Silk & Shadows

Currently working on: Revising back cover copy for Book 3
Mood: Tweaky

First off, thanks to everybody who commented last week for a chance to win the signed copy of Nalini Singh’s ANGEL’S BLOOD, that I picked up at RomCon.  With the help of Random.org, we have a winner:

JenM, who hiked to Machu Picchu, congrats!

And I finally unpacked from RomCon and found an extra copy (unsigned, I’m sorry) of Jeaniene Frost’s DESTINED FOR AN EARLY GRAVE, which goes to:

cories, who — very sensibly, I think — would rather attend romance cons than work ones

Email me at jessa at jessaslade dot com with your snail mail addy and I’ll make a PO run.

Onto our topic of the week, which is “The TV show I miss the most.”  I didn’t even have to contemplate for a microsecond.  Even my XY knew what I was going to write about.

Joss Whedon’s cowboy space opera Firefly played for one gorram season in 2002 before being brutally and summarily cancelled by the evil Fox network, may their bean counters burn in a special level of hell reserved for People Who Don’t Get It.  The world lived on through graphic novels to a 2005 wrap-up movie, Serenity, and occasionally, wistful rumors surface of another movie.  (A photo tweeted earlier this month of some of the main actors with the sly caption “Together. Again.” was enough to get geekdom panty-wadded for several long minutes.)

The storyworld (or ‘verse, short for universe) inspired a fanatic group of followers, the Browncoats (a reference to the rebellious frontiersmen who fought for their freedom against smothering Fox executives… I mean, against a smothering central government).  The Browncoats continue to stage charity viewings of Firefly, Serenity and other ’verse ephemera, including a fan-filmed movie, Browncoats: Redemption, that has been screened for select audiences but is not yet in wide release.

Why I loved Firefly

I love science fiction.  I love anti-heroes.  I love Joss Whedon.  It’s like Firefly was always aimed straight at me. 

Anything with spaceships gets my attention — even the old black and white movies where two pie tins squashed together served as the spaceship.  And the little Firefly-class ship, Serenity, was as adorable as two pie tins, with her lit-up butt and hard-loved interior.

But it wasn’t the hardware that made this show.  It was the crew.  From the first episode (aired out of order by idiots), the crew revealed themselves in all their dysfunctional and yet highly effective glory.  From the wounded soul of their fearless leader, Captain Malcolm Reynolds to the shattered mind of their mysterious and dangerous passenger, River Tam, their interactions were endlessly (and by endlessly, I mean ended after one season, thank you, Fox) fascinating, entertaining, emotional and true.

And damned funny.  Of course Whedon usually inspires clever, but never better than Firefly.  As a writer, I drooled over those lines.  Oh, I’m sure they were written and revised for best effect, but they were always delivered with such beautiful immediacy that I couldn’t help but despair of ever writing as well.  And while I despaired, I laughed, I cried, I bought DVDs. 

I could requote all the wonderful lines here, but fans have read them all before and non-watchers (it’s YOUR fault Firefly died and I will never forgive you!) would just scratch their heads, but I have to give just one back’n'forth between the captain and his second, Zoe, as they come — once again — to save the day (after having nearly lost the day, of course): 

Mal: “Well, look at this! Appears we got here just in the nick of time. Whaddya suppose that makes us?”

Zoe: “Big damn heroes, sir.”

Mal: “Ain’t we just!”

You were, Mal.  To me, you were.

Are you a Firefly fan?  Can you recommend another other good cowboy space operas (or anything remotely similar) in TV, movies or books?

The hardest part of writing—for me—is the first draft. Editing stuff I’ve already written is so much easier than getting the story down in the first place.

I don’t think that’s surprising. The first draft of any story requires a huge investment in creative brain power. It not only draws on my smarts (from a plotting perspective), it draws on my emotions. In order to capture the story properly, I need to FEEL it.

When all goes right, I end the day on a satisfied but weary note. When it wrong, I tend to avoid the computer or avoid the manuscript by hanging out on social network sites and playing computer games. Not productive. And usually guilt-inducing. So, I do several things to keep myself moving forward:

1. Plan my day to include several breaks. It’s hard work to be ‘on’ for hours at a time. So, I schedule downtime. But I use an alarm clock to remind myself when it’s time to get back to work. If I don’t, I find myself goofing off when I should be writing. Ooops.

2. Turn off the internet. I actually have an old computer unplugged from the internet, and when I’m in the throes of draft one, I work there. There’s no wireless connectivity in the machine, so it’s truly cut off from the rest of the world. Conveniently, that computer also has no games on it except a very basic solitaire game.

3. Reward myself. I set daily goals, and when I make those goals, I give myself a little treat. It can be anything from a cup of Starbucks to watching a DVD. And, of course, the best reward is the finished manuscript. The feeling you get when you type THE END is incredible.

4. Keep a visual progress bar posted near my monitor. This works amazingly well for me. Watching the green bar edge closer and closer to the finish line stirs my competitive instincts and provides more satisfaction than cold, sterile page numbers. It also helps me with pacing, because I know where I am in the story at all times.

My competitive instincts were honed as a speed swimmer in my youth. I wasn’t Michael Phelps, but I competed in several regional and national events. If there’s even a whiff of competition in the game, I’m keen and eager. I can’t help but compare my progress bar on my current manuscript to the progress I made on previous books. I hate to lose…even to myself.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to work this same kind of magic on housework…laundry is my nemesis. I use it as inspiration for the evil monsters in my books: It sucks my energy every time I look at it, it doubles in size whenever my back is turned, and it instantly springs back to life every time I think I’ve slain it.

What’s your least favorite household chore?

Currently working on: A free-read short story from the Marked Souls
Mood: Murderous (in the storyworld, not real life!)

Writers write.

It’s one of those sayings that frustrated writers lob at each other like a water balloon full of lemon juice and razor blades.

But sometimes it isn’t always that easy.  (Kind of like that metaphor.) 

Writers write. 
Writers try to write. 
Writers at least sit at their computers.
Writers at least sit at their computers with their fingers on the keyboard.
Okay, writers at least blog.

The hardest part of writing, for me, is focus.  When I write, distractions are like… like the ants that are currently marching around my office window in search of… I really can’t tell.  Hold on while I go look…

Apparently the ants want Monster Girl’s mostly-chewed cow thigh bone.  This bone has been in my office for nigh onto two years now, along with enough other pieces of cow to reanimate most of a bovine, given enough electricity and mad cackling.  Although if I count correctly, this particular cow would have five legs.  Whatever.  (I do remove the bones when we have houseguests, because nobody likes to sleep on an inflatable twin mattress in an abattoir.)  Why the ants would want this bone now…  Probably they are distracting me from something else they really want.  Like my bucket of cookie dough.

Speaking of distractions, see how easy it was to get distracted from this post on the hardest part of writing?

(In case you were curious, the ants are odorous house ants.  (Tapinoma sessile. Subfamily: Dolichodorinae.  I Googled it just for you.)  They earned this name from the scent of rotton coconuts they emit when crushed by a wildly wielded cow thigh bone.  Or, obviously, any other blunt object.  This infestation does not indicate that I’m a failure at housekeeping (although I am).  All of Portland is built on a giant anthill.)

Aside from the ants, one of my most common distractions is, not surprisingly, books.  I have a lot of books around me.   A lot of good books.  It’s a hazard of the job.  A lot of good books within arm’s reach.  Which is a hazard of a small office.

Why, look, this good book just fell into my hand.  It’s a signed copy of the first book in Ava Gray’s Skin series, SKIN GAME.  The second book, SKIN TIGHT, came out this month, and you do NOT want to be left behind.

SKIN GAME starts like this:

Kyra held the guy’s balls in the palm of her hand. Literally.

Just for a second as she brushed by him, but it was enough. His eyes widened, and she knew he took the touch as a sign he’d get lucky after he won her last hundred bucks. The crumpled bill lay underneath his, weighted by a cube of pool chalk.

Poor, stupid mark.

See, THAT is why I was distracted.  Leave a comment about what distracts you most often and you’ll have a chance to win the signed copy of SKIN GAME.

Now what was I… Right, distractions. 

I first learned about writing in flow (a focused — emphasis is mine –timeless state where creativity comes “easily”) from reading Susan K. Perry’s WRITING IN FLOW.  Perry writes a creativity blog for Psychology Today online.  I sometimes go read that when I’m feeling distracted.

The book reads like a fairy tale to me, a tale of princesses whose words fall from their fingertips like rose petals and diamonds.  I even love the word “flow,” the way it sounds and the way it looks.  Flow…  Flooowww. 

I’m easily distracted.

Back to the ants.  These are actually scout ants.  So they do a lot of backtracking and wandering in circles and…  Seem familiar?  Yeah, to me too.  Can’t quite place it though…

You know who would like my ants?  Mark Moffett, called the Indiana Jones of entomology by the National Geographic Society.  Who wouldn’t want Indy to come steal all the ants in her office?  I heard Moffett interviewed on NPR (he’s pimping a new book ADVENTURES AMONG ANTS) and his ants are way cooler (also meaner, bigger and did I mention meaner) than my ants, and also more focused.  They can skeletonize large dead things, like cows, which would no doubt impress Monster Girl.

Sadly, I don’t have a signed copy of Moffett’s ant book to give away, but remember to leave a comment for SKIN GAME.

So anyway, it’s not that I’m always distracted, it’s just that

My most brilliant writing moments happen when I’m asleep.

I go to bed stewing over plot problems, and when I wake up, I miraculously have answers. I don’t know how it works. Waking often feels like a scene from The Elves and the Shoemaker—when I roll out of bed, there’s a note on the pad by my bed, written in the worst handwriting imaginable. Once I decipher the distorted scrawl, I realize I’ve been handed my answer…by unknown forces.

I know what you’re going to say: Annette, you wrote that note yourself, probably in a half-delirious, semi-somnolent state as you were drifting off to sleep. The ideas belong to you, not the elves.

And I would agree.

Except for one thing. These ideas never come to me when I’m awake. I’ll brainstorm, I’ll seek answers from the experts who’ve gone before me. I’ll even go for long walks. The only other ideation chamber that even comes close to the miracle that occurs when I’m sleeping is the shower. But the shower is better at conjuring fresh ideas, not daring escapes from plot corners I’ve written myself into.

Eight hours of sleep produces answers to some of the most complex problems ever. Problems that made me curse and swear and brew a pot of coffee in the middle of the day. Problems that I’m convinced require a rewrite of the entire book. It doesn’t always happen the first night—sometimes it takes two. After all, I occasionally need to dream of sugarplums to keep those little elves happy. But with enough sleep, any problem can be overcome.

Anyone else out there get nocturnal visits from plotting elves?

Currently working on: Post-release week enervation
Mood: Wiggly

First, a couple past winners:

A pair of Possession in Pearl earrings to blackroze from the post on what we do when we aren’t writing. (Feeling guilty about not writing!)

And thanks, everybody, for the FORGED OF SHADOWS release week good wishes.  The copy of Book 1 or Book 2 goes to elaing8.  

Lastly (and sorry, this offer is open only to US residents) I have ugly, outdated postage to burn.  If you’d like a shiny new bookmark with Liam’s denim-clad buttocks gracing the front along with a glossary of @1 terms on the back, email me your snail-mail addy and I’ll drop kick one your way.

Email me at jessa at jessaslade dot com.

Now, onto the topic at hand…  We’re supposed to talk about our cleverest writing moment.  And I can’t come up with a damned thing.  Oh, don’t get me wrong.  I think I’m exceedingly clever.  And the conceit is perhaps one of my deepest personal failings.  Nothing amuses me more than me.

I particularly like word play.  Puns, double entendres, extended metaphors.  The deeper and more convoluted, the better I like it.  Unfortunately, this is a terrible trait in a writer.  Worse than shoegazer rock and paintings all in one color.  Self-indulgent art ranks somewhere near donning a wet bathing suit on my list of annoyances to avoid ESPECIALLY when I’m the one indulging.

Luckily, my critique partners call me out on the worst offenses.  Shout out to Joey, who once told me, “I was having so much fun reading what you wrote I had no idea what you said.”  Ouch!  After my CPs finish eviscerating my arrogance, my editor politely line edits the remnants that somehow slipped by.  Even while I’m sighing mournfully, I’m deleting. 

I never want to be Clever Hans, the Amazing Counting Horse, believing his own press.

I think my cleverest writing moment — and I learn this over and over, with every page I write — is when I stop being clever and let the story be itself.

So, what’s the most ridiculous thing you ever wrote?  Feel free to go back to your high school diary.  Always good stuff there.  In honor of the end of the school year, here’s a sample of my early (very early) writing that I thought was particularly clever at the time:

Where Teachers Go

school’s over
summer’s here
building closed
until next year

janitors scrubbing
down the halls
cleaning blackboards
painting walls

unplug the teachers
let out the air
into the closet
until next year

Note from Jessa: I got to dance with Marie-Claude Bourque at RT in Columbus this year, so I can attest to her fitness!  She’s willing to give away a copy of ANCIENT WHISPERS to one lucky commenter, so you can experience her wonderfully evocative writing yourself!

When it comes to writing fast, face it, unless we are specially gifted, it all comes down to motivation and how much time we spend putting words on the page.

I spend 15 years as an AFAA certified fitness instructor, the last 5 of those as a coordinator and trainer of instructors. I learned a thing or two about motivation, because really, taking the steps to stay fit and healthy requires a lot of motivation.

So here is what I taught my fitness clients and class participants and how you can adapt it to find the motivation to be more prolific in writing (and, as bonus, learn some fitness tips).

Keep your goals intrinsic:

Fitness: This means that your goals should be things that you can do something about as opposed to goals that involve someone else or external factors. I can have a goal of losing 10 pounds by next month or looking like Heidi Klum by my birthday but I’m fighting a lot of things here, my metabolism and my genetics. It is impossible with that goal to reach success. If I say I’ll exercise 4 times this week, or take my latte nonfat for now on, the goal is completely under my control. If I do fail, it’s my fault.

Writing: Similarly if my goal is to sell my first book within the year, hit the NYT list in 5 years or become as famous as Nora Roberts, I am not setting myself up for success.  However, I can be quite successful if I chose to submit my manuscript to ten agents this month, or my proposal to my editor by next week or finish my 2 completed novels by the end of the year. It’s all under my control.

Write it down:

Fitness: Most successful fitness professional write down their progress. In an exercise or a food log, in a notebook, calendar or on a smart phone, it doesn’t matter but it seems that people who track down what they are doing tend to think more about what they are about to eat and are motivated to see their progress on paper. I lost 40 pounds of baby weight twice by writing down everything I ate. It works.

Writing: We can do this in writing to. Track your daily word count or pages written, whether on a calendar that you see every day or in a special notebook, by coloring blocks on a chart, using a word count meter online or posting your accomplishments to your social networks, whatever works for you. Seeing the number add up every day is very motivating.

Make it social:

Fitness: I always tell my participant to make dates with friends at the gym. If you know your best friend is there, you can’t change your mind at the last minute. She might be upset. Planning for coffee afterwards with a bunch of pals makes you more likely to go because it’s fun. Having a running buddy who picks you up at your house also gives you no choice but go ahead with your exercise.

Writing: Writing is more solitary but you can make it social. Why is Twitter so popular with writers? You can meet a writer friend at the coffee shop to write, you can have a writing buddy that you email in the morning then at the end of the day to encourage each other or you can belong to goal oriented group like Amy Atwell’s Goal in a Month groups. It’s a lot more fun when you are not alone.

Get your stuff ready ahead of time:

Fitness: I like to keep my gear close by and accessible. If I am not spending 15 min. looking for my gym socks, I am much more likely to stick with my daily walks. I like to have my clothes ready if I know I’ll exercise in the morning and I would always pack my gym bag in my trunk in the morning when I used to work outside to head straight to the gym before going back home. In college, I would pack my locker with a fresh supply of all my gear for the week including swimsuit and rackets, so I could just go there and decide what kind of exercise I would do on the spot.

Writing: I write first thing in the morning and I am not blessed with an office. I found that when I put my notebook, pen, and laptop all ready for me to write, I am much more likely to do it. If you keep your material organized and easily accessible in an obvious reminder that you need to write now, you are more likely to do it.

If all fails, buy something.

Fitness: I used to tell people to go buy some nice exercise wear when they felt their motivation slipping. Yes exercise it hard, but we might as well look pretty while doing it. Trust me, it works. Plus if you’ve invested some money, you’re imposing a little guilt on yourself to actually use the stuff.

Writing: I cured my writer’s block last summer by downloading a song each time I would finish a scene. I figured the most it would cost me would be $75 for a whole book. Pretty cheap! It worked for me. Soon I was writing one-two scenes a day and even started to forget to buy songs because I was having so much fun writing. Find a little treat that you can get once you’re done, it might help!

Just do it

Fitness: In the end, there are no tricks. That’s why Nike got its trademark bang on. You just have to get there and do it. Don’t think. Learn to shut that part of your brain that moans and complains that you are tired and will start tomorrow. Get out there and exercise. Do it first thing in the morning (early exercisers are more successful at keeping up with it) or head to the gym straight after work. Don’t get comfortable, do it. Do it for 5 minutes, hey you might actually stick with it for 30 min. but if not, at least you got into the habit of doing it. It does get easier.

Writing: BIC: Butt in Chair. Is there any other way? Again, just do it. Don’t think about it. Sit and stare at the blank page. Even if all you do is sit there for your allotted time and think about your book, you are being productive. Find times to do it when you are so tired there is nothing more you’d like to do than sit down and daydream (I like early morning and right after my run).

So now, make a date with yourself and write!  (or exercise or both!)

—————————————

Marie-Claude Bourque is the American Title V winner and author of ANCIENT WHISPERS, a sensual gothic paranormal romance filled with sorcerers and Celtic priestesses in search for eternal love in modern time. She worked as a climate research scientist, a scientific translator and a fitness expert until she turned to fiction writing. She draws her inspiration from the French legends of her childhood and a fascination for dark fantasy.

ANCIENT WHISPERS, a Dorchester -Love Spell release is available now wherever books are sold. Find more at www.mcbourque.com and don’t forget to enter the contest for her month-long virtual release party at www.mcbourque.com/launchparty

I once wrote a first draft in six weeks. Unfortunately, I’ve never been able to duplicate the effort. In fact the manuscript I wrote immediately after that one took me six months to finish. But the notion of writing a book in six weeks has continued to intrigue me—writing fast is a great skill to have—and I’ve tried a variety of methods to speed up my writing. So far, to no avail.

But there is something that keeps me steaming along at a good clip—preparation.

I’m a plotter, which means I prefer to have a map of where I’m headed before I start writing. As you might imagine, one of the items I prepare beforehand is the plot map. But I also do several other things to prepare:

1. Interview the characters. My character sheet describing height, weight, and family background only tells me so much. Asking pointed questions about why the character did XYZ in his past gives me a lot more to go on.

2. Explore the world. Some time ago, I discovered a wonderful set of world-building questions developed by Patricia Wrede, and from that I created a smaller set that works for my purposes. Answering the questions helps me add depth to my world.

3. Plan the number of pages needed each week to meet the deadline—factoring in holidays, sick days, emergencies, etc.

4. Research. I research the elements of the story that I need to know up front. A career choice for a main character, the types of weapons that character might use, the locale for specific scenes, etc.

5. Think. I spend a lot of prep time on this one. Is the conflict big enough? Is this the right place to start the book? Would that character really act that way? And a thousand more questions, some of which the answer is NO. I never cover off all the questions, and that’s really not my intent—it’s to roughly shape the story so I don’t get stuck on a big problem halfway through.

If I’ve done my homework, the writing goes along at a brisk pace—until I hit the first stumbling block. And there’s always a stumbling block. But the more advance work I do, the easier it is to recover and get back into the writing.

I’m still looking for ways to speed things up, though. If anyone has found the magic elixir to writing fast, please let me know.

Currently working on: Book 3 edits
Mood: Persnickety (Am I even spelling that right? I thought I was in editing mode?!)

When I’m writing, I’m a speed angel.  Which, sadly, is the opposite of a speed demon.  Yes, I write demons, but I write them slooooow.

Over the years, I have gotten somewhat faster.  Well, actually, lots faster.  It took me about, oh, five years to finish my first manuscript.  In my defense, the story was really long and traversed several major landmasses and various time periods. (No, it wasn’t a time travel; it was just very, very confused.)  Plus, I spent a lot of time describing the hero’s lovely eyes.

Here are a few tricks I learned that helped me write faster during the seven manuscripts that followed:

• No one cares how polished your first draft is, so feel free to write crap.  You do have to polish later, but that’s later.
• If you keep writing past it, crap is often less crappy after it ferments awhile.
• Know what you are writing; you’ll get there quicker.  Disclaimer: Pantsers (writers who say they like to be surprised by their writing as it happens) say they get bored if they know where they are going.  I say, I challenge you pantsers to a duel.  But I don’t have to worry about you ever showing up at the duel site because if I tell you where it is beforehand, you’ll go somewhere else.

The single most important trick I learned to writing faster was — and I realize this sounds stupidly obvious — holding myself accountable.  Deadlines — whether externally or internally imposed — are like the salt in a recipe: Too much can make your blood pressure spike, but a pinch/dash/sprinkle gives the flavors a zing they’d otherwise be missing.

Knowing when I have to get something done, I can track my progress.  I track in an Excel spreadsheet of daily word counts.  “Over/Under” is the number of words I’ve written above or below my daily goal.  As you can see by the red, I spend a lot of days behind because — as I mentioned — I’m a speed angel.  But I aspire to speed demon-hood.

Sure, I’m not there yet.  But I’ve shaved five years per books down to about five months.  A definite improvement.  Although you might have noticed the last comment in my spreadsheet: Sometimes I still don’t know where I’m going.

In Aesop’s fable of the tortoise and the hare, which character did you relate to?  And do you think the tortoise would’ve been faster if he’d been wearing shorts instead of a shell?

Although I try not to analyze my writing too intensely as I write my first draft, there are a couple of things that I remain conscious of throughout the first draft. I don’t expect to get it all right on the first pass, but staying aware of these items helps me pull the story together:

1. Is there conflict on every page?
It can be small conflict or large, but without tension, I worry that the scene will be a yawner. Besides I’m fond of torturing my characters.

2. Is the protagonist active in pursuit of his or her goal?
One of the first critiques I ever got was from the fabulous Jo Beverley. I won the critique in a contest. I’ll never forget one of the comments she made about my manuscript: “Neither [the hero] nor [the heroine] do anything to bring about the triumph. They are pawns.” Naturally, I’m now eager to ensure my characters are not feathers on the wind–that they take an active role in determining their destiny.

3. Does this scene drive the plot forward?
Those detours I sometimes take on my journey to the end of the story? Scenic? You bet. But not always productive. In one book, my editor said to me, “Could you make this scene shorter?” Being the professional that I am, I whipped out my magic slicer-dicer and removed1000 words from the scene. The alarms bells didn’t ring until I got her follow-up comment, “Could you make it a bit shorter?” Uh-oh. I loved that scene, but when I took a good hard look at it, I realized it didn’t drive the plot anywhere. It was a scenery snapshot. So, I took the whole scene out.

4. Did I end the scene/chapter with dramatic intent?
In my first draft of my first romance manuscript, I ended the first chapter with the hero going to sleep. Then I joined the RWA and went to a chapter meeting where one of our seasoned authors, Laura Byrne, said (paraphrasing), Never end a scene with a character going to sleep unless your intent is to put the reader to sleep. Ever since then, I strive to end each scene with a sense of anticipation.

5. Where’s the romance?
I love writing action scenes—battling evil, blowing things up, dealing justice to the bad guys. But I write romance because I love the romantic play between my two lead characters. To blend my interests effectively, I know I can’t lose sight of the romance. This doesn’t mean injecting romantic interludes in inappropriate spots; it means always being aware of what impact events will have on the romance. And circling back to point 1, it means making the relationship as conflict ridden as possible.

My first drafts are first drafts. I don’t remember to do all the above as I write—and sometimes I’m simply too close to the story to see the issues. But keeping these points in mind helped me final twice in the Golden Heart and sell a series to a publisher.

Speaking of selling, today is the official release day of Bound by Darkness, the second book in the Soul Gatherer series. To celebrate, a signed copy of Bound will go to one of this week’s commenters. I’ll draw the name using random.org at the end of the week. Good luck!

Currently working on: Packing for the Romantic Times convention
Mood: Frantic

For me, coming up with new ideas is easy and fun.  There’s no stress or strain since they coalesce out of the ether with no particular effort on my part.  They tend to be quick to capture — only a page or two and their essence is on paper.

Prewriting is also fun, if not quite so easy.  A dozen to 20 pages of notes and the fill-in-the-blank charts that I like take about a week to compile.  Having the bones of a real story is quite satisfying, and when I see it all charted out, it looks all tidy and pretty, like a clean, dry, assembled skeleton.

And then the wet work begins.

Putting flesh on the skeleton, then plumbing the vascular system so blood flows through its veins, and finally zapping the monster with the lighting bolt of creativity gets messy.  Very messy.  There’ s a reason mad scientists wear full-length aprons and goggles.

Getting down the 100,000 or so words of a novel can be daunting, even if you’re crazy.  I like to keep track of my progress so that I can have a good, solid grasp on just how daunted I should be.  Here’s a screenshot of the Excel spreadsheet I use to keep an accounting of my daily word counts.  It shows the end 2/3 of writing FORGED OF SHADOWS, my June release.

I track my daily word goal, my actual word count, and then I use Excel’s mathematical formulas to make the numbers dance so I can see my percentages and the number of sessions I have left until The End.  I also keep notes at the end to encourage (or castigate — mostly castigate) myself as necessary.  As you can see from the mass of red in the middle, I spend a lot of time being behind.  Frustrating!  But in the end, I finished my first draft three days early.  Yay!

I recently decided the 85,000-word first drafts I aim for are too scary (plus I usually end up going over and then writing too long in my final drafts) so I’m breaking my next goal setting into 3 months of 25,000 each.  That will give me a 75,000-word first draft.  And you should see how fast the “percent done” column fills up when there’s only 25 writing session per spreadsheet.  Inspiring!

If you’re a writer, here’s a link to a shared version of the new spreadsheet I’m using.  If you have a question about how to work the document, ask in comments and I’ll try to help.  I converted the Excel spreadsheet to a Google Docs format, which seems similar…  I hope all the formulas work. 

More importantly, I hope your formula –whatever it is — works for you.  Whether you’re a writer or have some other creative or work project, how do you keep yourself moving forward on long projects?  Do you have a favorite reward for yourself?  I usually eat cake