Day Nine: Writing a Novel in Half a Month
Chapter Nine: Day Nine of Writing a Novel in Half a Month
Exhausted to start off the day because I ended up reading Cave Creek stories until after 4:30 am last night and then had to watch a little television to shut off the brain. Still got up at my normal 11:30 am, but tired.
Day Nine, Entry One.
12:30 pm. Out of bed at 11:30 like normal and to the internet computer by 12:30 pm. Worked on emails for an hour until 1:30, then a bunch of business stuff for a bit longer.
1:45 pm to 3:00 pm. Went out to get us lunch (take out) and run an errand, then lunch with Kris until about 3 pm.
3:00 pm to 5:00 pm. A little bit of email, then moved over to my writing computer and wrote for about 45 minutes and got about 6oo words done. Then, headed to take a nap. Might need a second one later on.
5:00 pm to 7:45 pm. Came back and finished a little email, then went to reading more Cave Creek stories. They are all really great, even the ones I don’t take., so it is taking me some time to read. Finally around 6:00 pm I went out and started cooking dinner and finally got back in here around 7:30 pm to do this first entry.
For those of you who are wondering, I do all the errands out and about, including picking up dinners and such and groceries and cooking. Kris does the clean up of the dishes and takes care of the boys. It is amazingly balanced in time spent as far as I can tell. We each do our own laundry and always have.
Now off to do some writing.
Day Nine, Entry Two.
7:30 pm to 9:30 pm. Wrote the first entry, then moved over to my writing computer. I managed to get 400 words done before coming across a detail that needed to be changed earlier, so cycled back and changed the detail for about 40 pages. Nature of writing into the dark. So that took about fifteen minutes to run through. Took a short break, then wrote another 1,000 words before needing to take a break at 9:30 pm.
9:30 pm until 10:00 pm. Needed more steps than I had gotten so far, and needed a break, so out for a fast walk for two miles (4,000 steps) I went.
10:15 pm to 11:30 pm. Kris and I watched the first episode of Ron Moore’s second season of For All Mankind. Fantastic alternate history. I flat loved the first season.
Now back here, going on 12:00 midnight as I finish this and head back to writing.
Day Nine, Entry Three.
12:01 am to 1 am. Wrote pretty solid for an hour, which included a short break to stare out over the city. Managed to get almost exactly 1,000 words. (I am rounding up or down if I am within 30 words of a big number.)
1:00 am to 2:00 am. Again wrote solidly, having fun being surprised by my characters, for 950 words. Took another break.
2:00 to 3:30 am. Came back and instead of going back to writing, I went to work on a new Kickstarter campaign that will be starting at some point down the road. I wanted to get a little jump on it. It’s going to be very cool.
After I am done with posting this last update, I plan on reading a few more Cave Creek stories before heading to watch television and then bed. So a total today of 3,950 words. Decent day. And the book is really fun.
And if I average 3,000 words for the last six days, I will be over 40,000. Might have it done ahead of that if I have a couple good days.
7 Comments
Topaz
Hi Dean,
I’ve looked into some old posts of you. Great fun and many things to learn.
Are you still doing the eRace?
What have been your experiences with it over the years?
Would you still assume 1.000 Points is the point to reach out for / use as a goal? Or would you use a higher number now?
Blog Post: https://deanwesleysmith.com/the-new-world-of-publishing-the-e-race/
dwsmith
Oh, good heavens, that is from eleven years ago. Do you know what the indie publishing world was like in 2010? Kris and I were just getting started, actually.
I would ignore everything in that post I said about traditional book publishing. Trust me, in ten years, that has gone south. Short story publishing in magazines is still mostly great.
Let me look at that again, the eRace part and give it some thought and see where we are now. I got no idea.
Wow, what a blast from the past. How much has changed in publishing in those short eleven years. Amazing.
Topaz
Thank you for your answer.
No, I do not know what the indie publishing world was like in 2010. I did ignore everything on traditional publishing though, because I know your latest posts about it.
Looking forward to read your opinion on the eRace after you had time to think about it. 🙂
Kris Rusch
And dusting and vacuuming. We both take out the garbage, but Dean handles the recycling, because I’m allergic to the air cleaner the building uses in the big garbage/recycling area. And it really does balance out well. Did it this way before the pandemic and before Dean got his double-dose of vaccine. (I’m weeks/months behind him in line.) Having set tasks also keeps us from fighting and blaming each other if something doesn’t get done. Keeps expectations under control.
Denise Gaskins
You have so much on your plate! I’m not meaning to add to it, but I was wondering if/when you might get back to the Decade Ahead class.
You mentioned last year that you had “a lot more to cover here in February,” but then life happened and you never got back to them. So I’ve been going through the old videos this quarter, and it made me curious what you had been planning to warn us about.
dwsmith
Actually planning on getting back to that in a week or so. Waiting, honestly, for what happened today with the third vaccine. So many pieces to pull together to see where we are actually heading. But about to get back to it and add new to the first quarter, then go from there. So the answer to your question is soon, very soon.
Denise Gaskins
Thanks! Looking forward to it…