Self-fulfilling prophecy? Or just a realistic expectation?

Today, the writing was like drawing water from a stone. The word count number isn’t horrid at 4224, but I didn’t manage to finish Chapter 8. It’s about half done, I think.

So what was the problem? Easy. I had no idea what the meat of these chapters would be. In my outline, each of the other chapters had a few sentences describing what would happen. For these four chapters (the two for today, and the two for tomorrow), I had two sentences that described all four chapters.

When that happens, my word count goes down as I have to stop every couple hundred words and figure out what happens next. It also means I get restless. I have to walk around and think. Of course, every time I left the room, my son would regale me with details of the game Terraria.

What does this mean for the 10 day deadline?

Hopefully, it won’t mean anything. I wrote a chapter and a half today. If I manage the same tomorrow, and then two a day from then on out, I’ll still finish within 10 days. But my buffer is gone. I hope I will pick up some speed when I get back to the detailed portion of the outline.

I had a tough time today getting the words onto paper. I still finished the two chapters for the day and wrote 5132 words, but they weren’t easy.

Part of the trouble was that I didn’t sleep well last night. Another part of the trouble was that I had to adjust my outline a bit to fit the story as it evolves. In the outline, I had two chapters of material spread across three chapters, so I had to figure out how to condense them. It’s much easier when I don’t have to think about overall structure while writing.

I fully expect the next two days to be the hardest of the ten. The reason is that I have four chapters where the outline just says “Travelling: Shit Happens”. If I fail to finish the book in ten days, it will be because of these next four chapters, I’m sure.

Today was a near repeat of Day 1. Not quite as many total words, but I finished both the days chapters. At 5234 words, I’m quite happy with the production. 11005 total in two days. One nice thing about this pace is that I don’t feel worn out and I still feel super productive (so far). Talk to me in eight days to see if I still feel that way.

One mild worry I have is that some of the later chapters might run longer and that I won’t finish two in a day. I suppose that’s a risk with using chapters as a gauge instead of words, but using words seems so artificial. I hate stopping in the middle of a section.

I’m actually spending more time on the internet than I had planned, but it’s pretty much all progress posts. I’m not spending my time reading it. That’s where I lose days and weeks.

I started out a bit later than I wanted today, but it worked out alright. Between 11am and 8pm, I wrote 5770 words – two complete chapters. I took an hour out for lunch, and I took about a 10 minute break every hour or so.

The book is outlined with 19 chapters, so finishing two chapters a day will get me to the end with half a day to spare. I have a word count goal, too. 7,000 words a day. But really, that’s a guess. I don’t actually know how long the novel will be.

Is day 1 a success? I think so. I feel good about it. I could go and write some more. I have time. But I think I might just call it a day. I’ve never written that much in a single day.

Starting tomorrow morning, I am going to go internet dark for ten days, except for a couple things. I will check support email for StoryBox at the end of the day, at which time I will also update the progress bar on the new project that you can see listed to the right.

I am going to spend the next 10 days writing The Sacrifice of Mendleson Mooney. “Ten days?” you ask. “That’s crazy!” you say.

Yup, ten days. And it’s not as crazy as you think. While I’m writing, I typically average about 750 words an hour. I typically sit at my computer for ten hours a day, too. I spend a great deal of that time reading the news, answering email, talking with friends (which wastes not just my time, but my friend’s time) and reading all sorts of things about writing. I’m just wondering, what if I spent ALL that time writing? What could I get done?

There are countless writers who have written books in short periods of time. Some of the most beloved books in history were written in a near blink of an eye. I read a book recently, Afterthoughts by Lawrence Block. In it, he describes, several times, writing books in anywhere between a week and a month. I wondered if I could do that.

Combine wondering what I could get done if I just wrote with wondering if I could emulate Lawrence Block in some fashion, and I end up here, at the beginning of a challenge. Write a complete novel in ten days.

I think I can do it. I have the plot mostly fleshed out. The cast of characters is set. I know (unlike some of my other works) where this one is going. If only I can keep my kids out of my office. Ideally, I’d go to some remote location and try this, but I don’t have the money.

Here I go, head down. See you in ten days.