So, bottom line: yes, at around 12:30 this afternoon I bounded across the 3,000-word mark in the 2010 Write Your A** Off Write-a-Thon.
I’d gotten up around 6:30am, heated water in the teakettle, sat down at my desk and by 7:30 — after incidental stuff like selecting the day’s background music — begun to write. Took a break of about ten minutes at around 9:00 or so (cup of tea #2), and another (#3) around 10:30. Did a word-count check at 12:30, and found that I’d indeed written just over the 3K target. Afterwards I tidied things up a bit, including bringing the current passage to a conclusion.
And then finally opened up the old blogging dashboard.
Because my morning writing time is pretty much the same length every weekday (90 minutes to two hours), there’s usually — usually — a fairly consistent word count each day, depending on how much revision I do. So I don’t really like to rely on word count as a measure of “success.” For one thing, good or ill, I tend to write very fast — not “write” meaning “…in a publishable sense,” obviously. But the words do pour forth. And although I’ve never had a single typing lesson, just from years and years of working with keyboards (both as a computer guy and a writer) I do type very fast, too.
(Against this latter speed you have to weigh, however, my neurotic hyper-awareness of typos and awkwardness as I commit them, causing me to back up and overtype quite a bit. (Just then, I typed wuite, braked, threw it into reverse, and replaced the w with a q before moving on.))
Still, in light of my creative frozen-ness of recent weeks, I really welcomed the WYAO Write-a-Thon’s 3K Challenge. So when I took my first break and did a quick word-count check, and saw that the odometer had rolled over to four digits, I exulted.
You take what you can get, hmm?
Anyway, if you’d like to see what I accomplished today — the start of (presumably) a short story, or possibly something longer — the first third of it is posted here. And if you want to see all the 3,100-some words, you can find them in this (74KB) PDF.
(Thanks, everyone, for your good wishes as I embarked on this mini-project!)
Mat Z. says
Congrats on hitting the 3K mark and read the first third of your dramatic piece! I did the NYCWC Writeathon too in person at the Mechanics and Tradesmen Library. It’s such a great experience and my third time doing it; I didn’t even realize til Aaron introduced things this morning that this was the first virtual one as well. Good luck to you and with your writing.
Nance says
Sounds like you had this nailed with one hand tied behind your back…so to speak. I’m off to read it! And congratulations!
DarcKnyt says
Congratulations, John! Well done! How powerful even a seemingly small goal can be. And you hit this one out of the park. Bravo!
Victories, however minor they may seem, are nevertheless victories, and in cases like this they compile into an over-arching victory for a writer who’s struggling.
I feel your pain, and I celebrate your accomplishment! *Ovation-comma-standing here!*
Miriam says
Hooray for hitting 3,000!
I only racked up 2k on Saturday, but it was enough to finish a first draft that had been resisting completion. Plus I looked through a bunch of old notes and made new ones on my next project, rewriting a novel from two years ago from scratch.
Congrats on your productive day. I’m impressed!
jules says
Congrats again!
John says
Thanks, everybody, for the congrats and good wishes!
And Miriam, congratulations right back at you! “Only” 2,000 words, in that context, certainly ought to count. :)