Perpetualized

Sick still—oh how I hate coughing! But my goals will not be diverted.  I need to finish my book, and soon, so I’ll be getting back to work tomorrow even if I have to sit my laptop in bed with me. No, no, I’m completely serious! I’m getting this book done, ASAP.

My faulty memory means I totally blew the 500 words a day streak I was going for. It only lasted 4 days and I didn’t even realize it until now. I barely cracked 100 on the 28th. To be honest, I’d forgotten all about the streak! Good news though. I’ve written a little every day even while I’ve been sick. I do mean a little but a hundred words here and there are better than none. My December tally sits at 781 right now and I don’t have a day under 100 words. :D Silly to be excited by that but hey, I’ll take what I can get right now.

I’m aiming for a Sunday finish on my book. So I’m starting a new Finish the Book! Challenge tomorrow.

I have no idea how long this book is going to turn out to be so I’m thinking I’d be best served to aim for 5,000 words a day until it’s done.

Huge fail.

Also, I’m sick today. I plan to blame the weekend (especially yesterday’s) lethargy on the fact that I was obviously coming down with a cold, or something. Now I’m going to go back to sleep, or at least pretend to. I feel just awful.

Also, I hate snot.

Things are going well this morning, if you discount the fact that when I turned on my computer Windows told me to “consider replacing your battery.” And it won’t charge more than 61%. The good news is that I have a new one on the way. The bad news is that it’ll probably be at least Tuesday before I get it, so I’m stuck on the chord. More good news is that I have a generous number of conveniently placed power outlets in my house. And, what? I just unplugged the battery and plugged it back up and now it claims to be 100% charged. Definitely can’t wait until that new battery arrives. I’ll feel much better when it gets here!

And then there’s the fact that I’ve written about 139 words, gone online even after I swore I wasn’t going to turn on WIFI until after lunch, then keep just staring at my book wondering what the heck I’m doing.

But it’s a beautiful day and I’m sitting in the sunshine in my living room all toasty warm, and I have faith that I will get myself together shortly and write some really good stuff today.

I’ve already surprised myself with a few interesting developments and I’m contemplating another. I do think sometimes that I “contemplate” a little too often.

It’s probably time to crack out that timer again. I had hoped to just enjoy the writing this weekend without the undue pressure of timed sessions but so far that hasn’t been working. I think I need an early nap. ;)

Update: No nap. Why’d I let myself do that? And progress isn’t anything worth mentioning at this time, although I’m going to mention it anyway. 160 words and it’s 7:55 pm. I won’t be staying up late because I’m already tired, although I have no idea how that can be considering the truly lazy day I’ve had today. Oh, and I’m watching a crackling fireplace video on my television because it makes me feel warmer. :D I’m giving it another hour.

No! Here it is 12:17 pm and I haven’t started my writing for the day. What am I doing? (Forums. A blog. Bought and read a book (let’s not lie, it was a short story, but I have a real weakness for regency period romance). Ate breakfast—turkey, again, yeah, weird, but I love leftover Thanksgiving food any time of the day. Forums again. Blog again. Email. Email. Email. Wrote this. Yikes! What a waste of precious brain power this morning.)

And it’s lunch time. And then nap time. And my failing laptop battery needs a charge (got a new one on the way). And if I don’t start now, I’m going to end up at 3 pm with nothing done and be so mad at myself I might as well just get mad at myself right now and save myself all that wasted time between now and then.

So, I’m going to set my timer and get at least one session done before I break for lunch.

Let’s see how much I can recover from my slow start today.

I’m not sure how many words I have left to write to get to the end of my book. I aimed for 60,000 as an upper limit this time, and I’m currently 4,478 words away from that limit and to be honest, I’m about to blow right by it.

The book is going long unless something miraculous happens (and it could! I don’t plot in advance so I really have no idea what’s coming except in a vague sense; as in, I have some ideas but I’ll have to wait and see if they actually appear in the story).

That said, I want to finish this book and I want to finish it ASAP. This weekend, ASAP.

I know that means I’m going to have to push for some bigger word counts than I usually manage on a daily basis but I want to finish. I want to finish to the point that I need to hole up in my house, pretend I’m glued to my keyboard, and write like my life depends on it.

It doesn’t, but hey, I’m good at playing pretend!

But that’s what this challenge is about and that’s what I’m going to do.

Despite my close calls both yesterday and the day before, today isn’t looking so good.

I’m one and a half hours in and I’m at 964 words, and my current pace means it will take me another eight and three-quarter hours to reach my 15,000 words 3-day goal. I don’t have that kind of time or stamina today! I have Thanksgiving traditions to participate in and I’ll be lucky if get another solid four hours before I have to give it up until much later tonight.

So, either I need to seriously speed up my pace or I need to make some contingency plans! But—I can’t spend a lot of time mulling this over because I need to write, so I’ll have to let my subconscious stew it over while I stay busy. ;)

And…things have gone even worse than I imagined. Two and a half hours in and I’m at 1,450 words, which is a big drop from my former nearly 800 wph down to about 580 wph. I’m struggling. Not gonna lie. And now I have to leave. I’m hoping the break will give me some mental pep back and I’ll at least get an other few thousand when I get home even if I have to stay up. :D

Unfortunately, there’s really no way to know if staying up late last night is partly to blame for today’s slowdown. Or if it was because my kids were home—I had real trouble staying focused with the noise and the distractions. Plus, I didn’t get my nap. :(

Recap: My three day total is currently at 3,936 + 4,486 + 1,450 = 9,872

I’m 2 hours in (writing hours!) and I have 1,952 words done. I’m on pace to finish my 5,000 and then some in about four more hours. Of course, I know better than to count on that with my track record. ;)

I want to do today’s 5,000 and at least half of yesterday’s shortfall. Yesterday I came up 1,064 words short on my 5,000. I’ve been very pleased so far though. I’m not sure why, but I’ve hit a real stride on this book and it’s just breezing along! Lots of action, dialogue, and some judicious narration are keeping things going nicely.

It’s totally nap time though. Lunch on the other hand is long over so I should have a really good, productive afternoon once I get my nap out of the way.

Update #2: Three and a half hours in (writing hours!) at 3:32 pm and I’ve got 2,814 words. That’s a better than average pace for me at about 800 wph and I’m on track to finish in about three and a half hours if I keep it up. So, I’m half the way there.

Update #3: Five and a half hours in (writing hours! ) at 10:45 pm and I’ve got 3,843 words. I’m going to push for my goal even though I’d rather be sleeping. I already know I’ll probably sleep in. :o

Update #4: Well over six hours and midnight has come and gone. So, I’m calling it at 4,486 words. Now off to bed so I can at least attempt to do this again tomorrow!

I don’t know if I mentioned that my participation this year in NaNoWriMo is as a NaNo Rebel. I didn’t plan that but when November rolled around, I hadn’t finished the book I was already writing, and I knew I couldn’t abandon it to start something new.

Well, I’m about 15,000 from the end of my book. (I hope!) So. I’m going to try to challenge myself to write 5,000 words a day for the next three days and see if I can finish this thing before Thanksgiving. ;)

That’s 15,000 words in 3 days. I don’t have a great track record for these kinds of challenges, but I want to give it a shot. I’ve dragged the writing of this book out longer than I should’ve and I really want to finish it by the end of the month.

Here’s the thing. Because I track my daily word counts in a spreadsheet, I can tell you exactly how many times I’ve managed to write 5,000 words in one day and when that was.

August 16, 2013
June 17, 2013
April 19, 2013
November 8, 2012

And that’s it.

So this really is a big personal challenge for me.

5,000 words in a day has usually taken me about 6.5 hours of hard core writing. But I’ve written for 6.5 hours many days and not reached 5,000 words. It all seems to depend on if I get in a zone and stay there. I’m going to write in 30 minute blocks today with 5–10 minutes between them, and lunch and a nap in there too.

I’m getting a late start today at 11 am on a Monday morning but let’s go! I know I can do this if I can keep this story moving.

Update: Two hours in (in writing time!) at 3:46 pm and I’m at 1,606 for the day. At this pace I have another four and a half hours or so to go. In writing time. Which definitely does not translate to me finishing at 7:46 pm without divine intervention. ;)

Update #2: Three and a half hours in (in writing time!) at 7:51 pm and I’m at 2,919 words for the day. At my current pace it’ll take me two and half more hours to get to 5,000. Which would put me finishing at 10:30 pm without any breaks. Uh. I’m not really counting on that but we’ll see. Maybe I’ll be able to pick up my pace if I push a little harder. :)

Update #3: Another hour in (writing hours!) at 9:48 pm and I’m at 3,705. My pace has slowed and I’ll have to write for another hour and a half to hit 5,000. Not sure I’ll make it. It’s almost past my bedtime already! I sent the kids up half an hour ago… I definitely don’t want to feel rough tomorrow because I’ve got to do this again!

Final update: I finished at 3,936 and went to bed. I’m actually quite happy with that number because it’s still the most I’ve written in one day since August!