progress

[ksmith]

Not as much as I would've liked because I had some off days. I need to find another time to run errands, because when I chew up the morning, it takes a couple of hours for me to settle down. Then production drops off in the evening, I think because my brain gets fed up and starts looking for other things to occupy its time. Like stupid hockey games.

Anyway, only 1172 words yesterdsy. 2475 words today. Total Crunch wordage since last Saturday: 15,490. Not quite enough. Granted, there's altogether too much set-up still going on, and set-up takes time.

Comments

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

What works for me (might not work for you) is to do the words first. Get up, brush teeth, sit down at the computer. I'm lucky in that my work computer when at home is not on the internet...I can't cheat, and the internet computer stays off until a minimum number of words have appeared on the screen. This time, when I discovered that writing before breakfast added to the day's count almost painlessly, I tried for 500 words before breakfast and often got 1000. Amazed me. It not only got the engine started, it led to more words in the same length of time after breakfast.

Anyway--writing first, and without the internet, helped. So did cutting my subscriptions to internet groups and listservs. I'm not checking daily on even half as many groups/individuals as usual, so when I do allow myself a half hour on the internet later in the day at the noon break I can read it all and don't have much else to look at. Then the laptop goes off again (it's easier for me if it's all the way off, so I can't log on "just to check for email...") No TV, no phoning friends (amazing how attractive the phone is when I'm denied the internet!)

The first days of a crunch are the hardest, because the mind doesn't *want* to work like that and invents excuses. Need to turn the TV on to check the weather...and then it's 45 minutes later and I've watched not just the weather, but sports, and half of an idiot show about celebrities. Need to go online and see if X (friend) or Y (agent/editor) has sent critical email to which I must respond (no, it's spam and inconsequentials, and it's an hour (or three) later because, being online, I just had to check my Friends page, and a few newsgroups, and there's a new post on TEXBIRDS, maybe, and someone sent me a link to a cool site... Deprived of all that, and sometimes sleep, the words finally start coming. The inventive brain finally gives up, shrugs, and goes to work. Still not fun, but at least the words pile up.

But as I said, this method of starting the work first and refusing all distractions until it's done is just my method. Might not work for anyone else. And I still don't like doing it even though it gets results. And you have to know your physical limits...I used to be able to crunch for 5000--now I can't.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

My best word production for a day *ever* was 37 pages. Not sure about the wordage--my pages seldom hit the standard 250 words--but I remember working from the time I got up through to late night, with meal breaks in-between. I did not have to see to the dogs, shop, or do much of anything else at that time other than write. It's not a realistic goal now, although it might happen once in a while out of the blue, when the Muse really hits. But it's not a realistic daily goal, which is why I made it my Daily Goal for this crunch. Of course it didn't work.

I wish I had another week beyond the coming one. I may ask if it's possible. I think the last week was warm-up. I will see how things are going around Wednesday.

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

I don't get 250 to the page either...dialogue doesn't fill the lines out all the time. It takes me 4.5 to 5 pages for 1000 words. Sometimes 5.5. I figure 2000 words for 10 pages, and usually get a little more. So 24-26 pages for a 5000 word chapter.

I set my daily goal at a level I know I can reach without physical strain...for me, 2500 words is a solid wodge, but not (unless I'm stuck) an all-day struggle. If it's flowing, that's a few hours in the morning. 3000 begins to be a push; 4000+ is a definite crunch--not going to get through that in 4 or 5 hours. This time I calculated an approximate end point for the first draft if I hit 2500, 3000, 4000, and 5000. Engraved that in my brain. So when I started the serious push, the day after shipping off that blasted novella, the 2500 came and continued to come and started even lopping over. So I upped my daily to 3000. That lopped over. So I upped it to 4000, which gave me a margin--if I guessed correctly how many words I needed. Since I don't have an outside job, I could calculate on a five-day work week (with the other days as "emergency days" as yesterday was.) But I think the daily has to be something achievable, or the guilt/misery from not attaining it actually slows me down.

The most wordage I ever did in a day was 9400--it was a "release" thing--back when I was still homeschooling the kid, we sent Michael to camp for five days (as long as it was) and I had four days of not being interrupted--the fifth I had to drive down and pick him up. Day one I pulled 3000 and something. Day two, it hit me that I was alone, free...and out came 9400 words. Day three, something like five. But my hands won't let me do that much now. 5000, maybe 5100, is the upper limit, and the next day the hands are a mess, even with ibu. I wrote a lot of the Gird book at 5000/day, 7 days a week, because I'd been promised a lead slot if I could get it in by X. Can't do that now, physically.

Don't berate yourself, though. That lowers productivity the same way as a clinical depression...you're thinking about yourself, and not the story. (My heavens, I'm a bossy old woman!!!)