Halfway through my current project!

Lit.Lass

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First time posting in Goals and Accomplishments. Hopefully I'm doing this right.

I'm going to start with accomplishments because...

:hooray: Today I finished the midpoint chapter of the novel I'm working on. :hooray:

I figure this is a nice milestone to celebrate on here. I have a lot of things to be grateful for. The process is feeling good right now. Getting into a flow state has been easier than usual. My stats are looking good. I don’t feel like my prose is terrible. (Not that I think it's brilliant or anything.) I'm getting high daily word counts (high for me). I'm feeling excited about the overall project--where it's going and where it's been.

This is not always how I feel.

A few chapters back, I had some terrible days. I was feeling hopeless and lost. But I was able to recover from that faster than in previous circumstances. This also feels like a huge accomplishment.

I feel like I'm really growing.

Here's a comparison between stats for my last project and my current project:

Project 1 (completed draft)Project 2 (incomplete draft)
Total words:6223439342
Total days elapsed:13845
Total writing days:5137
Total non-writing days:878
All-day average words:451874
Writing day average words:12201063
1 day max words:24652090

All but the last two stats got better this go-round. I'm most proud of the difference in non-writing days! And my all-day average (the stat I'm purposefully working on) has almost doubled. I'm so grateful that I've been able to find my way to this point.

My original total word count goal for the project was 60K. Looks likely that it will bloat to 80K. But I'm just taking that in stride and accepting that projections are often wrong.

My goals going forward:

  • Write minimum 30 minutes/300 words every day. Ideally 60 minutes.
  • Finish before the end of the year. Ideally before the end of November.

In case any of this might be helpful I'll list out some of the strategies that are working for me:

Focusing on my all-day average.
I'm defining "all-day average" as the average words for all days (including days I don't write at all) between the beginning and end of the draft. On the previous project I focused only on maximizing my words on writing days. I think either strategy can be fine, but this has been really working for me.

Timed writing sessions.
Focusing on time spent writing instead of on words has been productive for me. I've noticed that when the timer is running I get a nice motivation and focus boost.

Super low daily minimums.
My objective started out at minimum 300 words a day. Now it's a minimum of one 30-minute writing session daily (which often equates to 300 words). It's basically always possible to find 30 minutes in my day. That's the objective with goal setting I think: to create a goal that's small enough that you almost have to succeed. And hey, 300 words x 365 days = 109K!

Working with an outline.
This has really been surprising me because it's very new and (in the past) outlines have been my kryptonite. But for me, at this moment in my life, the outline is really working.

Managing my emotions about my writing.
I've had some really bad days when I realized that a scene or a plan for a scene was "broken" or not working. This honestly feels so grim and scary when it happens. But I'm learning that the problem isn't the broken outline/scene. The problem is the ensuing melt down. I'm figuring out how to keep problems in perspective, work through them, and just keep going. This sounds obvious as I type it but it has been a real struggle.

This last strat is a big one. I remember pretty clearly the moments on my last project when I felt like my story was broken. I remember freaking out and feeling terrible and shrinking away from the project. And I can see the consequences in my spreadsheet! I went sometimes as long as a month without writing just because I let that feeling take hold of me.

Looking at problems as mundane and ordinary has been huge for me.
 

DanielSTJ

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Hey! Congrats.

I like how you included your strategies and insights. Good show!

Again, congratulations! :)
 

leomatthewadams

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Congratulations! I have kind of dropped the ball on my latest writing project, so I need to try and get back to it as soon as possible. What tips do you have for someone like me that wants to get back into the swing of things after taking a break from writing? I may use your results as a template for my own goals – thanks for the idea!
 

Lit.Lass

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I finished my draft. Woo. Why don't I feel that excited about this? Literary post partum?

As I came into the home stretch I got pretty blue about my story--feeling like it's not good at all. And I managed to get my butt in the chair and finish it, but it was pretty disheartening.

Maybe I should get me to another board to talk out my feelings. I am glad that it's finished. It being finished means I can start something new. But it was pretty hard going in the end there.



Congratulations! I have kind of dropped the ball on my latest writing project, so I need to try and get back to it as soon as possible. What tips do you have for someone like me that wants to get back into the swing of things after taking a break from writing? I may use your results as a template for my own goals – thanks for the idea!

Hey, leomatthewadams! Sorry I didn't see your message for so long.

I think the most important thing is thinking small when it comes to the day-to-day slog. For me this is 300 words/30 min. That's just a minimum, so I can write more if I want. (Most days I do write more.) I just don't require more out of myself. I've noticed that if I raise my minimum, I start to miss more and more days. If my minimum is low and I miss a day, it's easier to talk myself into sitting down to write the next day because I know it's no big deal--just 30 minutes!

If I set the bar lower than that, I don't feel like I ever get into the "flow" of writing and I think that's an important part of sticking with it. Feeling like words are flowing is so rewarding. It might not happen every day, but it never happens for me at less than 300 words.

So I'd say pick the smallest number of words/minutes that makes sense to you based on your own process, set that as your minimum, and never raise the minimum no matter how good things get going.

Setting your target low is something I've learned from reading about behavior science. (I'm not a scientist, by any means. Just a reader.)

Atomic Habits is an excellent book on behavior change. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0735211299/?tag=absowrit-20

But even just B.J. Fogg's TED talks about "tiny habits" really helped me to start deliberately changing my behavior.

Another thing that has helped me out a lot recently is the "never miss twice" rule which I think I picked up in Atomic Habits. The idea is allowing yourself to miss a day occasionally but to never miss two days in a row.

As I got to the last "act" of my manuscript over the past few weeks, I started feeling like the whole thing is a giant tire fire--which is of course hyperbole, catastrophizing, whathaveyou but it's how I felt. I missed a lot of days out of sadness and ennui. :( (I threw away the outline for an entire chapter and the epilogue. Just NOPE!) But I didn't miss two days in a row. I finished it even if it is a giant tire fire that will never see the light of day.

I guess that one could debate the merits of completing a tire fire of a novel. I'd argue that finishing the draft, even if it's terrible, is the best route because it signals to your brain that you are some one who finishes novel-length manuscripts. (A lot of behavior science is about sending good signals to your brain.)



Anywho... Hooray but also meh. I kinda feel like crap right now.
 

DanielSTJ

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Congratulations on completing your manuscript, LitLass! Good luck editing and submitting! :)