Monday, August 3, 2015

Ready, Set, WRITE! Week 9

 
Ready. Set. WRITE! is a summer writing intensive that encourages goal-setting and accountability, and provides an opportunity for us to cheer each other on wherever we’re at with our writing projects—planning, drafting, revising, or polishing.  This year, your RSW hosts are Alison MillerJaime MorrowErin FunkElodie Nowodazkij, and Katy Upperman.
 
How I did on last week's goals: I wrote 4,300 words, accomplishing my 4K goal.
 
After 40,000 chronological words, last week I finally surrendered and started writing scenes out of order. I'd been trying to avoid this (going straight to the fun scenes, which I love to do, often takes away my momentum), but the scenes I wrote are big ones near the end. For someone who's pantsing this entire draft, it sort of became necessary to have a rough idea of what I'm working toward. It's totally open to change, though, so we'll see where we actually end up at the end of the draft!
 
My goals for this week: 4K again. I also want to do some freewriting to get in my narrator's head a bit more, so if that means my manuscript's total comes in at under 4K, that's fine.
 
A favorite line from my story OR one word/phrase that sums up what I wrote/revised: Packing lists. My characters plan a backpacking trip, so I decided to include some of their itineraries and packing lists in my draft. So fun! And an easy way to increase my word count.
 
Biggest challenge this week: Impatience. As much fun as I'm having drafting, I'm ready to have a substantial manuscript to revise. I've got tons of ideas for development and some new highlighters and tons of post-its...itching to start revisions and tear into this draft!
 
Something I love about my WiPI'm getting into the travel/wanderlust aspect a bit with the packing lists and fun little add-ins. Makes me want to plan a trip!
 
 
How did your week go? I'm already starting to get sad that we're entering the last month of RSW...not ready for it to end!


9 comments:

  1. Oh the packing lists. Make sure you include all the weights. :) My husband is planning for his 9 day backpacking trip in California, so it's all I hear about. Secretly, I like it, but I would never tell him that. Good luck with writing out of order, it scares the bejeesus out of me!

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    1. Thanks Anna! I'm trying to keep my story in order as much as possible, but there were a couple days when I was desperate for my word count and just went for it.

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  2. What a fun idea to include your characters' packing lists and travel itinerary in your draft! I always like those kinds of extra tidbits when I'm reading. It makes it feel more real but at the same time adds something unique to break up the usual blocks of text. Good luck with that next 4k and the free writing this week!

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  3. What a fun idea to include your characters' packing lists and travel itinerary in your draft! I always like those kinds of extra tidbits when I'm reading. It makes it feel more real but at the same time adds something unique to break up the usual blocks of text. Good luck with that next 4k and the free writing this week!

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    1. Thanks Erin! I love those little add-ins, too. I recently (finally!) read AMY & ROGER'S EPIC DETOUR, and it was full of snapshots and playlists. So the idea stuck in my head and I figured I'd give it a try. :)

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  4. Oh packing lists & travel itinerary do sound like lots of fun! :) And you can add those 4k...you can dooooo it :) Cheering you on!

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    1. Thanks Elodie! The packing lists were super fun, so now I'm trying to come up with similar ideas to up my wordcount. :)

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  5. I always get impatient about revising, too! Revising is my favorite part because I get to make each draft better, which I love. And I always want to get to the "making this thing better" part of a new project :)

    I feel like packing lists and travel itineraries would be a dangerous road for me to go down because it would make me want to go on a trip!

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  6. Lol! Maybe it's time for you to go on a trip too. Packing for things is fun. Yay to those words and good luck this week!

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