Category: The Story So Far

November 5, 2016. 78,666 word. 545 words for the day, 9,208 words on the month. Since I am supposed to be doing 2,000 words a day, that leave me with a deficit of 792 words on the month so far.

It had to happen sooner or later, I suppose. Yesterday I just had so much to do regarding various family things, I simply just ran out of time, and was too damned tired to get much done. However, part of it, I think, was that I hadn’t had time to think about what to do next. As is often the case, the moment my head hit the pillow, and I wasn’t focusing on the word-by word writing, I could see the forest, and not just the individual trees/words, and I saw a useful approach. Let’s see if I can get a bit more on track for the 6th — but there is a lot to do today as well.

Okay, technically, this is Day 5, but I haven’t been to bed yet. So sue me.

November 4-5, 1:32 am, 78,121 words. 2322 words for the day. 8,663 so far for the month. And so to bed. After I check the damned election news.

Thursday, November 3rd, 2016 6:37 pm

75,799 words. 2,118 words today. 6,341 words so far this month.

Okay, I have a little downtime to explain stuff a bit today.  I have written about 25 books, most of them science fiction novels, with a few  non-fictions projects in the mix. All the novels have been commercially published, and many have seen multiple editions in multiple countries. However, life intruded in lots of fairly standard ways, and a few (like moving to Germany and Mexico) that weren’t so standard.

I had one super-ambitious project that had evolved in my head over the years, and every now and again, I would find the way to get a few words of it written. When I did write, I found myself inventing lots of characters and situations and problems that I found vastly intriguing — but I never got down to really working on Volume One of what would be a big, long, series of very complicated adventures. A few thousand words here, a few thousand there, and the manuscript got as far as about 69,000 words.

Then my son, Matthew, challenged me to get in on the spirit, if not the whole online community of, National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. The goal I have set it to try for 2,000 words a day. So far, after three days, so good, but we’ll see what the future holds. Life continues to intrude. I will continue posting my daily results here, in an attempt to put some pressure on myself and to keep myself honest.

I haven’t done more than look at the front page of the NaNoWriMo website, for fear of diving down the rabbit hole of burning up so much time discussing the writing of books that it runs into my novel-writing time. I will try and get there sometime soon, but the next few days are going to be a bear.

More on the morrow,

2 Nov 2016 7:28 pm

73,681 words total

2,113 words today

4,223 since November 1.

I’d have something deep and meaningful to say about the process of writing if I didn’t have to go make dinner. Let see how we do tomorrow.

Keep smiling,

I will resist the temptation to explain all this just now, for reasons that might well become clear.  Suffice to say that I am supposed to write a certain number of words — 2000! — every day this month. Maybe by posting word counts here, I can keep myself honest.

11:35 am — 69,458 words

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(Later)

6:55 pm — 71,568 words, or 2,110 words on the day.

Okay, now I have time to explain. It has been years and years and years plus since I finished writing a novel. Life intrudes. Other sorts of writing gets done. I edit and publish other peoples books. I raise children. And then, the older of those two children, Matthew, who is taking a crack at writing himself, told me that what he wanted for his birthday was for me to take part, sort of, in NaNoWriMo, also known as National Novel Writing Month, which happens to take place in November, which happens to be when Matthew was born, so there you are.

Challenge accepted. At least I’ll try. I have been stuck in a holding pattern with a novel for years on end, getting to it only now and then. Maybe it is true that I need something like a deadline or a challenge to get me going. Maybe this will work. I’ll find out. I will do my best to post my progress here everyday — and as soon as I am done with writing this post, I’ll email a link to my son, so he can track me and keep me honest.

It is too easy for me to write about writing, and process, and how I do things. Given the chance, I could crank out 2,000 words a day about writing 2,000 words a day. I will try and avoid that trap by not entering anything beyond word count for a day until I have hit the 2,000 mark.

Must go collect my wife at Metro. More tomorrow, God willing.

Best to all,