Writing: 1,325 words
I write like Tribbles reproduce.
In roughly four hours, I wrote 1,325 words, exactly sixteen of which - one sentence - came out of the bucket. Those thirteen-hundred words make up two full sections, bringing the current scene - the grand opening of the Tetraplex - to a total of seven sections long. There is one more section to write for the Tetraplex sequence, which I expect to be a bit shorter than its predecessors, and the scene will be complete.
All well and good: except that I originally envisioned the Tetraplex scene as a quick two-section interlude that would set up the confrontation that follows it, and of course I wound up expanding it out into its very own meditative sequence complete with sexual tension and visits from beyond the grave. And who doesn't hate when zombie-phantoms ruin a first date?
To be sure: I am perfectly content to overwrite the first draft of my novel, so long as the additional words provide more story. I'd much rather have too much and have to carve it down, than wind up with too little and have to staple more events into the story to pad it out. At one point I actually thought I might end up with that latter problem, and I concocted an emergency subplot that would run through the first half of the book before culminating unexpectedly near the end of the novel.
But the way I've been writing lately, I will be shocked if I have to break open that particular glass case. So the moral of the tonight's lesson is that I'm not going to project sections anymore. I know roughly how many scenes I've got left, but anticipating how long any of those scenes is going to end up has turned out to be nothing but a fantastic way to be repeatedly wrong.
In roughly four hours, I wrote 1,325 words, exactly sixteen of which - one sentence - came out of the bucket. Those thirteen-hundred words make up two full sections, bringing the current scene - the grand opening of the Tetraplex - to a total of seven sections long. There is one more section to write for the Tetraplex sequence, which I expect to be a bit shorter than its predecessors, and the scene will be complete.
All well and good: except that I originally envisioned the Tetraplex scene as a quick two-section interlude that would set up the confrontation that follows it, and of course I wound up expanding it out into its very own meditative sequence complete with sexual tension and visits from beyond the grave. And who doesn't hate when zombie-phantoms ruin a first date?
To be sure: I am perfectly content to overwrite the first draft of my novel, so long as the additional words provide more story. I'd much rather have too much and have to carve it down, than wind up with too little and have to staple more events into the story to pad it out. At one point I actually thought I might end up with that latter problem, and I concocted an emergency subplot that would run through the first half of the book before culminating unexpectedly near the end of the novel.
But the way I've been writing lately, I will be shocked if I have to break open that particular glass case. So the moral of the tonight's lesson is that I'm not going to project sections anymore. I know roughly how many scenes I've got left, but anticipating how long any of those scenes is going to end up has turned out to be nothing but a fantastic way to be repeatedly wrong.