I’m trying to get better about getting things done and finishing projects. Of course, I’ve decided to try finishing an 80,000 - 100,000 word novel. I hear that this may not be the easiest way to get practice in.
Still I’ve been working on writing a “shitty first draft"1 of my Station Mystery novel for the last few weeks. When I wrote about the book back in January I mentioned not being too sure how to go forward since I’m usually trying to do so many things at once. I’ve decided to focus on the Station Mystery as my primary project and try to prioritise working on it. So for these last few weeks I’ve set a goal of writing for half an hour a day, which I do after the things I have to get done, but before the things I should probably do. I’m not really consistent yet, but I’m moving in the right direction.
Half-an-hour is not a lot of time. I’m only able to write about 500 words if I write the whole time. On the other hand, I’m having fun, I’m actually doing it and 500 words a day is so much better than 0. So for now I’m going to say that it’s a good start.
When writing, I’ve instituted a general rule that once I finish a paragraph, I’m not allowed to go back and edit it and this is really helping me to get stuff on the page. I am allowing myself to leave comments in the margin as I go so I can either fix a thing, or just note something or just point out just how shitty the draft is. This gives me just enough of a push that I can let what I’m writing go without getting hung up on it being good or even making that much sense.
Since I first wrote about the Station Mystery at the beginning of January I did two starts on the first chapter and gave up, but my new rule is helping get things on the page. I’ve also rewritten the outline, with less text but more sticky notes in Miro. Those two outlines have helped me work out what needs to be said and what I’m supposed to be doing in each scene. Since it *is* a murder mystery, it’s also helpful for figuring out how the mystery fits together.
I’ve also started using Obsidian to build a world book for the story. I’ve been using it increasingly to keep track of things at work and it’s a really helpful way to track things like relationships. I’m trying not to world build too much and it helps to be able to make decisions on the fly.
At this rate I hope I’ll be finished with the first draft by the end of the year and by then I’ll have a whole extra year’s practice of writing and be ready for what ever happens next.
1Lamott, A. (1980). Bird by bird. Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group
