I reached a milestone on the manuscript this weekend: 9,100 words. That’s more than 10% of my target length. My progress has been much slower than I’d like: it has taken my 90 session to reach that mark, which averages out to around 100 words per session.
On the other hand, that’s 100 words on the manuscript. For every 100 word addition to the story, I’ve written five times as many to work out character motivation, background material, and plot. I’ve also done quite a bit of as-I-go revision to correct places where I’ve gone astray now instead of leaving time bombs littering the manuscript that will ultimately derail the story or make revision so much harder. As the manuscript grows and I’ve worked out more of the background material, I expect to increase the rate at which I add words to the story. The result should be a first draft that requires less arduous and lengthy revision than previous projects.
It seems like I’m creeping along, but the pages so far are better written than any first draft I’ve ever produced. The big disappointment has not been the quality or quantity of the words, but the fact that I’m not writing every day. Obviously, I need to pick up the pace. Getting up in the morning has gotten much harder lately, so I sometimes skip a day or two. Once I solve that problem, I expect to pick up the pace.
Sam Falco 