Writing a First Draft in Two Weeks: Part 3

How am I doing in my online class and its imposed challenge of writing a first draft in two weeks? (280 double-spaced pages.) Well, it’s going.

Sorta.

Speaking of Crazy Goals…

I’ve done an awful lot in the past two weeks, except make the 280 page mark. I am pleased to announce that I am over the 200 page threshold, but with the midnight Sunday deadline approaching faster than Easter, let’s just say, hitting 280 ain’t gonna happen. I mean, sure, I’m open to miracles. But the fact of the matter is, I’m not going to drop absolutely everything in order to accomplish this goal. In fact, writing 77 pages in the next 30.5 hours would pretty much ensure I would break a whole lot of other goals. Such as my goal of being a reasonable person, my goal of keeping my family happy and fed–heck, even hanging out with my family, my goal of getting through laundry before the work week commences once again, my goal of being a non-negligent mother, etc, etc. Plus, I’m pretty sure the cat I’m sitting would get a bit pissy if I just ran into the house, flung food at her, and hurried off again. (Same goes for my family, actually.)

There is something to be said for making unreasonable attempts, such as writing 280 pages in two weeks while trying to retain a semblance of real life (and not get fired or divorced or visited by family services). There is also something to be said for making goals and doing your best to get close to them. For example, if I hadn’t tried to reach this goal, I would still only have notes as to where I wanted to go with this story idea.

So what have I learned? I can squeeze in a little writing time every day if I make it a priority. And heck, it’s still a pile of fun! (Plus, if I write up to 9:13 in the morning, I can eek into work just in the nick of time. Whew!)

The next crazy goal? To revise this puppy in two weeks–that’s the second half of the class. I wonder if it matters that it is only 207 pages long and incomplete. Hmm…

This is the Journey of Writing

You start out feeling a bit lost and directionless, but you know you want to do something. An idea hits you and causes inspiration that lights up the room and spins you around in its tingly clutches. That tiny, hopeful voice that plays with your subconscious when you aren’t paying attention says, “This could be big.” Glittery-eyed excitement dances around you. You dive in. Slowly, things build and your progress pushes you further and further into your project and before you know it, it has consumed you in almost every conceivable way. You are tarred to your project and bit by bit, you push yourself a little harder, and then a little harder still. Your personal expectations get a little higher, and a little higher until they begin to get elevation sickness, but the giddiness keeps you pushing. You become an endless one way street. Your relationships begin to sway under the strain, and while you see it, you can’t sacrifice what you are doing. You convince yourself you have balance and it’s all okay. Little hissy fit meltdowns that are not understandable to others begin to litter  your feebackless chamber. Small things pile up against you and your project, but they feel like boulders. The insular and individualistic nature of it all begins to eat at you and self doubt creeps in, its long, snaky fingers tarnishing everything. A bigger meltdown leaves you flailing about on the floor, but you can’t give up. You grasp at a tenuous lifeline, but next week there is an even bigger ‘what am I doing to myself’ moment that sweeps you up and bangs you around until you don’t know which wall has bruised you the worst. You shout off a cliff, your anger curled like a dirty fist. You question each and every thing about yourself, your abilities, your possibly lost sanity, and of course your project, its merit and pretty much everything connected to it. You have to throw in the towel. It’s the only way to rebalance the scales. Two hours later, it’s like the meltdowns and bruising never happened. You are up off the floor feeling as refreshed, inspired, and raring to go as if you just stepped out of a rejuvenating shower in the fountain of youth and optimism. This is the journey of writing.

–inspired by the movie Julie & Julia as Julie’s life showed me that I am not the only one who was been through this wretchedly joyous journey.

Writing a First Draft in Two Weeks: Part #2

I’m cranking out the pages today, but had to stop to do a little research to help me push the story forward in the right direction. The problem is, my research has popped a question right up into the forefront of thee ol’ brain.

First, some backstory. The main character in my WIP believes she was conceived as a result of artificial insemination through a sperm donor clinic.

Doing my research on clinics, etc, I began to wonder… do I use a real clinic? What are the pluses, what are the drawbacks?

My story is set in a fictional small town in rural Alberta and there are three clinics in Alberta listed on the DonorSiblingRegistry.com website and so I was thinking, do I use a real clinic? Using a real clinic might add more details to the story that a fictional clinic may not. The problem is that if I use a real place, then I have to do even more research to ensure that I represent this place accurately as there is correspondence back and forth regarding policy, etc. And to do that, I may not be able to manipulate my character and storyline in the way I imagine. I suppose I could do the research and then figure out what works best for my story. The best of both worlds?

Here’s the other problem… when calling someone up out of the blue to ask questions, when I imagine the script, I always get stuck. For example, here’s my big ‘what if’ that leaves me stumped:

“Hi, my name is Jean Oram and I am writing a novel about a girl who is searching for her Bio-Dad who was a sperm donor in the 1980s. I’m hoping you can help me out by answering a few questions I have.”

“Cool! When will the book be published?”

“Uhhhh… well, see… here’s the thing–”

Have you delved deep into research where you interviewed people? What did you do? How did you handle the ‘when does the book come out’ topic?

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P.S. Here is my progress so far:

Monday: 0

Tuesday: 14

Wednesday: 13

Thursday: 20

Friday: 24 and still going

LATER NOTE: I wrote 44 pages today (double spaced, 6625 words). Whew!

Writing a First Draft in Two Weeks: Part 1

I am taking a writing class online through Orange County RWA called “Fast Draft and Revision Hell” with Candace Havens. Despite all those things that make life so busy, a bunch of us crazies writers are going to put down a first draft in two weeks. It’s day two. I have a story arc and uh…. I’d better get going!

I need to write 20 pages (double spaced) every day for the next two weeks. That’s right, push everything aside and just fly!

I’ll try and keep you all posted! I’ve got to run off to work, but I hope to write my twenty pages in that hour I have between work and supper tonight. (I’d better hit the grocery store for a pre-cooked BBQ chicken!) Can she write 20 pages in 1 hour? Only time will tell…

WEbook Contest Update

Whew, what a week! I love it when weeks streak by, and that one certainly did. Let’s see, we bought a larger second-hand vehicle this week, I started a new job, did a hefty pile of good things for friends and acquaintances (working on my sainthood here), and we put my beloved Dodge Shadow up for sale. (sniff, sniff) I even almost destroyed my computer this week. And then I discovered, it wasn’t actually me or the computer, it was Windows and a bad update. Whew! I thought I had lost everything. That would have really sucked bo-bo. In a big way.

Speaking of updates, I remembered to check on my WEbook Page to Fame submissions today. I tell ya, I’ve gotten a lot of entertainment out of those $5 submissions.

Anyway, here’s a screen shot of how I’m doing at the moment:

I’m doing much better since they’ve removed all the ‘bad’ votes. It turns out some folks were going on there and lowballing submissions that weren’t theirs. I had kind of wondered why I had the almost exact same crappy marks for two very different projects–one that had been very much edited and one that hadn’t (at all, really). Now, there is a variety in marks which is relieving and expected. The edited project is doing 4% better (it’s the 2nd one in the above image). Interesting, isn’t it?

I may have already mentioned this, but I love the fact that this contest (which allows you to submit the first page–about 250 words if I recall correctly) has opened my eyes to things I need to improve. Looking at my first page and looking at the marks that were coming in, I quickly realized my story was not showing how it was different right up front. It was, well, kind of average in its topic, if you know what I mean? Thanks to this contest, combined with a few bits of agent feedback, I have since improved my opening with a few tweaks to let the reader see that this might not be your typical girl-getting-married-and-having-second-thoughts kind of story.

I sure do love it when feedback helps me see what I need to do to push my writing to the next level.

How about you? Have you gotten a tidbit somewhere lately that’s opened your eyes to what you need to do to make your work better or make it stand out?

P.S. I’ve blacked out the contest submission titles as I don’t want folks I know inflating my marks out of the kindness of their dear little hearts. Just in case they might be tempted….