Day Seventy

DAY SEVENTY

(For my new readers:)

It is my hope that as you read this blog, reading the "behind-the-scenes" as it were, you not only enjoy the ride but maybe, just maybe become inspired to follow your own dreams.

Title:

Dream, Recurring

Logline:

Cynical by nature, a photographer discovers that she's haunted by a being after she starts having a recurring dream, revealing a secret that only the dead know - with the entity bent on keeping it.

(Today's Post:)

Well, I will be done with the chapter tomorrow. I've already let my editor (my amazing wife) know that the rest of the book will be coming her way. However, I told her that I will be printing out the section on Friday. Mainly because I want to make sure that the last five pages look descent. For that I always sit on it for twenty-four hours.

That works for me because it's amazing what a pause like that can do for a book.

The ending is different than the first. Even after I realized how little I'm keeping of the original.

So what is my process of the actual writing?

What I do is I write, usually just three pages each day. Then the next day I review what I just wrote for any basic editing changes and continuity before I write the next three pages.

In this way, the chapter can be written in seven days of producing. Remember each section is twenty pages in length. ("Producing" is the actual act of writing.)

So that means if I only write Monday through Friday, then those "seven days" actually means something like this:

If I begin a chapter on Monday, then next Tuesday I will be done with it and ready to go to the next one on Wednesday.

If I don't have any real breaks (besides the weekends) then a two hundred and sixty (260) page novel would normally take me about four to five months to write the first draft.

(For me I will always have thirteen chapters and twenty pages each one.)

This doesn't mean that's how it's going to look when I'm done but the thirteen sections will always be there.

It does mean though, I have a structure for which I can calculate my "production".

That to me is key for tempo. 

What does that mean for me, if I'm interested in writing a book?

Well, however you decide to write, what that should hopefully show you is that it can be done and it's performed in small stages. Don't look at the whole story everyday. Once you have your outline, refer to it when you need to but just focus on your goal for the day. Make that target small and before you realize it, you'll have your novel.

I hope you have an amazing day.

Mark