Well, I made my goal -- and then some! I was hoping to get about 15,000 words done and finished with 18,602. I was aiming for seven scenes and wrote ten. I could really get into the no-revising-till-I'm-done-the-draft concept. It was quite liberating and I have to say, I was amazed at the free time this method gave me. Yep, I wrote two full scenes a day and actually wound up spending less time working. How did that happen?
When I was finished the second scene, I stopped. I didn't go back and revise. I made a few notes, but that was it. Indeed, I didn't spend any time revising, except maybe to go back and add something in the scene I was currently working on.
I didn't stop to look anything up or find a name if I realized I needed one. I just used a place holder, like WHATEVER.
When I sat down to start writing, I read only the little "running start" I'd written the day before -- no going back and re-reading the entire previous scene.
I'm sure there will be things I want and need to cut and seriously revise in these scenes, but giving myself permission to put that off until later? Wow.
The other thing to bear in mind, though, is that this was the start of a project. Not the middle. Not the end. I think that makes a big difference, because the middle is the really tough part of writing a book. That said, I'm interested to see what kind of beginning I've got, and just how much will get cut and/or moved around. I'm fairly certain a lot of the first two scenes will bite the dust, at least. That's normal for me, though.
Do I think my JaStoWriWee experiment was a success?
Yes.
Would I do it again?
Yes. Definitely, at least for a week. I'm not sure about doing it for a whole month, though. I have written at that rate (and greater) but it was under duress. At the time, I put my unhappy state of mind down to stress, but I've since decided I simply can't push my imagination at that pace and be happy. Also, I didn't have any other obligations this week. I don't have a month without any obligations.
But if I get the chance to have another week like this? I'll take it!
2 comments:
Wow! That's awesome progress. Congrats! I'm going on vacation in 2 weeks and will be doing this, too. I hope I can stick with it.
Good luck! It was fun, as well as an interesting process. I'll be blogging the final analysis (as in, was this a good idea or not) later in the week after I've done some revising.
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