The Day of 10,000 Words

Warning…very long post chronicling my adventure writing 10,000 words in one day. Be sure the caffeine is close…LOL

Earlier this week, I found a tweet at Twitter from a writer challenging herself to writing 10K words today and inviting anyone else along for the ride. Since I’m such a creative masochist, I figured what the heck. I sent her a note and told her I was up for the challenge. After all, I’ve been working with the idea for this new novel for a few weeks now. My original goal for next week was to get 30 plot cards done. Since I’m upwards of 40 now (I need about 70-80 for a single title book), I figured it was time to put up or shut up.

Yesterday instead of brainstorming, I spent my morning and mid-afternoon I fixing up the plot cards. I was amazed by how much (usable, workable, realistic, interesting) plot has come out of my brain (and how I’ve been able to corral it effectively). There were some major gaps, and as of this post, there still are, but I can work with plot gaps once the writing faucet turns on. I also told the boys they were in charge of dinner for this evening and charged up the iPod and netbook in anticipation of ending today with about 40 pages of the new novel by sundown.

Alas, ran out of fictional gas at 7,770. Being a fan of Vegas (ironically, where my conclusion takes place), I kinda like that number. My brain is literally mush, I feel as though my butt has taken on the shape of my writing chair and I believe that if I type past 8pm, my eyes will permanently cross.

But I’m not done yet. This blog post is going to count, and I’m determined to hit 10K. Setting a goal of 40 pages isn’t something I take lightly, especially when I’ve blogged, Facebooked and Twittered about it. Anyone who doesn’t use the power of social media to publicly humiliate themselves and highlight their shortcomings is not using these things correctly!

Today’s adventures in writing land come with a story all their own. Let’s start from the beginning.

Pre-Race Prep

I didn’t stress about it. I’ve managed to do 30 pages in a day before, while on deadline for a nonfiction book, so I knew it was possible. I also know that in my writing process, I will always, always give up if I don’t have something fresh to move on to when I know the muse is out of something to say regarding a certain topic. Being that I’m at the start of this new novel, and had only written four pages on it total so far was incentive to me. I hadn’t even fleshed out the most important scenes, hadn’t brought characters to life. That’s crucial to me. Had this challenge been in the middle to near-end of my book, I don’t think I could have sustained that creative push.

What I did last night was arrange my plot cards and went over each one, creating the scene in my mind. Scenes, to me, come in words and dialogue, not pictures. With several of the cards, I immediately got snippets of dialogue and scribbled some down on the back of the cards. Then I went back through the cards looking for places where two or more cards created a lengthier section of the book. Some of the cards, at this beginning stage, are stand-alone cards: I know something happens at this point of the book, know the event, but it doesn’t “connect” to either the card before or the card after it because I haven’t yet put the right plot card in that place (haven’t figured out what goes there yet!)

Here’s what that part looked like:

See the green post-its? When I discovered 2 or more plot/scene cards that naturally flowed into the next one, I marked them with the green post-it. My method was to put the green post-it directly on top of the first plot card in the sequence and write the number of cards that followed it to the end of that sequence. For example, on the very top green post-it, there’s a number 4. That means the card below it “heroine goes to professor to ask help and he dismisses her” connects directly into the next one (she goes to the garden, meets the hero) (agrees to allow niece to stay) (is relieved the niece is not the ailing nephew). I did this because I knew once I get going on a single plot event/scene, if I have the right notes, I can write all the way through because this excites me when writing.

I did this for all of the plot/scene cards I currently have lined up. I found three particular sequences that I could come to whenever I needed a new tangent to write on. I could walk into the dining room, pick the cards off the table when needed and continue writing. Major motivator for me! (and I threatened the kid within an inch of his life that if he touched the table, he’d lose fingers and/or his iPod Touch).

But–I also know that after writing a massive amount of fiction, my brain likes to wrap up things in the nonfiction realm–that is, I like to process what I’ve done by writing about it. That’s why I’m here Not sure of how far the fiction would take me, I also brainstormed a short list of nonfiction article ideas I’ve been wanting to write. As Stephen King says in his book On Writing, “Writing Begets Writing.” Once I’m going, as long as I have something to jump towards, I’ll keep going. I’d say it’s working!

The last thing I did was create a schedule. Sounds terribly formal, I know. But I also know that I’ll slavedrive myself to death and burn out faster than a match in a tornado if I don’t mentally prepare some type of break. I worked in a weight-lifting workout, a walk with the dog, lunch and an hour for my soap (Young & The Restless–must find out what Nina is up to–). Of course, I didn’t follow it to a T, but I followed it enough to get to this point, right now: 8802 words.

(and you’re still reading?) (8806)

Race Day

After brewing a cup of tea, grabbing the first two plot cards and a notepad, I headed outside to my patio. I was a little behind schedule, but that was OK. I Tweeted, got some much-needed inspiration from my fellow writers (big shout-out to @jenniholbrook for being a great writing partner and @annaDeStefano for creating #writegoals) and turned off the ‘net. It was time to write.

I picked up where my scene ended on Tuesday and ran with the second part. Two solid hours of writing and I ended up with 2700 words. (Here’s my post at the Fear of Writing 10K Challenge Blog)

Nose back to the grindstone, (writer stone as they call it there), and I checked in at 5,121 words. In time for lunch, a break and time to clean the kitchen while my son’s friends came over for a pool party.

I fidgeted in the afternoon but never really considered throwing in the towel. After all, this is MY work-in-progress and I have this block of time available. I’d discovered some amazing things about my heroine and my storyline, and I wasn’t about to stop. Can you sense my eyes starting to cross at this point?

That was my last post. At least, until I finish here. Now, I could go link to all my twitter tweets (@buckeye_bethm) but that’d be overkill. Instead, I’m sitting here on my couch, finishing what I started.

General Race Observations & Suggestions for those considering a 10K in a day themselves…

I’m a morning person. Straight out of the gate, I went hard-charge and didn’t take a breath or breather until my ideas started getting cobwebby.

Work in a workout. Moving my muscles made me feel more alive, got the blood flowing. Helped clear out the cobwebs.

Have a support system. When the DH came home, he came up to my writing room. I announced that at that point in the day, I’d finished 6550 words. He was extremely underwhelmed. I didn’t get mad, couldn’t blame him. It’s the same way I react to announcements of his golf game. Ugh. I didn’t look for motivation and support (I know he supports me as a writer, he just doesn’t get excited by the actual writing process) where I knew I wouldn’t find it–I’d connected to my network of author friends online. If I hadn’t had my friends to visit on Twitter & Facebook, I’d have let one of them know I was writing and would have set up an email exchange so that I could check in with them on occasion. Accountability makes a difference. You’ve gotta toot your own horn sometimes, and it feels good to do it.

I realize now that if I’d have signed up earlier, I could have done a series of blog posts leading up to the actual writing itself and even blogged my progress on my own site. Next time, next time. Plus, it would have been fun to have some of you wonderful, longtime readers & writers join me. Next time! (Or maybe we can throw our own 10K party here…)

Eat. I personally like this suggestion the best because I didn’t berate myself at all for scarfing down chocolate this afternoon. It’s better to have something healthy with protein to sustain your energy. Believe me–around 4pm I was seriously dragging. It’s my normal nap time, plus I was mentally worn out and a little achy from sitting so long. I got a fresh glass of water and a handful of chips to keep me going. Of course, that hunger could have been from my lunchtime fiasco. Read more about it at the bottom…

How My Story Improved

I love finding out new stuff about my story. I only find out new stuff by writing the stuff that’s already piled in my brain. Here are some of the things I now know about my story that I only learned as a result of the 10K challenge: (names changed to protect the innocent and/or currently unnamed characters)

*Baby Z dies from the same heart defect that Baby G has now.

*Baby G has a transplant–inciting incident

*F., the heroine’s niece, hates Hannah Montana.

*M., the heroine, believes F loves Hannah Montana. (plays into my theme)

*The heroine’s overarching goal is to bridge the disparity between the high achievers and low achievers in her botany class. (that’s a HUGE one)

*There’s a secretary, J., who is an absolute hoot.

*E., the heroine’s sister, isn’t as self-centered as she seems.

*F. likes to curse when she’s alone. (I like that).

*The bus driver has the best laugh!

Excuses I Thought About Using to Give Up on the Dream of 10K:

“The voices in my head have stopped. I can’t go on with reality!”

“There’s a death in the story I didn’t know about until now. I need to grieve.”

“I spilled green tea/water/root beer/Dr. Pepper on my keyboard and can’t go on.”

“I got a paper cut and it seems I’m bleeding chocolate.”

“My butt is now shaped like my writing chair. I’m headed to the ER.”

The Best Excuse I Could Have Used to Give Up on the Dream of 10K:

“The dog ate my lunch.”

Why is this the best? Because it’s true (so are the others, this one is just too funny.)

After tossing a pan of brownie batter in the oven for my son’s friends, I heated up lunch. Wasn’t hungry for anything in particular, so I grabbed a box of pizza rolls from the freezer. Dumped them out on a sheet pan and stuck them in the oven with the brownies.

When they were done, I put them on a plate with a handful of chips and escaped to my writing room upstairs, away from the raucous laughter of the teens. Just inside the writing room, I realized I’d left my drink on the bookcase in the hallway. I set my plate on the chair, retrieved my drink and returned.

Once back in the room, I noticed my dog incessantly licking her lips. She only does this when she eats something super-spicy hot. I figured the boys had given her a corner of their pizza downstairs when I spied my lunch plate, which was now suspiciously half-empty.

My dog ate my lunch. Right off the plate. Seems she likes pizza rolls as much as me. Of course, I fed her some chips to go with it. After all, no one wants to eat pizza rolls without a side of chips….*sigh* (9896)

Parting Thoughts

I’d hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but you can see for yourself I’ve got a little more to go before the finish line…

At some point during the day, the thought crossed my mind that writing this much in one day is very similar to running a marathon. Funny, because I’ve never run a marathon. Doubly funny because I never plan to. But within the last month I’ve started jogging again, after about 13 years off, and this writing gig was, in many ways, a mirror of those first few horrendously slow runs. (Not that I’m blazing any trails with my 18:40 mile LOL).

There’s always a point in my jog (I always run the same exact path, same road every single jog. For now) when I hit a wall and feel like I can’t keep running. When I started, it was at the top of the first hill. I walked, slowed down, got my breath, quit sucking wind and picked back up with the jogging when I felt I could keep going. As I continued running 20 minutes a session, 3 times a week, I realized my “walking point” got further and further down the road. At the start, I was only able to master about 4 minutes of running before sucking wind; yesterday I only started walking at 11 minutes because I felt so good running that I was scared something bad would happen.

There are those few minutes in every run where I think I should stop. Stop running, I tell myself. You’re overweight, you come from a family of women with heavy thighs. You’ll never outrun your genetics. You’ll have to battle pumpkin pie every holiday and no one will notice that you’re slimmer through the middle. It’s not worth it.

Still, I keep going because I promised myself that I can do 20 minutes of solid, hard activity. I deserve it. I made a promise to myself (and I make fun of myself on my weight loss blog, so I need to keep running to keep the material coming) and for once, I’m going to stick with it even if I don’t know the outcome.

I had minutes…maybe a few hours…like that today. Give up, I thought. Your eyes are about to cross, your fingers are sore, the sun is gorgeous outside. You don’t need to finish all this in one day. You have more days in the summer, you need to work on your plot again before you keep writing, you don’t know the perfect first line of the scene. Give up, you worked hard. Take it easy….

Today was about ignoring that voice. I don’t have the doubting voice I used to have when I was a beginning writer–you know, the one who jabs you in the ribs and tells you you’ll never amount to anything. Being published killed that voice, but I still battle doubt. Doubt that my ideas are worthy of 90K words. Doubt that my finished book will attract an agent or editor. Doubt that I’ll ever get to the second draft.

Still, I continued writing. Why? Because I could. I had the ideas and the know-how, even had the energy. I just needed the discipline. While I grew physically weary, the words still kept coming (as you can tell, if you’re still awake at this point LOL). Who am I to shut them off, close them down, tell them to turn around a go home? I invited them here, I may as well hold up my end of the bargain.

Same thing with running. I invited running into my life. Maybe not as willingly as I invited writing, but I did. Though it’s tempting at times to stop writing and jogging, I won’t give in. I write because I have to and I now run because I have to. Running brings energy to my life, writing is how I interpret that life. It’s a good combination and an excellent synergistic relationship. I run because I can and I write because I can. That’s all I need to know!

Woohoo! I made it! That brings me to 10,574 words for one day of work. I’m tempted to keep going to hit 11,000 but I’ve got to get up and jog tomorrow to burn off all the junk I ate today. Can’t wait til the next 10K word challenge! I’d love for you to join me (don’t worry, I won’t make you jog!)

Happy writing & jogging,

Beth

(10, 642!)

Tagged as: challenge, Goals, productivity, Twitter