 words in a day, a fact I try to remind myself every time I feel frustrated about the progress I’m making now. This is good! This is better than I’ve been doing! It’s huge strides forward. I know I can keep up this pace when Little Bit starts school, and if I want to boost my productivity then, it’ll be easier to do—I can write two hours in the morning and land around 2k words, then work on other things until lunch. I can do another hour or two after I eat, then go pick up the munchkin. That should be able to put me in the neighborhood of 3,000-4,000 words a day for week days, and I’m sure I can carve out at least an hour—roughly 1,000 words—a day on weekends.
And the more I do it, the faster I get. So why does it still feel like hitting that ceiling is a disappointment, even when I know I’m doing better than most? I guess that’s an inner struggle I need to work on.
Either way, I’m ending today with close to 22,000 words in my novel’s document, which means by the end of tomorrow, I should have the book close to a third of the way done.
That should be inspiring, right?
Thursday’s word count: 2,197
Friday
Today’s writing session totally derailed my book outline!
That’s not unusual for me. I usually derail twice, but I end up getting back to the end point eventually. I started writing at 9:20 and this time, I decided to allow myself a couple short breaks to stretch and refill my water bottle. Kind of important, since it’s 90 out today and I’m still outside to do my writing.
I stopped at 12:05. At that point, I felt like I needed to stop and reevaluate my outline to figure out what came next. That’s an important part of my process these days, so I didn’t want to fight it. I figured it’d be better to take a few minutes to revisit my plans and then I would be starting with fresh notes next time I sit down to write.
If I hadn’t hit that obstacle, I probably could have reached 3,000 words today, which felt like finally getting close enough to clear that hurdle. Hopefully that’s one I’ll clear when I do this again in August, after Eevee starts school.
Of course, I hope I won’t be working on this book at that point. HMH is now 24,356 words long, which is right around a third of its total projected length. For some reason, I thought I had more of the book written before I started this project. But I’m nowhere near the midpoint. Either way, it was still a pretty substantial week of work for me. I briefly considered trying to write a little more tonight, but I think I’ll give myself the weekend off. This whole ordeal was pretty mentally taxing, so a break might do me some good.
Okay, maybe I’ll give myself tonight off…
Friday’s word count: 2,490
Total word count for the week: 11,446
All in all, not too shabby.
Now to figure out how to do this every week.