Saturday, September 02, 2006

Day 2

So I managed to fit in a little more writing last night, getting my word count up to 2884 before putting my computer and myself to bed.

Today, in between our weekly Saturday house cleaning and shopping for school shoes (something which I put off until the last possible minute because shoe designers don't seem to realize that young kids sometimes wear women's size shoes but don't necessarily want to look like Mom or Grandma) and clothes shopping and going through closets to make room for all the new clothes and shoes and getting a pile of stuff ready for a garage sale and/or donation I did get my word count up to 4111 as of a few minutes ago. I noticed a POV shift in the second chapter but I'm just going with it for for. Lucy's voice seems to ring true in the first person. These are the kind of decisions I am just letting go of for now.

My focus quote today was:

"Don't worry about style. Be who you are, breathe fully, be alive, and write."
from "Wild Mind"

I've never really worried about style. I figure if I tell a story as true as I can it can't help but be in my style. I do like to play with style though by typing in paragraphs or even short short stories by writers I love. Typing them makes me really slow down and savor each word choice and become entranced by the rhythm of their writing. I highly recommend it as an exercise.

I just realized that I am trying something totally new for me. I am typing my first draft directly onto the computer. I figure if I am going to get 50,000 words done in 30 days I really don't have time to write it by hand then type it in. It wasn't a big decision that I struggled with. It's just how I started and it is working. I am scribbling in my notebook as I think of things I want to add. And I did handwrite a paragraph from Grace but that won't be until the next chapter. I like that the whole typing thing seems to be working. It's actually one of the things I like least about writing- the physical typing. But now I think I really just hate doing all the fun writing then having to basically transcribe page after page after page.

1 comment:

Laura said...

It's so cool that you're doing this. I hope you'll let us read it when you're done.

Good luck and keep going :)