In the past couple days, I’ve managed about 1300 words total. Not exactly the kind of progress I’d hoped for.
First, I must explain that I took the weekend off. It became readily apparent when I sat down to try to work Saturday that my mind wasn’t in it. I had spent eight or more hours each day that week writing or trying to write. I was tired, and I wanted to watch football and interact with my family.
Second, I’ve really struggled with the middle of this thing. I had basically 80% of the novel plotted out: the first 40% and the last 40%. There’s about 20% in the middle that’s really got me stuck. Part of it is that I’m trying to write a different kind of story than I might normally write. The 20% in the middle really focuses on the different bits.
So what does this mean for getting the novel done in ten days? It means it’s not going to happen. The first 40% took four days. The last 40%, I suspect will take four days. The 20% in the middle will probably eat an extra week unless I find my way quickly. The project won’t drag on forever, but if things go well over the next three writing days, I might be able to finish in 14 days of writing instead of ten. That’s not so bad.
My brain tends to turn to mush after going full speed for too long. Personally, I think 40% in 4 days is great.
About your middle. Is it possible to just skip it and come back to it later? If you know the ending, which is another 4 days of writing, why not just get it down to keep the motivation going?
Usually when I skip the part that slow me down, I find they’re not really needed when I come back to them anyway. Personally, I find it a great way to eliminate those soggy middles.
I thought about skipping them, but the way I write makes it really hard for me to figure out how to do it. As I write, I’m getting to know my characters, and that pretty much happens all the way through. I fear that skipping these parts would actually make things more difficult in the end as I wouldn’t have the benefit of knowing what happened between the characters.
I sort of equate it to painting a wall. Each new chapter is a layer of paint. What happens in early chapters informs and shapes what happens in later chapters just as a first coat of paint could have different effects on the later coats depending on how they are painted. It’s difficult to put a coat of paint in between two coats that are already on the wall.