Word Count – Page 5 – Deborah Makarios

October 20, 2013

Accountability

As I’ve mentioned before, I started this blog largely to have some accountability about whether I wrote or simply procrastinated.

Recently, I was happy to discover another writer using her blog for the same thing, although in her case she’s pulling out the big guns and doing NaNoWriMo. (I shall take on the role of the elegant lady in the back, watching with her hands over her ears.)

I would like to do NaNoWriMo someday, but not this year, I think. This year has been quite eventful enough as it is, what with moving house, changing job (though not employer), bouts of ill health and so forth.
Of course, as with so many things in life, there will never be a perfect time, but some times are better than others, and the time for which you have prepared is better than the time for which you have not.

As I was mulling over the slowness of my progress this week (while I did some more character work last Monday, I didn’t add a word to the MS) I decided that in a non-NaNo scenario, the important thing is not so much how fast you go, but that you do not backtrack, go in circles, or stop.

Or as Tolkien more poetically put it:
O! Wanderers in the shadowed land
despair not! For though dark they stand,
all woods there be must end at last,
and see the open sun go past:
the setting sun, the rising sun,
the day’s end, or the day begun.
For east or west all woods must fail …

However slowly you trudge, as long as you keep going forward you will eventually get to the end of your book. Unless you’re writing War and Peace: The Extended Edition, in which case you may well die of old age first.

This Monday my goal is to get my main character out of her comfort zone and then knock away all the supports and protections she has had so far. As they say, get your character up a tree and throw stones at them. Or if you’re Tolkien, get them up a tree with slavering beasts beneath and then set fire to the tree.

I like to think I’m comparatively merciful.

So, in the great Internet Accountability, what are your goals (writing or otherwise)? And do you have any handy tips on how to keep motivated while wandering in shadowed lands?

As always, happy to hear from you!
Sinistra Inksteyne

October 13, 2013

Your Questions Answered

Or rather, since you have a terrible habit of not asking any, my questions answered. Last week I left you with a few questions regarding the commencement of my First Full Draft of the current WIP.

These included whether I could write 6,000 words in a day (by hand?), whether my story plan would work out (too soon to tell), and whether I would still be able to use my left hand (pretty much).

I took the precaution of fortifying my wrist with an elastic bandage, and in order to prevent my weak eye becoming a lazy eye (I’ve caught it slacking off a few times lately) I wrapped a strip of challis around my head, covering my good eye.

According to the Caped Gooseberry, this made me look like a superhero. (Ever notice how you don’t get plain heroes any more? It’s super or nothing. Go big or go home, I guess.)

Whether this helped prevent distraction (it was on the window side of my head) I do not know, but I did manage to write 3,721 words. A far cry from the 6,000 I was aiming for, but a solid start nonetheless.

As the challis did such a good job, I plan to use the idea again – although since the challis itself is already doing double-duty in my wardrobe (as a sash and a bandanna) I’ve supplied myself with some other fabric to make a similar garment (garment? accessory?) from.
It’s basically black, with a grey and gold scrolling holly leaf pattern on it. Very piratical.

Unfortunately, the DDJ has done what its mummy always told it and shared, so I now have Ye Olde Office Cold. Here’s hoping it doesn’t turn into ~~zombieism~~ bronchitis again.

I suspect 6,000 words will not be an option tomorrow, or even 3,721, but I’ll do what I can. I’ll do something.
Even a tiny step forward is better than standing still, blowing your brains out through your nose…

October 6, 2013

I'm Diving In

This is me.

Figuratively speaking, of course. I’m not crazy enough to jump off a cliff – looking at you, Bella Swan.

What is it with young women named Swan/n and plummeting off cliffs, anyway? Bella Swan does it. Elizabeth Swann does it. All right, it was more accidental in her case, but really, if you’re feeling faint, must you stand so close to the edge?
Do people named Swan(n) have natural urges to do swan dives?

Readers’ replies appreciated, especially if they’re named Swan(n).

The Inksteyne name, I am happy to report, does not come with cliff-diving tendencies, at least so far as actual cliffs are concerned. I can live without the feeling that my entrails are about to be squeezed out through my nose by the invisible hand of the sea.

Rather, I intend to dive off a cliff of blank pages into a sea of ink. (Let us hope I don’t get sliced to ribbons by paper cuts on the way down.)

Which is to say, tomorrow I begin my “first” draft in earnest. To finish something novel-length by the end of the year, I need to write about 6,000 words each week. That’s about 25 handwritten double-spaced A4 pages.

Can I write that many thousands of words in a day? Will my story plan hold up? Will I still have the use of my left hand by nightfall? Only time will tell…

…and your correspondent, who will report back within the week, even if she has to turn right-handed to do it.

Until then, dear reader, I remain
yours on the left,
Sinistra Inksteyne