April 10, 2013

First check in.
It's 5:30.

Seven hours ago, I started writing with Supe (my friend, Superwriter). We checked in with each other every couple of hours or so, discussed what was working and what was not. The scene goals are turning out to be a godsend, really, compared to the word count. But when all is said and done at the end of the day, I'm always going to want to know my word count.

Good news? I've written 4231 words so far today.
We had plans to leave town tonight but the Rock has worked himself to the bone picking all the corn, pulling up the stalks, and hauling them to the dump along with Rock Jr. He's pooped, so we are staying at home.

More good news? He doesn't mind if I keep writing, so I expect to redeem myself for some pretty lame production days in the past week.

Bad news?
It's 5:30. I started SEVEN hours ago. I've had very few breaks in there. A couple of minutes of pouting because I was continually interrupted there for a while. But still, 4k in 7 hours is pretty pathetic when I KNOW I can write 1000 words per hour EASILY.

Now don't get all insulted because I said you're a pansy if you're not writing 1000 words per hour. You are. Because you can too. Obviously, my stats for the day prove I'm Queen of the Pansies. HOWEVER, I know, through a few years of experimenting, that I can write between 1200 and 1500 an hour IF I USE DR. WICKED.

I know, people are sick of my shoving Dr. Wicked's Write or Die program in their faces, but I'm telling you it's worth trying. Give it a go for a week and you will be dedicating your books to me. No lie.
It programs your creative brain to produce faster. It programs your fingers to move faster. It programs you to get all the distractions out of your face before you get started. But simply put...

It is the difference between my 4231 words today and the 7-10 thousand words I could have written if I had just opened the stupid program and worked in the write or die box for the past 7 hours instead of plucking away, searching for just the right word, re-reading paragraphs I'm going to end up re-reading and re-writing a few times during revisions--why mess with them now?

What might I have done with three extra hours in my day today? I'd have gone to a freaking movie!

I'm not in the mood to pussy-foot around today (which means I should be no where near the internet, but better judgment is obviously not prevailing today or I would have been on Dr. Wicked, right?) so find the good doctor, do a few practice runs, then throw caution to the wind. If you already know about the Dr. and you're not using it, at least as much as possible, then shame on you--shame on us both.

I'm going to do at least three more 1 hour sessions of Write Or Die before I throw in the towel tonight. I'll bet you MONEY, I will have at LEAST 3000 more words in the can. (Even though it will make me kick myself for not doing it before now.)

Get your two bits ready...

Enh! Thank you for playing, but if you bet against me, you lose.
I did NOT do three more hours of Dr. Wicked to get 3000 more words. I did it in TWO!

The first session ran over--in 75 minutes, I wrote 1868
The second session was just less than a minute because I ended a scene--1555
Add the 4231 from earlier in the day...
and the grand whopping total for today was 7654. 

But the point, Newanda, is that the first 4200 took 7 hours.
Then I did 3423 in just over TWO HOURS.
I feel like I wasted at least four hours today by ignoring what I know to be true.

Goal adjustment: to reach my 4000 words a day, or 4 scenes per day, 5 days a week, for the rest of the year, I will, from now on, do three Dr. Wicked session per day, minimum.

We have the tools. We have the technology. We can rebuild...our careers, baby.
The Bionic Writer