Writing Log | Week 2
Day 1 — Sunday
It’s 11:13pm so I’m just planning on writing for a few minutes. I’ve got a packed week ahead of me and will ideally be getting up around 6am or so to get a head start on the day’s work.
Resuming work on Chapter 2: my female protagonist’s POV. She’s an art girlie. Less verbally emotive than the other POV, and much more visual. I find this helps me with the “show, don’t tell” adage.
Am I tired, or is my vision getting worse? I just zoomed into 125% on Scrivener when I typically have it at 100% without thinking twice.
Ending the night after about 25 minutes of work. Chapter 2 is just about perfect. I might tinker a bit more later on, but I feel comfortable leaving things here.
Total word count for Chapter 2 is at 1,084. Thinking ahead to querying… for agents that request the first 10 pages, I think they’ll get the first two full chapters, and this one ends with a hook that I’m proud of. Hopefully it lands!
Day 2 — Monday
11:38pm still counts as Monday! Quick sprint before bed, mostly looking over Chapter 3 with the male main character’s POV.
Calling it a night after about 10 minutes of concentration and 126 words I’m proud of. I’m still in the thick of figuring out how to stitch in certain edits and rework others, but tonight I enjoyed the simple task of sitting with a sentence or two that I tried to make as true as I could. Plumbing emotional depths near midnight, listening to my “Moody Writing Playlist,” remembering delicious words like “ignomy” and “ether” exist…. ah, the joys of writing.
Day 3 — Tuesday
11:27pm so I’m doing better than I was yesterday… right? In all seriousness my laptop is about to die and I’m about to fall asleep so any “writing” I’m doing tonight is going to be mostly reading Chapter 3 and scheming up ways to work in the edits I need. Writing prep is still writing.
Cut a couple hundred words already so I’m calling it a night now. A win is a win and I can’t hope for more at this hour!
Day 4 — Wednesday
I started writing something here but my laptop crashed mid-editing and it didn’t save. But I cut a few more words in Chapter 3.
Day 5 — Thursday
Slowly getting to write a bit earlier as the week progresses. This has been a busy work week for me, but I’ve looked forward to this writing time every night. It feels good to get back into a routine, even if it’s just for 10-15 minute editing sprints before bed.
Do you ever edit/review your writing in reverse? For some reason I’m finding it less intimidating to begin at the end of Chapter 3 of my manuscript and work my way “up” with these edits.
Had a “kill your darlings” moment with a line that I really liked. I’ll find a way to use it again someday. The cuts continue.
Wrapping it up after cutting about 200 words. Pretty happy with today’s progress!
Day 6 — Friday
Another short sprint before bed. Still working on chapter 3.
Day 7 — Saturday
Had a long travel day but stuck true to my routine and fit a few minutes of editing in before bed.
I’ve continued cutting more words from Chapter 3. We might be here a while, but it’s now under the 2000 word mark — I had to combine a bit of Chapter 1 with this Chapter.
Now I just need to find a time to write when I have more energy, because the rest of the changes remaining for Chapter 3 all require some serious work. I think I’ll make that my goal for this next week of writing!