NovelTrack: The 31 day, 50,000 word push

Here we are, the first full week of 2011 safely tucked under our belts.

January is ACFW's NovelTrack-Writing Month (one of four, the others being April, July and October). The goal is to set a specific word count goal and report it, so that you are accountable to others for reaching your goal. The point is to help you as a writer push away your inner editor, your distractions, and just write. Each participant can set their own word count goal. 10,000 or 50,000, the choice is yours.

I chose an intentionally difficult word count, at 50,000 words.

Your first thought might be, "Are you nuts?" (hey, it's a fair statement. That was my first thought to myself!)

After all, I'm trying to juggle a full time job, church commitments, and the mundanes of daily living along with all this writing time. And pushing myself for 50,000 words hardly seems in keeping with my 2011 goal of being "Rested, not ragged," as I was for most of 2010.

But I have been feeling for a few months now that the time had come to push myself--hard--with my writing.

Why?

Well there may be underlying reasons that even I don't understand yet. But I've been thinking a lot about the process of writing my first novel, which took six years. Yep. Six. Too long.

Worse, probably the first 3 years of that time was spent writing my first draft, on again, off again. WIth many chances for the flow of the story to grow cold and have to be re-ignited again. I'm not talking about my passion for the story---that burned bright throughout. But having a passion for your story is not the same as keeping the nitty gritty detail of it burning in the forefront of your mind for 36 months.

I believe it was a mistake to allow myself to drag the first draft out for that long, and I do not want to make the same mistake with my 2nd novel. Whether in years or months, my first drafts are always going to be messy and need re-writing, so to me, it is better to hammer it out over a handful of months.

So how does that 50,000 word count goal shake out on a daily basis?

I will write 6 days a week. That gives me 26 days in January, divided by 50,000 is roughly 1,925 words a day. So by the close of January 8th, I should be at 13,475 words.

Actual? I'm 2,965 words behind, my word count standing for the moment at 10,510 words.

But still, not bad for my very first week of beginning to instill the habit of daily writing. Especially good considering I've been very much under the weather all week.

And today (Jan. 8th) was one of the best writing days I've had in a long, long time. It's hard when writing to totally disconnect from the mundane cares of everyday life and totally immerse yourself in your fictional world. But today I was able to do that for a good chunk of time and it felt wonderful!

That totally immersed and absorbed feeling of disappearing into that fictional world is one of the chief benefits of being a writer, aka escape artist.

I hope for many more such escape artist days during the month of January and beyond.

May your writing and your lives be blessed in 2011.

Writing A Novel In Cycles

ACFW's NovelTrack has inspired me. This program launched in July of this year. It is similar to Nanowrimo. The idea is that four times a year, writers are encouraged to sign up with a word count goal for that month then have at it.

I did it for the first time in October. And came close to achieving my word count goal (a family crisis shaved off the tail-end of my goal). As I was looking at the NovelTrack calendar and my own previous years' writing statistics, I discovered something interesting. NovelTrack's writing months are January, April, July, and October. What I learned is that these are statistically my most productive writing months of the year (2010 being an exception b/c it was filled with low productivity as a whole).

I've also been thinking about what I learned about the novel writing process of my first manuscript (which I just finished after six years). One of the things I feel very strongly about is that while it may be okay to take a few years to complete a manuscript, for me it was detrimental to take so long to complete the first draft. With my first novel, there would be lapses of month between spurts of first drafting the manuscript--probably over the course of a couple years.

I would like to try a different tack in 2011. Couple that with the fact that I have felt a very strong urge to push myself hard next year on my writing, and you have a new writing action plan for 2011. I don't know if it will work or not. I only know my previous method wasn't the most ideal.

As mentioned, NovelTrack-Writing occurs in January, April, July and October. NovelTrack-Editing (setting goals for editing your manuscript) will occur during the months of March, June, September, and December.

I also have to allow huge amounts of time for research PLUS I want there to be a gap of time between when I write and when I pick it up again to edit.

So, here's my action plan for 2011:

WRITING:-----RESEARCH:----EDITING:
January----------February----------March
April--------------May---------------June
July---------------August------------September
October-----------November--------December

What that means is I have structure for my goals and will cycle through the process of write/research/edit four times next year.

Hopefully, that will equate to a better first draft, and enough time between tasks to keep the story fresh and alive to me and to prevent me from stagnating on one thing as I am so often bound to do.

I'm planning a high monthly word count goal and it's going to be extremely difficult, especially given the magnitude of the stress level at work these days. But I think I need to push hard, in more ways than one, to make it to the next level as a writer.

I'm looking forward to the writing possibilities for 2011. And I pray that cycling through the manuscript in this way which shave a few years off my time to completion. Guess we'll find out about this time next year. 8-)

Just Hours Away From the ACFW Awards Banquet

The ACFW Awards Banquet is about 8 hours away as I write this blog post. Tonight I, along with several other finalists in the Genesis contest, will be waiting to hear who are the winners and runner ups in our various categories. We will also look forward to hearing other winners, such as Editor of the Year, Mentor of the Year, and the Carol Award winners.

As I think back over the days since March when I submitted my Genesis entry and all that has happened in life in the ensuing six months, I can't help but think of Lonesome Dove. Because I feel like what Call must have felt like when he made the arduous trail drive all the way up to Montana then back to Texas again with Gus's body.

It has been heaven. And it has been hell.

I have some things to share about that journey that I will post this week.

I had not intended to stand by waiting for word on progression of the awards ceremony tonight. But since learning recently that they would do a live blog of the event, I decided to make a tasty dinner, pull up a tall cold one of Diet Cherry Dr Pepper, and settle in to watch things roll out.

I picked a couple names in my Genesis category that I think might win (No, not picking my own name. Of my many sins, fortunately arrogance isn't usually one of them). They are all strong contenders but I'm anxious to see if I'm on the mark or not with my picks. I will know in 8-10 hours. 8-)

In the meantime, there is much normal life to occupy me. Once I get home from church, I've got a sink full of dishes to wash, chili to make for the upcoming week's meals, and some hamburgers to grill on the George tonight while I "watch" the ceremony. I'm looking forward to hearing results one way or another.

God bless all the entrants.