GET YOUR WORDS OUT... the game plan for 300,000 words in a year

[paragraphs]

Word Count:

I calculate that to accomplish my goal of 300,000 words by December 31, 2009, I will need to write 6,000 words a week. I will not set down 'so many words a day' because my brain doesn't work that way. Instead, I will set down 'a chapter a week.' The two years I wrote well over 400,000 each, I wrote from 8-10k a week. Random checking of several chapters of Red put each chapter in that general vicinity. I know there were weeks I skipped, and at the end, I took a month or so off before getting back to it again (because I'd written myself into a wall by making my POV character unconscious! OH NOES!!!!). It took me 9 months to write Red, which was almost 300,000 by itself. Therefore, I know that a goal of 6,000 words/a chapter a week is absolutely doable.

There will be two weeks that I will not be writing--when I am visiting Nick. I will not take my laptop. No need and I refuse to tote one around. Besides, I'll be staying in Kiel at his flat and he'll have the burnt-one back and I can use that. So for those two weeks, well, I will just have to make them up on down the road somewhere.

The Stories:

1. Wolfhunter (working title). Contemporary fantasy. Can't call it urban, frankly, because it is not set in an urban environment but in the mountains of Colorado. (Second choice for location--Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory...a friend lives there, could provide a great deal of marvelous info...the photos from her home are just absolutely stunning. But, unlike Durango area, I've never been there, and it is unlikely I will ever get there. So, maybe. Quite possibly will end up creating fictional town anyway...) I am 11,000 into the story at this point. Probably will add to the count before hitting January 1, and that is fine...will count from that point forward. Goal: 120,000 words

2. Vampire kit (working title). This idea refuses to leave me alone, so I am succumbing to it. Still no plot, but am reading The Vampire Omnibus which is helping me prepare. I do know the basic premise, but beyond that, I don't know. This may be a sequel to 1. Probably smart to do that. My first inclination was to set in the 1850's, but I am wary of writing a historical. I think it far smarter to continue with these characters. Goal: 120,000 words

3. _________. Undecided. Lee's story? Maybe. Depends, I think, on what happens with WU which my editor has now, and the story I am buffing up a bit. If both sell, then yes, likely 3. will be Lee's story. If something goes awry, and 1. and 2. come through as solid stories that I am happy with, 3. may be a third installment, storyline unknown. Regardless, 120,000 words.

That's a hell of a lot of writing. But, for me, these stories are must-do's. I am so disappointed in what I've accomplished--or rather not--these last few years. I had reached the point of not being sure I even wanted to continue writing. My skills have deteriorated. It is hard, very hard to stomach this truth, but it should be no surprise, either. I am rusty, horribly rusty. I have lost a lot of quickness and drive. Cleverness is dulled, and my passion for writing is tainted by a cynicism that, if I let it, could completely destroy any chance I might have to bring my writing and creativity up to par once again.

GWYO is the chance to get back on track. A solid year of solid writing...by the end of it, maybe, just maybe, I'll feel like a writer again, that my work is worth sending out again. My goal would be for 2010 to be the year of the agent hunt--to have 2-3 in one series would be ideal indeed.

To fail to reach my goal will be a clear sign to me that I should perhaps consider other things besides writing.

C

Comments

[paragraphs.livejournal.com]

Yup.

Be afraid, Anthony Cardno, be very afraid.

(C was going to write something here about polishing something, but was afraid it would be misconstrued as, well, Dominatrix in nature)

[talekyn.livejournal.com]

Now I AM afraid!