Today was day two (for me) of the Fast Draft class. I must say that before I began I was quite skeptical of the claim that you could complete 280 pages in fourteen days. I’m not quite on track to match that page count, but I’m not far off. Wednesday, I managed to put down 18 pages of notes into my WIP. Thursday, finished out with a strong 14. It’s only the beginning of day three and I can’t wait to jump in there and see what I can accomplish. I have to say that if nothing else, Fast Draft does wonders for building momentum. I will tuck this lesson into my bag of tricks for whenever I need to pull a rabbit out of my hat. Hell, I may just start writing this way for good. It certainly beats the ol’ stare at a blank screen thing. For those of you who are participating in Fast Draft, how’s the progress coming along?
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January 19th, 2007
Hey J, what are you doing differently that makes your output higher? I see all these NANO, and now this and wonder what’s the secret that pushes the writer. What makes it so different that you don’t do it every day anyway?
by Vivi Anna January 19th, 2007 at 11:35 amVivi, I think the biggest thing is giving myself freedom to fill in spots of the manuscript with notes. I’ve actually gotten this word count by making notes for each chapter. (ie what needs to take place in each chapter) I guess I had more notes than I realized. I’m now looking at the chapters with the understanding that I absolutely know what needs to go in each of them. Because of that, I can jump around and add pages wherever I want. It’s very freeing. Also there’s the whole ‘don’t let the other participants down’ thing. For me, this form of writing is very different from NANO.
by Jordan January 19th, 2007 at 11:55 amOh, I get it, you write until maybe you can’t then fill in with notes for what’s goign to happen, then continue on…like maybe chapter two will flow faster than one, but that’s okay because you made all your notes for chapter one so you can fill it in later…I do that with sex scenes…I write until I get stuck, then I fill in what I want to happen than continue on with my other action scenes, adn come back at the end and write those scenes. Hmm, I think I’ll do that with this urban fantasy…
by Vivi Anna January 19th, 2007 at 12:21 pmI’d actually written a whole novel in 2 weeks before, so the page count didn’t scare me. *g* I hope to beat my record page count for a single day Fast Drafting!
I am really picking up momentum and starting to snowball. Wheee!
by Charli January 19th, 2007 at 2:03 pmVivi, That’s exactly it, except the notes can be anything (ie put description of bedroom here, describe yard, have conversation with hero, etc.) It keeps you moving forward at all times.
by Jordan January 19th, 2007 at 2:03 pmGood for you, Charli! I can’t remember what my record daily page count is. *ggg* My guess is twenty-something pages. If I reached thirty, I’d have it beat. Good luck!
by Jordan January 19th, 2007 at 2:04 pmForgot to mention, one of the reasons I love to work this way is it pushes you out of the point where you second guess everything. I used to write about 3 pages per session and then I’d be done. I could switch to another project and write another 3 pages, and then I’d stop there, too. It was like I had a built-in block that would drop down.
The first time I really put the hammer down and raced through a novel, I broke that block forever. My average now is 3K per session instead of 3 pages!
by Charli January 19th, 2007 at 2:07 pmThat’s terrific, Charli. I think everyone has to find what works best for them.
by Jordan January 19th, 2007 at 3:17 pmI’m not participating, but I am staring at a blank screen and it’s frustrating. Especially after having such a productive day on Wednesday. Where did the nekkid muses go?
by Bailey Stewart January 19th, 2007 at 6:03 pmI’m at the editing stage of my wip, the stage I hate. Great post at RTB.
by Nancy Henderson January 19th, 2007 at 7:20 pmBailey, You don’t need the muse. Start taking on what could possibly happen and jump ahead. Seriously. Get out of the chronological mindset.
by Jordan January 19th, 2007 at 8:43 pmThanks Nancy!
by Jordan January 19th, 2007 at 8:43 pm