As I said in every post so far, 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 now aiming for 8 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.
If you are new to this, I would scroll back and start reading from Day 1 and read the comments under all the days so far. There is a ton of answers to questions. And the questions have been great. Thanks, everyone!
Day #1… 7,625 words
Day #2… 7,734 words
Day #3… 7,059 words
Day #4…5,070 words
Total so far… 27,488 words.
So now on to Day 5…
Day 5: Entry 1:
2:50 PM… Rolled out of bed at 1:20 PM and made it to my computer with my breakfast bars by 1:50 PM. Since then I’ve been answering comments and e-mails. Folks, the most important part of this is the comments after each day and during the day. I do my best to answer each question honestly. So make sure to read them all. It will be worth your time. You might discover a myth you didn’t even know you were holding.
Now off to my writing computer. Back later…
Day 5: Entry 2:
6:50 PM… I managed a session of about 900 words, took a break, had a quick lunch that Kris brought back after she had run the errands today. Then I went back and got another 900 words done before Kris and I took off for the grocery store.
I stopped at Goodwill for a few minutes, found nothing, then we went to the store. A bunch of locals were there and we ended up talking for a time, got back around 6:00PM.
At 6:00 PM I sat down for a third afternoon session and got another 900 or so words. Now it’s 6:50 PM and I’m headed for the regular nap with my white cat downstairs.
Total so far today about 2,800 words.
Day 5: Entry 3:
10:00 PM… Nap and dinner and news. I think I made it back up here around 8:00 PM. Last two hours I was working on the homework for the essentials workshop and doing the taping of my response to this week’s assignment. This was a fun assignment and it was fun to read what the eleven writers in the Essentials workshop turned in this last week.
(I’ll do a post about the workshops starting the first week of May and the ones starting the first week of June… still openings in all of them. Under the Online Workshop tab at the top of the page.)
So now it’s about 10:00 PM and I’m heading back to my writing computer. Another update after a time…
Day 5: Entry 4:
12:47 AM… I wrote for two sessions, both fairly short from 10:00 until around 11:30 and ended up getting closer to 4,000 words for the day.
At 11:30 PM I went down to the media room to watch The Voice. Then watched a great interview with Carol Burnett and the star of Arrow on The Tonight Show. Now back up here, answering questions and heading back to my writing computer.
It’s now 12:51 AM. Need a new cup of tea and then I’m off to writing. We shall see how it goes from here for the rest of the evening…
Day 5: Entry 5:
4:30 AM… I was typing along and I felt I was about halfway done with this book, so I stopped and decided to add it all up. And behold, I am. Good place to stop for the night.
I did three of sessions since 1:00 AM, and did some workshop stuff as well. Each session turned out to be around a thousand words or so. That seems to be normal for me, hitting a stride after midnight or one for a few hours.
So at this point the pace is still nine days for me unless I don’t pick up speed or get stuck or have a bad day. If that happens, this will take ten days. (I do plan on picking up speed for the next four days, but we shall see. Some books just don’t allow that to happen. But I would love to be done late Saturday night instead of Sunday night. No reason other than I want to finish putting together Fiction River Volume Three: Time Streams that I am editing and I have other stories to write.)
Day #1… 7,625 words
Day #2… 7,734 words
Day #3… 7,059 words
Day #4… 5,070 words
Day #5… 7,786 words
Total so far… 35,274 words.