Writing Journal 1.8.2018/Random Notes: Slow start to the new year

Well, starting out the new year 2018 didn’t really get off to a good start. I was writing, but not on a consistent basis.

Enough intro, here’s the totals from the past week:

+2,091 words written.

Days writing: 4 out of 7.

Daily writing goals met (500+ words): 3 out of 7 days.

Notes about the count:

• I have the feeling that it is going to get tougher and tougher to reach my daily and weekly quotas the closer I get to writing the end of the book. These are the main tasks I have to accomplish. Without getting too much into spoilers, they are:

1. Getting through a pretty harrowing scene where my main character is essentially threatened with assault and has to do something that is distasteful to escape the situation. Despite the subject matter, I believe it’s essential to show how he decides to make a final decision about what he wants to do with his life.
2. Writing an entirely new scene that looks like just another football game he has to play but is actually step one in his plan to change around his life.
3. Rewriting two critical scenes to make them better reflect some of the mid-draft changes I decided to make.
4. See if I have any room for additional scenes that might add to the story. I’m sticking to the 99,999-word count limit. If I want to write more, there’s always sequels.

• I am thinking that I will consider setting up a goal for revising and editing work. If all goes well, I plan to be revising quite a bit beginning this spring. Even though I didn’t succeed in keeping at my quota for the last six months, it did give me valuable focus and complete a lot more writing, on a more consistent basis, than I ever had. I feel it is just as important to have a goal for that as much as for the drafting (the word count).

Now, the actual Random Notes:

1. Getting behind in looking for reading material to post on the Facebook and Twitter pages for my reading list. I’ll get some work in tonight on that.
2. I do plan to write tonight. Honest.
3. Old procrastination – hours and hours of video games. New procrastination – hours on hours of YouTube reaction videos. (Hence this coming out tonight rather than yesterday.)
4. There’s a workshop on publishing books at the Midwest Writer’s Center in Davenport. It looks cool, but it is a big time commitment and dollar commitment, so I might have to beg off.
5. New Year’s just trucking along.
6. I have material for at least two or three other posts. Now I just have to see if I have the discipline to get them done.

More later.