The Night of Writing Exercises

Tonight I put down my various projects to focus on craft itself.  I did several free-writes and two exercises out of "The 3 A.M. Epiphany," by Brian Kiteley.  This book was assigned to me during one of my creative writing courses at the University of Utah, and I love it.  He did a second writing book called "The 4 A.M. Breakthrough" in 2009, and I am hoping to pick that one up soon.

Asylum Project

So I spent about a year and a half doing research and developing what I'll call the "Asylum Project."  Unfortunately the steam went out and I set it to the side for a number of months.  Today, I decided that I wanted to start refamiliarizing myself with it so I spent several hours looking over the plot, characters, and research.  I don't know if I am ready to begin writing it yet, but I feel the time is coming soon.

Hay Day! Netflix! You are the Devil!

So I accomplished absolutely nothing last night...why?  Because I couldn't keep myself off of Hay Day and watching "The Office."  I feel terribly guilty for it, like when you ate that last piece of cake even though it was supposed to be saved for your significant other...or something like that anyway.  The point is, I have a bad tendency to allow these distractions to carry me away from everything I have to do and I can't let that happen.

Twofur

This post will be combining last night and tonight...not that there is too terribly much or anything wild to go into details about.  Last night was pretty straight forward, I went to Shari's and after my free-write I got about two hours and got about 600 words done before coming to a complete standstill.  After that I came back home and worked for another hour on research and story development.
Tonight I didn't get any words written for "Ashes", however, I did complete my free-write and another hour and a half in story development.  Three and a half hours of sleep just doesn't work very well for me anymore.  All good though...moving forward still.

Shari's, Coffee, and Progress

Today has been a great night.  Following the last few days lackluster progress I decided I needed to change things up for the night.  After dropping my husband off at work and taking care of a few things around the house I packed up my writing stuff and made my way to a nearby Shari's.  I am always a bit leery about writing in public because I don't like being that, "oh look another writer" person.  However, after I get my cup of generic coffee, get my headphones on, and my pencils sharpened, I've gotten over that and I'm ready to go.

I didn't set any goals before starting out tonight.  I wanted things to be carry as little pressure as possible and just let go...I think I was pretty successful and I feel excellent about the progress that I made.

Project Name: "Ashes"
Today's Word Count: 1,466
Project Word Count: 4,172 of 7,500
Words This Year: 4,172

What I accomplished:

• Feeling confident about getting work done.
• Completed a ten minute free-write.
• Wrote for several hours.

Still Getting Changed Over

Still feeling headachy and tired all night.  The ability for words to even make it to the tip of the pencil eludes me.  However I did spend about an hour and a half looking over things I had done on the "Asylum" project.

Schedule Changes UGH!

My husbands schedule has changed for the second time in a month.  He was on a graveyard shift, then he went to a modified swing shift, and now he is back on graves.  This change has altered my writing capabilities momentarily...I just can't concentrate.  Hopefully, it is just readjusting and I will recover--I'm sure I will recover.

Completed today:

• Ten minutes of free-writing.
• Spent just shy of two hours doing research and staring at a page with my pencil in my hand.

   

Insert Title Here

My husband and I are taking an hour to work on our respective projects.  I'll be spending the hour working on my story while he is going through his enormous totes in the spare bedroom closet and deciding what he is going to donate to Goodwill and what he wants to keep for now.  I know it is difficult for him and I'm proud of the progress he has made.  I am not sure how much writing I will get done today as we have some errands to run, chores to do, and of course, the Seahawks vs 49ers NFC Championship game.  Go Seahawks!

Project Name: "Ashes"
Today's Word Count: 599
Project Word Count: 2706 of 7,500 (corrected after some mathematical errors somewhere)
Words This Year: 2706

My overall progress for today:

• One hour session.
• Completed a ten minute free-write.
• Spent some time looking over what I wrote the last few days.
• Wrote 297 words this session.
• Starting another one hour session to see what I can accomplish.
• Completed a ten minute free-write.
• Organized some of my notes in Scrivener.
• Wrote 302 words this session.

As a little side note...

SEAHAWKS ARE GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!!!!

Not Quite What I Anticipated

Last night didn't go at all as I had thought it would.  Of all the great ideas and aspirations I had for the evening's writing session, nothing was accomplished.  Not even a free-write.  I really am trying not to beat myself up too much about it and just move on but as I sit at my desk it is all I am able to do it seems.
As for the story, it has gone a completely different direction than it's first incarnation.  The story was originally a piece of flash fiction that I wrote a couple of years ago that never got there.  I have since picked it back up and started re-writing it.  Once it was a near-future post-apocolyptic piece and now it has gone into the realm of steampunk alternate history.  Where it will end up I have no idea, I'm just kind of going with the flow right now and seeing what happens.  I am sure that ninety percent of what is being accomplished right now will ultimately be changed, discarded, or otherwise altered.  That's the creative process though...or that's what they say.

Project Name: "Ashes"
Today's Word Count: 397
Project Word Count: 2110 of 7,500
Words This Year: 2110 (this total does not reflect random writing or free-writes)

The plan for this one hour session:

• Free-write for ten minutes.
• Research and gain inspiration for additional scenes and possibilities of direction. 

During this one hour session, things went really smoothly.  I had a wonderful free-write, my research went well, and I was able to still fit in 397 words.  Depending on how the rest of the day goes, I may be able to get some more time in.

Day Two

Pandora is up and running with a station based on Blackmore's Night and the tea is brewing.  It is time to settle in for another morning of work.  It really that cliche love/hate relationship for me; more of a codependency.  At any rate, I feel good and I am ready to get at it.

Project Name: "Ashes"
Today's Word Count: 815
Project Word Count: 1713 of 7,500

The plan:

• Warm-up free-write for ten minutes.
• Spend twenty minutes or so reviewing yesterday's writing and making notes.
• Write for two hours.
• Take a forty-five minute lunch break
• Free-write for ten minutes
• Write for two hours. 
• Cool-down free-write for ten minutes.  

The two hour blocks are a little bit flexible, it depends where I am after the first two hours.  The important thing is that I write for four hours this session.

The reality:

• Not every free-write goes as well as the ones before.  I had difficulty delving deep into those autonomous finger movements today.  Everything was rather superficial.  It is okay though right?  
• Well...I did get my two hours of writing it, but when I took my lunch break that's when things went kinda south.  My 45 minute lunch turned into a lunch then nap, then long nap which my husband woke me up from when he got home.    

This hasn't been the most productive day that I have ever had, but there has been some forward progress made at least.  I have made less progress in two days then I used to make in one.  After writing for two hours I feel wiped and brain dead.  I hope that it is only because I am reintroducing my brain to working and that eventually I will get my stamina back.  I'll be back tomorrow.  

The Intention

My intention is to create a space where I can hold myself accountable to progressing in my writing endeavors.  The system is basic; publish what I intend to do in a day, and then honestly critique that work afterwards.  I will lay out a schedule then follow that schedule.  I am returning to writing after a six month hiatus and have been having difficulty getting back into the ebb and flow.

Project Nickname: "Ashes"
Today's word count: 831
Project word count: 898 of 7,500

The plan:

• Create an accountability blog.
• Work for ten minutes on the blog and posting to it.
• Free-write for ten minutes and review.
• Spend fifteen minutes going over the work I completed yesterday.
• Write for two hours.
• Research for thirty minutes.
• Free-write for ten minutes and review.
• Post my accomplishments of the day to the blog and estimated word count towards my current piece.  

The reality:

• I did, in fact, create an accountability blog.
• Well, I suppose you can see that I spent ten minutes on blog given that it exists in the first place as well as this post.
• The warm-up free-write has been completed.  It went well, but as long as the time is spent writing how could I expect it to go otherwise?
• After going over the short bit I had written yesterday and the notes that I made, I was able to remain undistracted for the entire two hour writing session.  
• Well, after an hour of research, which was mostly being distracted I did find a few of the items I was..."hey look a chicken."
• Ten minute cool down free-write is now complete.

Overall I would have to call this a productive day.  I need to work past the guilt that I feel for not writing for so long and forgive myself.  Each day I will move forward.