Joely Sue Burkhart

I had a nice long summary all typed up–and my stupid laptop died.  Grrr.  So this may not have as much detail as I originally planned.

Statistics:

1. 228 pages
2. 11 days
3. 20.7 pages average per day
4. lowest number of pages in one day:  10 (last Saturday)
5. greatest number of pages in one day:  27 (day 2)
6. average hours spent writing each day:  3 hours
7. typical writing schedule:  4:30 a.m. - 6:30 a.m.; 9:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.

Tactics for Success

1. Plot board — huge!  I never had to stop and think where to go next.
2. Character arc — huge!  I knew the characters’ fears, motivations, etc. which helped drive the plot
3. Writing first thing in the morning to accomplish the bulk of the work FIRST.  Otherwise, I would have been too tired after a few days.
4. Accountability:  having someone to check up on me, knowing you guys would be reading the next day, imagining how sheepish I’d feel to admit “Oh, I just slept in today.”  So I got up instead.
5. NO INTERNAL EDITOR.  No research, no stopping, no struggling with word choice.  Make a note, move on.
6. No re-reading.  I always thought I needed to read the last few pages to get into “the flow.”  This is unnecessary in Fast Draft.  The flow is THERE, all the time.  Just go!

Things that didn’t work so great:

1. I started with Chapter breaks, but quickly lost count.  Next time, I’ll only do scene (#) breaks.
2. I didn’t refer to my character list, and I forgot some of the minor names.  Oh, well, that’s easy to change!
3. The whole goal is to immerse yourself in the story.  Well, I did that–perhaps too well.  More comments on this below.
4. Dieting was pretty tough–if not impossible.  Maybe it was the early hours, or the long hours, or simply the smoking laptop keys… but I was ravenous.  I wanted different foods–proteins like eggs, cheese, peanut butter–than my diet foods.  Next time, I need to plan a little better with some food choices readily available that maybe aren’t “diet” but least somewhat healthy.

I will definitely do Fast Draft again.  It reminded me of the simple joy of writing.  The rush of finishing.  The magic of exploration.  It was hard, yes.  I got extremely tired.  The world of my story sucked me down, rolled me to the bottom of the ocean, and I did not want to do anything else.  It was very hard to stop, go to work, remember to pick up the kids from school, decide what to fix for dinner.  Simple things I do everyday, but my brain just couldn’t hold it all.

Quite honestly, I could have written the whole thing in a week.  Maybe less.  I deliberately had to distract myself, or I would have been utterly consumed.  With a EDJ (Evil Day Job) and family obligations, I just couldn’t let that happen.  I am obsessive compulsive anyway, and Fast Draft encourages you to concentrate utterly on the story.  I actually read both Patricia Briggs books in the evenings instead of using them for rewards–I needed to occupy my brain with something else, anything else.  Of course the monsters are natural distractions, too.   

Seriously, though, I really had to work at letting go for awhile.  Turning it off before I overloaded.  If I’d done a little better at balance, and getting my exercise, then my back, neck, and shoulders likely wouldn’t be screaming the last few days.

And OH, the gallons of coffee I consumed!  I am not kidding.  Next time, I think I’ll track how many cups of coffee I drink.  It will be… shocking.

So what’s my plan now?  I’m going to go through a lecture packet from Margie Lawson on Empowering Character Emotions.  Candy Havens is going to start a Revision Hell workshop toward the end of the month.  Meanwhile, I’m going to do some reading for pleasure and study, and get more submissions out the door.  I need to complete some research and brainstorming for a possible S&S22 story.  Then next month, I’ll begin serious revisions.

Oh, and Jess?  RHP is not the title.  It’s the concept, and it’s secret.  Only two people know what it stands for.  I have no idea what the title is, yet, which is pretty unusual for me.  Hopefully I’ll come up with something in revision. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everybody who cheered me on.  You made a huge difference and played a great part in my success!

You’ve accomplished something so many people try and fail, and you’ve succeeded.  You’ve written a book!

228 / 280 (81.4%)

RHP IS DONE.  8 pages tonight to wrap up the last two sections.

Obviously, this book is far from “done.”  The ending isn’t perfect at all.  I made a note to come full circle, to have some pithy tie back to the opening line of the book.  I also have a story element that only came to me a day or two ago that I want to highlight throughout the story, including the ending. 

But the bones of story are there.  I’ll do a formal write up tomorrow when I’m not so zonked, but the total counts are:

11 days

50,220 words

50 sections/scenes

And much work ahead!  Still, I never ever dreamed I could do this.  I wrote a book in less than 2 weeks.  I did a NaNoWriMo in 11 days!  And now I will go collapse into bed!

P.S.  NO, I will NOT be getting up at 4:00 a.m. tomorrow! 

You are an incredible, creative person and there’s no one who can write a story quite like you. 

220 / 280 (78.6%)

Comments:

Morning Update: I admit.  If I hadn’t known that many of you would be checking up on me this morning, I would have stayed in bed.  That’s an important component of Fast Draft.  Have accountability to someone you don’t want to let down!  Despite being up with MM last night around 1:00 a.m. for at least half an hour, I didn’t want to let you guys down, and so I dragged my arse out of bed at 4:30 a.m.

It’s a good, wonderful thing, too.  I am in the second climax of Act III already.  Once I finish this section, I only have two final resolution sections (planned, that is) to finish!  Like another 10 pages or so at most, I’d guess.  Shocking, exciting, thrilling, and man, I want to finish NOW NOW NOW, but I have EDJ to do.  Sigh.

Soon, though.  Very soon.  14 pages this morning.

Don’t let anything get in the way of your writing. (Including sleep.)

206 / 280 (73.6%)

Comments:

Evening Update:  Very close to 20 pages – 19 total — with another 6 pages tonight.  Note, however, that is 10:30 and I have to get ready for bed yet.  So 4:00 a.m. will come all too early.  Sigh.  But I’m so very, very close to the end!  That is enough to lure me onward.  I also found a very cool item via a blog entry that I made notes on this afternoon.  It fits the elements of this story very, very well and will add a neat emotional/spiritual element, I think. 

Morning Update:  Super tired, still.  It was after 10:00 p.m. again before I made it to bed.  I was so tempted to stay in bed this morning.  Ugh.  But I made it, if a little late once more.  13+ pages this morning.  Looking at my plot, I only have 5 more sections including the one I’m working on now–but I think some of those little sticky notes actually represent several sections and lots of action.  200 pages in ten days!  Still impressive.

Note that MM (middle monster) was sent home sick yesterday with pink eye — for real.  So in my two week Fast Draft, two of the three monsters have been sick.  Yay.  Life as usual.

You can’t fix a blank page.

187 / 280 (66.8%)

Comments:

Evening Update:  Only three more pages tonight, but I finished the section I was on and started another.  I’m so tired.  :yawn:  So only 16 pages today, but I’m still ahead of schedule!

Morning Update:  I almost didn’t make it this morning.  The alarm went off.  I do remember that.  But I immediately dozed back off.  Since That Man gets particularly grouchy if I dare wake him up, I don’t snooze the alarm any more.  Thankfully, I woke myself up about 20 minutes later and immediately got up.  It was a close call, though, and exactly why I set the back-up alarm for my normal wake-up time just in case.  At least we wouldn’t have been late for work and school if I hadn’t woken up again.

Since I got a late start, I only got 13 pages.  Still, not bad at all.  Less than 100 to go!  And the great thing I realized today:  my usual “dark moment” when I’m writing the dark moment didn’t happen.  Usually I hit page 290-310 of a 400-page book and just slog for days or weeks.  Fast Draft doesn’t allow that to happen. 

I thought I’d illustrate some of the magic happening via Fast Draft as I work on RHP.  I said before that this story is loosely plotted.  I knew the character arcs prior to writing a word, thanks to the Emotional Toolbox.  I knew each character’s fear, and roughly, how they would have to overcome that fear.  I knew the premise and themes.  I’m playing on chaos vs. control, finding balance vs. destruction, and the theme of “traps.”  Everybody is trapped in some fashion in this story, even the antagonist, or perhaps I should say, especially.

However, some things are only now occurring to me.  Literally, when I typed the few lines above about traps and the antagonist, I had a thought.  What if….  Aha.  My mind is off.

The whole draft has been this way.

Even when I sat down and plotted out the rest of the book last night, there are things I still didn’t know exactly how they’d unfold.  In particular, the scene I mentioned in the Dark Moment of the romance, where my heroine, Emmaline, catches the hero, Nevar, performing forbidden (to her) magicks.  On the sticky note, I had:

POV: Emmaline
Setting: Carriage House

Wakes alone. Catches Nevar doing magick. Doubt. Spy. Dark moment for the romance. Can’t love a person who–

That’s it, right down to the dash. I did not know what, exactly, he was doing, only that she would find it extremely troubling and cast their entire relationship in doubt. 

As I wrote this morning, though, the scene just came.  I saw Nevar with the bloody implement in his hand.  I saw the form the shadows took.  It was exactly what I needed, but I swear I didn’t know until that moment.

Another thing I just noticed–I kid you not.  I plotted this story out over three nights, on three poster boards.  When I finished Act I, I took it down and laid it over on my table–I did not keep them side by side.  Last night I finished up Act III and I didn’t put it up until this morning.  I decided to put them all up.  And I noticed something shocking, to me at least, especially considering I didn’t do this deliberately.  I don’t think I could have if I tried!

Act I:  8 scenes in Emmaline’s POV; 5 scenes in Nevar’s; 2 in Violet’s

Act II Part 1:  8 scenes in Emmaline’s POV; 5 scenes in Nevar’s; 3 in Violet’s

Act II Part 2 and Act III:  8 scenes in Emmaline’s POV; 5 scenes in Nevar’s; 3 in Violet’s.

*boggles*

The pattern isn’t exactly the same on each board, but the balance stuns me.  The colors look quite nice together.  Beside my story board with my inspiration pictures…. I get a big lump in my throat.  If I can find the digital camera, I’ll take a picture.  I look at this wall and see the MAGIC.

Believe in the magic, and ride the creative wave.

Break through barriers; tap into the creative wave.

171 / 280 (61.1%)

Comments:

Evening Update:  Another 7 pages tonight, mostly in Violet’s POV.  The section isn’t quite done yet.  Honestly, it’s more like 2, which messes up the lovely balance I was just bragging about.    Oh, well, it works and it’s needed!  Something Very Bad is happening, leading up to the first climax of Act III.

I must admit it’s later than I expected to stay up (after 10:00).  4:00 a.m. will be rather painful tomorrow.  I was so tired after dinner that I actually feel asleep in my green easychair while That Man watched reruns of MASH and the Andy Griffith show.  I think I snored.    Damn sinuses. 

Morning Update:  Only 13 pages today, but they were significant.  Another sex scene, followed immediately by the dark moment of the romance.  My heroine caught the hero in the midst of some very compromising black magicks.  I’ll try to work my way closer to 20 tonight, but even if I don’t, I’m pleased to get through the dark moment.  That’s always a toughy for me.  Actually the next few sections will prove challenging.  It seems more and more as though I’ll be short of 280, but I don’t really care.   

Believe in the MAGIC.

151 / 280 (53.9%)

Comments:

Evening Update:  Another 6 pages tonight, finishing Act II Part I.  24 total for the day.  Yeah!  I also plotted out the last third of the book, another 16 loose sections.  It feels short to me, so I don’t know that I’ll actually hit 280 pages or not.  I guess I’ll see by the end of next week!!!!  That’s such an awesome feeling.  Even aching fingers and no F key can’t suppress that growing joy I feel at the thought of having a finished first draft very soon.

My mind is also working on the next two projects.  Just stewing at this point.  Percolating.    

Afternoon Update:  Cheers — I reached the half-way mark!  15 pages while the monsters napped.  I’m in the last section of Act II Part I.  For the curious:

Act I:  15 sections

Act II Part I:  17 sections.

I’ll be plotting out Part II tonight.  Woo-hoo, the dark moment is just around the corner! 

Morning Update:  3 pages before church.  I planned to get up even earlier, but I was a little lazy with the time change and all.  No work calls last night, though, which was good. 

Way back about a hundred years ago, I worked 4-9 p.m. after class as a transcriptionist for a local insurance company, typing up accident reports.  I was already a fast typist prior to the job, but the keys were so stiff on the work computers, it really built up my typing muscles.  For weeks, though, my fingers just ached.  When we were all typing, it sounded like a herd of horses in the room.

I mention this because my fingers are aching again.    While I’m on the computer all day for work and then my writing on top of that, I guess I’ve never pushed them as hard until this past week.  Motrin is helping, and I’m hoping I’ll build up those muscles again.

Oh, and it’s amazing how much I used the “F” key in the past and didn’t even notice—-until I broke off the letter on my laptop.  Groans.  I can still get “F” to work, but I have to hit the little round button perfectly. It’s always something!!!

Tell your friends and family (and your blog friends) that you love them….and you’ll see them in two weeks!

127 / 280 (45.4%)

Comments:  Obviously telling my three monsters I’ll see them in two weeks isn’t possible.  Also, my Dad visited today, as well as Uncle J and Aunt BB.  I also spent at least one lovely hour on the phone with my Beloved Sis. So I can only claim 10 pages today.  Still, not bad considering.  I’m also out of plot!  On my plot board, that is.  I know what the next big event is and I already started working toward it.  One of the first things I need to do tomorrow afternoon, though, is get the end of Act II finalized.

I also have a new vice.  Reindeer Nibblers (chocolate covered espresso beans from Caribou).  Yummy.  I’ve got a caffeine buzz like you wouldn’t believe.    I also slept in this morning, so I’m pretty rested.  As long as I don’t get any calls on the EDJ tonight when the time changes…..

You deserve this, and no one can keep you from achieving your goals.

117 / 280 (41.8%)

Comments:

Morning Update:  My cable was down until mid morning today, which is maybe a good thing.    I got 24 pages this morning.  The first sex scene.  I lost 3 sections, though, so I’m pretty darned close to the last plotted section!  Ack!  So I’ll be plotting some more tonight, trying to figure out the nice big mess turning point to head into the dark moment.  Shockingly, it’s not that far away.

Oh, and anybody who bet one of the monsters wouldn’t get sick this week–lost.  LM, the baby, got sent home from daycare yesterday with “pink eye” which I didn’t believe, although she was obviously very congested.  That Man took her to the doctor for me today, and she has very bad ear and sinus infection.  No fever or anything–but the doctor said it was so bad her eardrum was ready to perforate.  Poor kid!  If this had been the middle monster (MM) she’d be deathly ill, throwing up left and right, and burning up. I never want to clean up puke or worry about fevers, but at least then I would have suspected something was up before her eyes got a little gunky.

This is a commitment you’re making as a writer.  A real writer.

93 / 280 (33.2%)

Comments:

Morning Update:  My cable connection is down this morning, so I’ll make this brief.  I’ll likely mess up this entry too.  For some reason my Word Press posts get wonky when I use dialup.

19 pages this morning, finishing section 020.  First kiss this morning, followed by more doubts and conflict between the hero and heroine.  It can’t be easy.    I’d really love to break 100 pages tonight.  We’ll see….

No self editing allowed.

72 / 280 (25.7%)

Evening Update:  Another 5 pages tonight, finishing Act I.  I’m tickled that the size is right on target–25% for Act I.  I also sat down tonight and plotted out most of Act II Part I — the next three blocks.  I need another 2 sections or so at the end, but I was losing my train of thought, my feeling for where I needed to go, so I didn’t force it.

I continued the ghost thing today as if it’d always been there.    I like it.  I’m using it as a sort of red herring, along with the other possible antagonist who’s in cahoots with the real antagonist, who’s completely off stage.  So you think.    Oh, I don’t know if any of this is making sense.  What I’ve learned so far is I’m in this flow, as Anna said. I’m in the zone.  It’s hard to climb up out of that gorge and go about my daily business.  I’m writing on a different level, even for the EDJ.  I’m not saying terrific writing–just different.  Faster.  Shorter.  I can’t type fast enough for my brain.  I also tend to curse just a little bit more for some reason.  Since I had to type up my annual status report for the EDJ job today, that was rather challenging.  I used phrases I don’t typically use–or would use only with intimate friends.  It just comes.  But so does the Story, and that’s a good thing.

My temper is also short.  I’m not able to tolerate noise, and anyone who knows my three monsters knows that I’m popping Excedrin left and right.  I think that’s sleep deprivation.  Although I’m getting 6 hours or so of sleep each night, it doesn’t feel like enough.  I’m also STARVING, which makes dieting extremely hard.  Maybe it’s getting up so early; maybe it’s my brain working so hard and fast.  Whatever, I could eat a horse.  Literally–I want meat and protein (peanut butter) neither of which I’m supposed to eat.

Well, I’ve blathered enough.  Excellent progress.  I’m trying to bank a few pages because I have no idea how this weekend will go.  With the change in Daylight Savings Time this weekend, I’m on call for work.  Hopefully it will go without a hitch.  But man, is getting up next week at 4:00 a.m. going to be a bitch! 

Morning Update:  19 pages plus a few lines this morning.  I’m in the final section before the end of Act I where my heroine must accept the Call and officially cross the first threshold.  I’m not sure exactly what happens next…. So I’ll be plotting tonight!

I had two interesting ideas/thoughts yesterday.  I had to severely resist my desire to go back and edit to make the first thought happen.  But that’s not part of Fast Draft. If I’m going to embrace the magic, I have to make a note and move on, carrying that element forward like it always existed.  So I made a note in my notebook and did just that.  It was hard.  Harder than I expected.  The perfectionist in me couldn’t bear to just change this thing and leave the first sections… incorrect.  I can fix them later, though.

The other thing will only require the hint of a thread dropped into the existing sections, and I think it adds a neat Gothic twist to what I’m doing.  Ghosts are good.    Or maybe it was simply the addition of Llewellyn’s Ghost album to my soundtrack yesterday.