Let’s Have Winter all in 2 Weeks
Journal 85 6- 12 March 2023
I should probably retitle this blog “THREE weeks.”
I will admit that this winter has been weak sauce. Mild and even warm days, almost no snow for all of Jan and Feb, and now in March we’ve had two minor storms and I had to shovel twice for two bigger.
As I write this my phone and compute are warning me that in two days it might be an even worse storm. Sigh.
I feel like March is when the snow and cold is supposed to go away.
But we’re here to talk about writing and then talk story in my favorite hobby/mediums.
Story Time
Last Blog, I said I would have a terrible week and get nothing done. But I actually managed to do something this week.
I had written myself into a corner with a plot issue. So, I had to go back to a previous chapter, write in another 3 pages of dialogue to “reset the scene.” After that the next chapter was a breeze to write.
Though I will admit that it was probably the shortest chapter in the whole novel (that’s not saying much as I tend to write 5-10k chapters).
But I managed to hammer out a little over 4201 words this week. Bringing the manuscript to 152,303 words.
What’s Happening
Both of my storylines are coming together. I have moved the A-story to the final “arena”… or at least in the vicinity of it. I set up the scene where the two parties meet, from one POV. Now, the story shifts back a few days in time to the B-story and I spend 2 chapters moving that storyline to the same scene.
Yeah, astute readers might feel where this is heading… a fight scene between the two sides of the story. I know it’s a bit of a cliché and I hate it in comic books when the heroes fight each other before they realize who the villain is. Hate it. But I’m going to sort of use it in my book because the scene works in the narrative. Plus, it won’t drag on like it does in the comics.
(sits back looking smug) “’Cause I’ll do it the right way.”
Moving Along
The story is now upping the pace and I should be able to finish before the end of April (but I’m holding myself to a May finish for the rough). After that I have to decide if I want to do another edit pass on the previous novel, start the outline for next novel, or what have you.
To be honest I’m a little mad at myself with how long I’m taking on each novel. I need to write a little more often.
I started the book on May 2nd. But from then to now I’ve only spent 52 days actually writing (with other time spent on outlining, mapping, etc.) But 52 days I actually say and got to work. Meanwhile I’m… 6… 7 weeks away from a full year since I started the damn thing.
Very disappointed in my progress.
90-Day Books
Stephen King has the crazy thing where he says you should be able to write and finish any novel in 90 days, 3 months. Literally, he says he’s written his longest works in three months of dedicated daily writing. And then revisions and such after that take more time.
I used to think that was a crazy number. But when I was a teenager, I used to write a whole novel over summer break during high school. I also used to sit at the typewriter for 8+ hours at a go and stay up until 2am writing.
With my thesis novel I started charting individual writing sessions and overall progress so that I could gauge how much writing I needed to do per session to reach deadlines. I found that if I spent a couple hours, three times a week, I could hit numbers consistently.
Looking back, I realized that I wrote over 120k in less than 15 weeks. So, with my next novel I added a column into my tracker counting the number of sessions. I wrote that novel in 91 sessions. Suddenly, King’s words about finishing a novel in just 90 days started to make a little more sense. The difference being he does his 90 days all in a row, and I do mine over a whole year.
I think it’s fascinating when you break down the numbers.
Gaming/Hobby/Yada
Only 2 games this week, the in-person couldn’t meet. Both were pretty fun.
Game 1 was mid dungeon crawl, but we befriended some of the enemies and got brought into a deeper, secret area. Kind of at a lose for what is happening in that game right now.
The other game is the goofball Spelljammer game. That was fun, we did a little ship to ship space combat that went a little out of hand. And we keep stringing jobs together. Got to A to deliver a letter, A asks us to take a package back in a month. Get summoned by B to go to C and make a deal with character D. D hates B, so asks us for favor E if we want the information for B. Sigh.
But it’s still a good time and we haven’t had a chance to slow down too much and actually think things through.
As to other hobby, I’ve been falling behind in my paint work. I haven’t watched any movies this month (what the hell) and I have been powering through a ton of podcasts and actual plays. 5 episodes of Delta Green, 15 episodes of Starfinder, 10 episodes of Pathfinder. All Glass Cannon Network. Little over 40 hours of audio.
I have to admit I keep cutting time between different games so it sometimes gets a little confusing.
But I digress, the characters are interesting, and despite not playing any of the pathfinder games, I have enjoyed the characters floundering through their various missions. Good story is good story, no matter what rules or background govern the characters within the story.
There is a lesson there, but its one for the fractured TTRPG community to learn, not for the writers.
