Taking A Night Off

I'm posting ahead of time, since I have no clue what kind of shape I'll be in when I get home.

In celebration of different things, Hil and I are going out to the local karaoke bar with a friend. It's something we haven't done in a long time, but we always had a great time. (I'm personally celebrating five straight nights of writing.) In an uncharacteristic move, I've offered to try to drink anything our friend puts in front of me. Since I typically avoid alcohol like most folks avoid trips to the dentist, this could be an interesting night. (That's right, I karaoke sober.)

It's entirely possible that I won't be working tomorrow either. That one depends entirely on mood. But one night at a time.

Work Continues When I'm Off

Last night I began work on clearing our third bedroom out to use it as a writing room. At about 5pm this evening, I went back to work towards that goal. In an hour's time I probably doubled (at least) the amount of garbage I'd hauled out onto our front porch. The UPS driver's probably going to be a little confused when he delivers my monthly shipment of comic books today.

I don't really have a metric to record my progress, so I guess the fact that I worked at it is what counts the most.

I sat down to write a bit later than usual. That's fine, though, since I'm going to be up a bit later than usual today. I need to run over to the doctor's office, which means that I'll probably be up until 10am. But I still put some writing away. Hoover sat on my lap to supervise once I really got going, and I wound up surpassing last night. I had a few interesting thoughts about a potential twist for one of my characters. I jotted down some notes, but there are a couple of issues I'll have to address if I'm going to use it. I like it, but I might not be able to work it in here.

Here's the night's progress:

Tonight's Word Count: 640

Total Word Count: 3998

Just for a comparison, my abortive NaNoWriMo attempt topped out at 1056 words, and that took two or three nights. And I'm nowhere near ready to jump ship and try to start something else.

Productive On Two Fronts

I feel like I got a lot accomplished tonight.

True to my word, I started working on clearing our third bedroom to use as a writing room. I cleared four or five boxes of detritus to head out to the dump and swept about half of the floor. We had no use for this bedroom when we moved into the house, so we decided to use it for temporary storage of things we wouldn't need immediately.

The storage was decidedly more than temporary. And the pile was in fact added to over the past few years. These pictures should adequately

convey how bad it had gotten. (Be thankful that the lighting isn't good.) But there's a noticeable difference after an hour or so of work. (I stopped because the dust was becoming problematic, and I anticipated Hilary would be going to sleep soon.)

It's clearly going to take a few days (and possibly more time than I've got in this 'weekend') to overhaul the room enough to make it a functional place to write. But the fact that I can see an appreciable difference after one night's efforts is a big encouragement. And since the room I'm currently writing in is a 'finished' garage, this new writing room will hold heat and cold better - making a more comfortable environment to work in.

But that's not the only area where I made progress tonight. While my word count was down a bit further from last night, this is a 'weekend' and I didn't start until a bit later (on account of the fact that I was cleaning and seeing to other chores.) I think I've got a better idea on how I want the second chapter to unfold. Talking out some of my thoughts with Hilary helped some on that score as well. That's one of the advantages of being home when I write, I guess.

But this makes four nights that I've consistently added to my story. I've managed to maintain focus, and interest in what I'm writing which is already a big improvement over my attempt to write something for NaNoWriMo. And the ability to maintain focus is primarily what I'm looking for, here. I know that two chapters don't make a novel/novella, but at least the early metrics are promising.

Anyhow, here's the word count for the night:

Tonight's Word Count: 436

Total Word Count: 3358

Point Of View Characters

As I was starting to write tonight, I realized I was having a little trouble getting started. While I don't doubt that some of the trouble was just the effort of starting, I've come to think that part of it was that I didn't feel strongly anchored to the second chapter. I think it was due to the fact that I wasn't yet anchored in a POV (Point-of-View) character.

The first chapter only had two characters, and I knew from the outset which one I was going to seeing it through. But with the second chapter, I planned to introduce the rest of my cast. With a total of five protagonists, who are going to be together for much of the story, how do I write this chapter in the most interesting way that I can?

I thought about it, and settled on one of my characters as my main POV character for the rest of the story - largely because I felt that this character was the one that an audience could most easily get behind. Things got a bit easier from that point on, and I made some progress. Not as much as either of the past two nights, but not that far off, either. (I'm having a tricky time getting from where the chapter starts, to where I know it's got to end. This is something I'm going to have to get used to, though.)

So I thought I'd ask... what are your thoughts on POV characters? Are they always necessary? Do they sometimes get in the way of telling a good story? When should you use them, and when shouldn't you? Just interested in hearing some thoughts.

I'm wrapping up a little early tonight, but I'm planning to work on my writing at some point tomorrow. I'm also planning to start work on clearing out my writing room. If I can find our digital camera, maybe I'll post some 'before' pictures.

And as always, I've copied tonight's work to Google Docs for my select pre-readers. If you've got the time, I think I have enough written that I'd like to hear about anything that you think stands out (positive or *ulp* negative).

Tonight's Word Count: 822

Total Word Count: 2922

Another Solid Night

Despite a rough start, I actually managed to meet my goals for the night.

Last night, I managed to actually begin writing my story, and produced 900 words to that end. Tonight, my plan was to match that though by 3am I wasn't liking my chances. I'd let myself get distracted by my job, but also by the internet (which I really need to be better about.)

But somewhere after walking my last patrol for the night (around 3:45 am) I hit a roll. I sat down to write, and the story came. I had a few small story issues to work through in my first chapter/scene, but I managed it. I'm not sure how much I like the way I did so, but I'll worry about that later. For now, I'm just trying to produce a draft of the story and save the editing/rewriting for later. I'm still playing with Google Docs, trying to find the best way to share it with those who're willing to read it in it's current state. (Ideally I'd like to find a way to update the entry on Google Docs from a file. Some internet outages at home have convinced me that for the actual writing stage at least, I should work local.)

Once I fell into a rhythm, though, the writing proceeded well. I'm not feeling horribly about it, and I actually did one better on my word count. We'll see what tomorrow night holds for me.

Tonight's Word Count: 1200

Total Word Count: 2100

And oddly, both nights have ended on precisely even word-counts, rounded to the hundred. What's that about?

The Writing Has Begun

It took me a little while to steel myself up to it, but tonight I began the act of writing my story.

I don't know what I'll think about my progress after I've slept, but I suspect I'll be extremely unhappy with what I've written thus far. But the story has begun.

I'm still unsure about my pacing. While I'm no longer quite so frightened that I'm going to rush through chapters far too quickly, I'm still nervous about my pacing. While the first chapter isn't rushing, a flashback scene therein may have gone by too quickly. I'll have to read it when I get back to work, and see.

A new concern has raised itself, though. I'm beginning to think that I'm over-narrating. I like to think of myself as a clever person, and I'm not sure that the tone I'm writing with fits. I'm also not sure if I'm describing things instead of trying to show them because I'm so amused with my own 'voice'. Ultimately, I'll probably need others to read what I have so that they can tell me, yea or nay.

But for tonight:

900 Words

And total:

900 Words

Interlude

I hadn't planned on getting any writing done over this past weekend due to the New Year's holiday (and the chance to spend more time with Hilary than our work usually allows.) I had planned to update the blog over the weekend, however, but was frustrated by Time Warner Cable's service. We had some manner of disruption in our area that blanked out all of our services (cable, telephone and internet). Things were active again at the house before I left for work tonight, so hopefully that won't bother us anymore.

Over my 'weekend' I watched an episode of 'Hoarders' and it made me look around our home a tad uncomfortably. While our house is nowhere near the level displayed on the show, I can't shake the feeling that we're further in that direction than we should be.

Why do I mention this? Because I've decided that a 'Writing Room' at home might help. We live in a three bedroom house with no children. We have a guest room, but our third bedroom has served as nothing more than a repository for things we haven't wanted to deal with since we moved in. And a big table I bought when we moved in. I'm planning to go through the things in that room, throwing out what I can, and claiming it as an 'office'. There will be no television, or telephone in this room - just a place that I can set up my laptop, close the door, and hopefully work. When I feel like it's well enough to show off, there may be pictures.

Tonight I plan to actually start crafting my story. I even think I have a line to start with, so I'm interested in seeing how far that takes me. I'm a little anxious, but hopefully that'll pass as I work.