Ghost Novel: Day 3
As I said in the previous posts, I’m going to have one post per day here for the “ghost” novel writing process that I was hired by a New York publisher to do. I am aiming for 7 to 10 days to finish this novel. I can give ZERO hints about the content of the book, so please don’t ask. I am only talking about the writing process and my day around the writing process.
I will add to this post at different times during the day right up until I head to bed so you can follow the process. At the end of each post I will add up the daily word count and project word count. You want to see what a professional writer’s day is like, I’ll put a post up here every day until this book is done.
I would start reading from Day 1 and read the comments under both days so far for a ton of answers to questions.
Day #1… 7,625 words
Day #2… 7,734 words
Total so far… 15,359 words.
So now on to Day #3.
Day 3: Entry 1:
12:45 PM… Rolled out of bed and by 1:15 PM I had my breakfast bars and was answering my e-mail and comments on Day 2 of this. Some good questions. Make sure if you are following this to read the comments and my answers on each day.
I finished most of the questions and my e-mail just before 2:00 PM and then Kris and I headed off to the normal Sunday writer lunch. Eight other professional fiction writers there today besides us. Great conversation. Got back here around 4:00 PM, answered more questions and some more e-mail and did this post, and am now, at 4:20 PM heading over to my writing computer for my first session.
Day 3: Entry 2:
4:20 PM… I worked for about an hour, took a five minute break. Ended up with pretty close to 1,000 words in that hour. That seems to be about the pace this book is flowing at. I sometimes only go around 800 words per hour with my four-finger typing, but this one, in most places, is flowing nicely.
5:30 PM… went back for a second session and finished another thousand words. It’s now 6:32 and I’m headed to the media room to take a nap with good old Walter White Kitty. (And yes, at some point I’ll put a picture of the guy here during this week.)
Total so far on Day 3… Around 2,000 words.
Day 3: Entry 3:
Walter and I napped until 7:00 PM. Then we had dinner and I got back to my office around 7:30 PM.
10:00 PM… I haven’t done another word on the novel yet tonight. From 7:30 until about ten minutes ago I was working on the Cliffhangers workshop. For those of you who don’t know, I teach some online workshops and each of the writers in the online workshop turn in an assignment each week if they want. So I write them each a letter talking about their assignment, then do a video that talks about the assignment in general and I put it up with the following week’s videos.
If you want any information about the Online workshops, the descriptions and how to sign up are up under the Online Workshops tab above. All of the Online Workshops starting in May and beyond have openings, so you are welcome to jump in.
10:10 PM… headed back to my writing computer finally. I still have some workshop stuff to do later in the evening, but I can do that on breaks.
Day 3: Entry 4:
10:10 PM… I headed back to my writing computer and managed to get about 1,000 more words done by 11:00 PM.
I took a break, read the March 15th issue of Publisher’s Weekly, had a snack, and went back to work at about 11:15 PM… I managed yet another 1,000 words and then came to do this entry. Right now it’s just after midnight and I’m going to go get a snack and get back to it.
Total so far today around 4,000 words.
Day 3: Entry 5:
1:00 AM… I made it back to the writing computer just after midnight and in fifty minutes managed about another 1,000 words. That sure seems to be my output for a session on this book. That’s great. I always like books that do this, much more than the books that won’t let me do more than 800 words a session.
Then I took a break and worked on some more workshop stuff, this one for a coast workshop. The difference between the coast workshops here we do five or so times per year and the online workshops is that the coast workshops are like graduate level workshops, while the online workshops are for all levels. The coast workshops are invite only as well. Then went back to the computer and got another few hundred words done before hitting a point I felt stuck.
1:30 AM… So now to a break and then back to write the next sentence. I don’t think this is a major stuck, more of a type of stuck that I just got ahead of the back of my brain is all. Ten minutes and I’ll be back at it.
Still not a clue at all where this book is going. Not one. But I am liking the characters I came up with, so that’s helping. Now if I just don’t have to kill one of them along the way. (grin)
Day 3: Entry 6:
1:45 AM… Fired on, clearly not stuck at all like I thought. I just needed a break so my fingers stopped and pretended I was stuck. They do that when I try to continue on too long in one session. (grin)
I got another 1,000 or so words done by 2:30 AM before taking a short break and working on the workshop stuff I had to do.
2:45 AM… back at the fiction computer, got another 1,000 or so words done. It’s now 3:40 and I’m out of steam. I have done more work on the workshop as well and might spend a few more minutes on that before heading to bed.
Day #1… 7,625 words
Day #2… 7,734 words
Day #3… 7,059 words
Total so far… 22,418 words.
This still feels like a 7 or 8 day pace. We shall see how the next few days go and if it picks up speed some. If not, I’m looking at 9 days. But I’m pretty happy with this start so far.