Sunday, January 12, 2014

Sunday Update

This was a very disappointing half week.  The story was going gang busters, but stuff happened.

The one thing I did do was fill in a lot of plot holes (and find some inconsistencies I have to deal with).  This is intentionally a kind of throwaway ripping yarn, and so I don't mind a certain amount of dumb plotting... but it has to make sense on some level.

But I didn't expect the anonymous thug to show his face and make such a polite threat to the heroine. I also didn't expect the $50,000.  I can only say, wow, that puts an interesting complexion on things.


As for my A Round of words in 80 Days update:

The goals for the first quarter of 2014 are to write on the WIP for at least Four 10-minute writing sprints/bouts/sessions.  That makes for about 800-1200 words.  I should be doing at least twice that much, but I've got a lot of other things on my plate. (Aside from weather.)

Wednesday, Day 3: 4 bouts, for about 1200 words.  I wanted to do a session earlier in the day, but ended up replotting some things.

Thursday, Day 4: Day lost to personal stuff.

Friday, Day 5: Day lost because I was an idiot.  After being trapped in the house for so long, I decided that I'd try to get back to my regular routine and go out to MacDonalds to type some blog posts early on.  I have now discovered the source of my terrible shoulder RSI.  It appears to be that danged tiny keyboard on the netbook I use when I'm out of the house, combined with the high restaurant table.  (All those days in the house, no trouble. One session out of the house, OUCH!)

Saturday, Day 6: 2 bouts, for about 500 words. Rested shoulder, tried out some other portable keyboards.  (For home: Found my new ergonomic keyboard xmas pleasant is Da Bomb! I'll talk about it later.  When I can type long enough to write about it.)

I've learned my lesson and I'm not going to predict anything for this week.  In my pain-inducing session on Friday, I did get some nice rough drafting done on some posts about plot. However, they aren't ready to post yet, so what will get posted on Friday will depend on the shoulder.

See you in the funny papers.

6 comments:

Callie Weylin said...

I'm glad I'm not the only one going for lower goals - it can be pretty demotivating when you hear about how little trouble some people have banging out a novel, working full-time, looking after little monsters, playing 'Superwoman'... and then there's me.

I hope you manage to work out a better set up so you can write comfortably elsewhere. I wonder if Macdonalds doesn't want people doing anything productive there?

Regards,

Callie Weylin.

The Daring Novelist said...

Callie: yeah, these are really low goals, but I find that when I'm really ripping on something I don't need goals at all - so in that sense, low goals are good.

As for the writing routines: Fast food restaurants (at least around here) are very friendly toward people working in them. Much more friendly than cafes, actually. It's just that the tables are made for "average" - which includes tall men.

Taco Bell is my actual prime writing location since years ago in college, and they are very friendly. They give me free stuff.

Anonymous said...

You're not an idiot. Hey, you discovered what was causing the problem, so now you know what to avoid.
Here's hoping your shoulder gets better very soon.
I like the idea of writing sprints. Sometimes it's easier to devote a short amount of time to writing than a large chunk of it. I just may have to add this to my day.
Hope you have a great week.

Anonymous said...

I love it when my stories surprise me, although there's something frightening about the idea that our own stories and characters can keep secrets from us.

You're making progress on your story, and that's the important part. Good luck with the upcoming week! Hopefully this week is warmer where you're at. (Today I took a walk without gloves and it felt so liberating.)

Eden "Kymele" Mabee said...

Interesting that you find McDonald's more welcoming for working in than a cafe.. Save for the McD's by my parents' (75 minute drive from our house), I don't know many fast food places that make it easy to spend "work time" in them. Dunkin Donuts here says they have "free" wi-fi, but only if you're signed up via AT&T's proprietary service, most place shave no outlets (hard for the old laptops users with limited batteries), Uno's won't let people look at blogs (hard to do ROW80 sponsor duties there), etc...

But that's not important. What is is that you discovered why your shoulder ended up hurting, and even in pain, you still managed to get some writing done, Camille. That's impressive.

And yeah, lowered goals often work best. Nothing says you can' keep going, but it's hard to feel like a failure for missing big goal after big goal.

Kathy said...

Yay for filling in plot holes! Lately it feels like what I'm doing is digging deeper ones -- but hey, can't build a foundation without digging a basement first, right? *She says hopefully*

Also, I meant to say this last time, but I love your banner picture.