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 10 days to finish this novel, which I said was the goal at the start. 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!
Progress so far…
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
Day #6… 7,116 words
Day #7… 3,005 words
Day #8… 7,473 words
Total so far… 52,858 words.
Day 9: Entry 1
4:45 PM… Horrid slow start on this fine Saturday. Managed to get out of bed later than normal and have been doing e-mail and working on business stuff with Kris. Of course this turned out to be a week of major business things. Figures….
I should be at this after I head out for a quick lunch, then back here for some writing.
Day 9: Entry 2
7:30 PM… I went out to the auction and had a great time working with the owner there over some collectables, then grabbed myself some lunch and the mail, then got back here and did two quick sessions. So far around 1,800 words total for the day.
Now off to nap with the cat.
Day 9: Entry 3
11:00 PM… The ending on this caused me to make a major change in the plot, so I went back to the beginning and changed that detail and wrote some new scenes and such around that one major detail shift. Then ran forward, so about 2,000 new words since about 9 PM plus the changes.
No, that was not rewriting, that was a detail shift that was required by something I found two hundred pages later, that required new words inserted in a few places up in the front of the book. That is what I call “cycling” or “fixing.” If I wrote like Kris writes, she would have made a note and kept typing forward and then gone back on a “fix” draft and put that in. But since I am mailing this book tomorrow night to the editor, I needed to fix it now, the moment I realized the needed detail insertion.
Note: the reader getting to the end will think the author was brilliant because he could plant such information and have it turn up later in the book. Or they will think the author must have really outlined the book to make sure such information was up front that was needed later. (grin)
Powering forward…
Day 9: Entry 4
1:45 AM… I did another thousand words, then went up to WMG Offices and dinged around up there for a time because I just felt like I needed to for no reason at all that I could think of. Then came back, watched an hour of news and television, now back up here in my office for the rest of the evening.
Seems this book is just not speeding up or slowing down. Just normal days dinging along on this. I’m around 5,000 words so far today, so we shall see how this ends up.
Day 9: Entry 5
3:30 AM… I did another couple thousand words in just under two hours, with one short break to get something to drink.
Still going…night not finished yet.
Day 9: Entry 6
6:30 AM… I’m up a little late tonight. Wrote until after 5, then went and watched some bad television.
Managed about 2,500 more words. Total for the day is 9,373 words
Progress so far…
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
Day #6… 7,116 words
Day #7… 3,005 words
Day #8… 7,473 words
Day #9… 9,373 words
Total so far… 62,231 words.
Within sight…
