Steady progress

[vaneramos]

Normally at home I wake restless with my mind on things I need to do. During the past several weeks, the novel has exacerbated that. This morning I woke unusually peaceful, with no anxiety about getting out of bed. I remembered that Danny will be here in a few hours, and I savoured that thought. It was bliss. I thought of a few things I want to do to get ready for his visit, but felt no pressure, only contentment.

It was like afterglow. Finishing the novel was a giant mind orgasm. I used self-imposed pressure to achieve a cherished goal, but it turned my mind to pulp.

My writing process needs some analysis. Fortunately I used Excel to record my work through the month.



I made remarkably steady progress through the month (that level spot represents the weekend when my daughters visited). The main reason for this consistency was the moral support of LJ friends and others who I told about the project. So I'm a sucker for attention. Rather than worry about the psychological causes and implications of that, I need to figure out how to make it work for me as a writer, and how to continue working when it isn't immediately available.

Another important point from my analysis is that I spent only 64 hours of concentrated time writing. If I only count the 22 days in which I worked, that averages out to three hours a day, which is easily manageable. If I gave myself a more civilized timeline of two or three months, I should be able to complete new novels on a regular basis.

I'm annoyed by the fact that I accomplished little else during the month of November. Many days I spend hours dancing around the work at hand, not getting down to it. This avoidance typifies my life.

But the most important thing is that completing this project represented an important step forward. I have been trying to write novels all my life. I finally finished one. This is wonderful.

Comments

[rsc.livejournal.com]

That's pretty impressive, I would expect that much of the stress (and rest-of-life-neglect) comes from the highly artificial one-month deadline. Presumably your future writing won't be done in this mode, for the most part. While it's probably good to have some sort of deadline (I've always found that I'm much more likely to complete projects if there's a "due date", even if it's self-imposed), it's probably even better to have a realistic one.

Since I've been out of town and using other people's computers for the last week, I haven't taken the time to read anything beyond about Chapter 19. I'm looking forward to finishing it after I get home.

[quirkstreet.livejournal.com]

It's great you got it done. That's wonderful. I can also hear how it might make the rest of life a wee bit precarious. :) Have big snuggles with the fume-escaping cub!

[lotuspoet.livejournal.com]

That's awsome! You have achieved so much in a month. You are a very dedicated writer :)

[blue-by-you.livejournal.com]

I am amazed and delighted for you, Van. That is just so damned cool. Congratulations!

[ruralrob.livejournal.com]

This is excellent stuff. The warm and fuzzies now are worth, I'm sure all the stress of the last month. And the next one will be so much easier . . .

[daddy-o.livejournal.com]

Okay, I keep starting a comment, and getting brain-farty and deciding to come back later, and thinking all the while that I've already congratulated you.

I don't know what else it was I wanted to say, but I definitely wanted to say: good job!

[art-thirst.livejournal.com]

I wonder if something like this might help me with some writing I've started and never finished. How does is work? I have Excel but never use it.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Yes, the deadline was "highly artificial." I'm pleased that it worked for me, in motivating me to finish a project. I'm planning to write another book on a different timeline after New Years.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I don't really know Excel. This came from an application I downloaded specifically for tracking my progress on NaNoWriMo.