Lessons From the Treadmill

We have a new exercise device at home, joining the stationary bike and a few free weights. I’ve been using the treadmill to walk for 30 minutes a day, five days a week for a couple of months now. And as I push to the end of a first draft at Camp NaNoWriMo, I realize how much overlap there is between the two activities.

They are very different as well, of course. Writing is mostly mental, with little physical activity at all; walking is pretty much all physical. Writing is about connections with other people; walking is (for me, at least), solitary. Writing is work, but also pleasurable (well, mostly–see below); walking (for me, at least) is NO FUN AT ALL.

But I’m going to make it to 50,000 words by the end of the month, winning Camp. I’m going to keep going for a week or two past that point to get the whole draft down (estimated at 60,000-80,000 words). I’ve never before finished such a big project all on my own in such a short time. And yesterday, as I huffed and puffed through my exercise, I realized one thing about how I did it.

I am a planner. I’m such a planner I plan my planning. I know it’s not for everyone, but for me, it works. Before I July 1 I already had a spreadsheet for calculating my daily word count and my cumulative word count, and comparing those numbers with what I needed to meet the goal of 50,000 words by July 31. Each morning I sat down knowing that I needed to write 1,613 words that day. Some days it went fairly smoothly (my highest daily word count was 2,861 words, on July 8 – I told you I’m compulsive about keeping track). Other days it was much more difficult, and I realized there were two different kinds of difficult days.

Some days there was just too much else going on to devote the kind of time I needed to reach my word goal. For example, my lowest day was only 685 words, and that was a day that involved 4 hours of travel and unpacking when we got home. This, I realized, was like those logistically complicated days when I just never got onto the treadmill at all. Some days that happens. You just have to allow for them and keep going. All told, there have been six days so far in July when I missed my goal by more than a few dozen words.

Other days, though, it’s just plain hard. I’m facing a scene that I haven’t fully imagined yet. I struggle to figure out what’s going on. People start out over here,doing this, and suddenly I realize they need to be over there doing that. I type, I erase, I copy text and move it around to new places. I switch dialogue and actions from one person to another, which means it has to be rewritten to fit the new character. I’ve been at it for an hour and I’ve added 78 words to my total. I hate it. The book stinks. What made me think I can do this? I want to stop.

That is exactly what my time on the treadmill is like every single day. I am not the kind of person who enjoys physical activity. If they invent a pill that keeps people healthy without exercise I will never move again. But based on several consistent research studies, I’ve set myself a goal of 30 minutes of fairly brisk walking five days a week, and once I get on the machine I do not stop until my 30 minutes are up. I’m still compulsive about numbers (I’m at 19:30 – that’s 65% done!) and the mantra “I hate this, I hate this” keeps running through my head, but until 30 minutes are up I don’t stop.

So on some of my most painful days, I just keep checking my word count and I just don’t stop. I can break it up, allowing myself to take a breather when I hit 600 words, then again at 1,200 words, and then it’s an “easy” 413 before I can quit. But when I find the litany playing in my head, I just think of the treadmill and just keep going.

And like the old joke about hitting yourself on the head with a hammer–it feels really good when I’m done.

Do you ever have days like that? What do you do to keep yourself motivated and moving forward to your goal, whether it’s word count or something else? Share your experiences.

Starting Camp: #IWSG

Time for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group, dedicated to helping out insecure writers around the world. This month the event is hosted by Charity Bradford, S.A. Larsen, AJ,Tamara Narayan, Allison Gammons, and Tanya Miranda!. Many thanks to the cohosts!

I have an obvious insecurity to report on today: Camp NaNoWriMo has begun! I’m only about 500 words in so far, and I’m nervous – I need to more than triple that number each day. Can I do it? We will have to see.

My big problem is tweaking. I wrote 550 words in about a half hour last night (starting right at midnight), then spent more than an hour this morning revising them. I know I have to just keep going. But it’s the opening! It’s the most important part of the book! It will determine whether a reader keeps going, or not!

Too bad! Just keep going.

But I changed the scene a little – it’s happening slightly later than it originally was. That change will affect what comes next, so of course I had to go through and make the change, or I can’t go forward.

Man, this is the main thing I have to fix.

Just. Keep Going.

Does anyone else have this problem?

MyNoWriMo Step 9: Ending

As expected, this was easier. I always knew where this was going.

I’m still following Janice Hardy’s blog for a plan for preparing for Camp NaNoWriMo in July, in less than a week! I’ve spent a week or so tightening up some details. I also went back and undid some of what I had done in the middle. I was trying to add more twists and complications to stretch out the first half of the middle (the section leading up to the midpoint-reversal); I wrote a post about what I was trying to do, which you can read here if you want. But everything just seemed forced. None of it passed the crucial test: if I took it out, it had no effect on the rest of the story. So, it’s gone! I’ve saved all those ideas (never delete anything for good, that’s my motto), but the actual outline I’ll be following is just short in that area. So sue me. I can go back after the first draft and fill in if need be, but for now I’m sticking with my first vision.

Progress so far:

• 3/1/15: Set the goal (a full 50,000-word draft, or half a novel?) – On time
• 3/8/15: Develop my one-sentence pitch line – Early
• 3/22/15: Establish major set pieces/beats – On time
• 4/12/15: Develop a rough synopsis – On time
• 5/3/15: Complete a rough outline or scene sketch – On time
• 5/17/15: Map out each character’s story line – Late 😦
• 5/31/15: Plan the beginning of the novel, from opening scene to first major turn – Early
• 6/14/15: Plan the middle of the novel, including all the twists and complications leading to the ending – On time
• 6/28/15: Plan the ending of the novel, including the climax and the final resolution – Early
• 6/30/15: Get all my logistics in place (word-count log, file formats, backups, and so on)

MyNoWriMo Step 7: Beginning

  How do I begin?

Following the plan suggested in Janice Hardy’s blog, I’ve planned out the eight chapters that will be Act 1 of my novel: the novel’s beginning. Her ideas helped me make sure I’m hitting all the marks as I lead up to the big, complicated structure that is the middle part of the story. I had done a lot of this work before when I sketched out chapters and scenes, so it went pretty quickly. So I finished early, which is good – I think the middle is going to take me extra time to get organized. Starting now!

Progress so far:

• 3/1/15: Set the goal (a full 50,000-word draft, or half a novel?) – On time
• 3/8/15: Develop my one-sentence pitch line – Early
• 3/22/15: Establish major set pieces/beats – On time
• 4/12/15: Develop a rough synopsis – On time
• 5/3/15: Complete a rough outline or scene sketch – On time
• 5/17/15: Map out each character’s story line – Late 😦
• 5/31/15: Plan the beginning of the novel, from opening scene to first major turn – Early
• 6/14/15: Plan the middle of the novel, including all the twists and complications leading to the ending
• 6/28/15: Plan the ending of the novel, including the climax and the final resolution
• 6/30/15: Get all my logistics in place (word-count log, file formats, backups, and so on)

NaNoWriMo Step 6: Characters

   Character Arcs

Better late, I guess. I’ve gone through and mapped out the story lines for five characters (all the major ones except for the main character, who’s so thoroughly mapped by now she doesn’t need it). It was a useful exercise, since it tightened my story by eliminating a character who didn’t have much to do and was turning into an unconvincing romantic interest. As a result I’ll have to restructure some of the scenes/chapters I’ve laid out, but that will be happening in the next month as I plan the beginning, middle, and end of my novel. I’m expecting to be able to spend more time on these tasks since classes are now done and final grades will be submitted by the end of this week. So although I missed this deadline by a few days I consider myself still on track.

Part of coming to live more and more deeply inside my story was creating a cover for the book. I am SO not a designer, and I have not the slightest belief that, should I be lucky enough to get published, the final cover design will resemble this in any way. Still, having a picture like this to look at helps me see the story as real. It’s the same reason I have spent hours scouring the webz for images of people who look like my characters: I can look at them while I write about them. So anyway, for your enjoyment and delight, I present the first look at what is sure to be nothing at all like the eventual cover of my book:

What do you think? I have to admit that dropping my name on there was a little bit of an emotional moment for me.

Progress so far:

• 3/1/15: Set the goal (a full 50,000-word draft, or half a novel?) – On time
• 3/8/15: Develop my one-sentence pitch line – Early
• 3/22/15: Establish major set pieces/beats – On time
• 4/12/15: Develop a rough synopsis – On time
• 5/3/15: Complete a rough outline or scene sketch – On time
• 5/17/15: Map out each character’s story line – Late 😦
• 5/31/15: Plan the beginning of the novel, from opening scene to first major turn
• 6/14/15: Plan the middle of the novel, including all the twists and complications leading to the ending
• 6/28/15: Plan the ending of the novel, including the climax and the final resolution
• 6/30/15: Get all my logistics in place (word-count log, file formats, backups, and so on)

MyNoWriMo Step 5: Scenes

  Scene Sketches

I made it through the whole book, sketching out all the scenes from opening to The End. I’m pretty happy with the shape of the novel so far, but I can already see places where things need to be tightened up and moved around a little. I’m counting this as a completed step, on time, even though it will spill over a little into the next step. I figure I’ve still got more planning done than all my no-pants colleagues have, so I can relax a little if it’s not as completely complete as it might be. I keep telling myself that.

What’s that? Did I hear someone say “compulsive”?

Okay, I accept that, and I’m not ashamed of the compulsive person I am. I embrace my compulsiveness. I think it works for me!

I’m making good progress on my march up to my July NoWriMo. I have decided to make a detour, though, by changing what the next deadline is going to be about. I’m not moving it, just changing the target. Originally it was to complete an “idea bank” wherein I tossed all the ideas I have for setting, dialogue, jokes, tender bits, or other toothsome morsels that I don’t want to forget. Frankly, the way I did the scenes, that’s already there. My scene summaries frequently stretch onto two pages, including everything I can think of to go in there. “Mention Naia’s tattoo.” “Kay as a really lame Doctor Who companion.” I’m sure more ideas will come to me as I plan more things, and even as I write the actual draft in July, but when they do I’ll just drop them into the right place and keep going.

Instead, my next step is going to be something borrowed from Randy Ingermanson’s snowflake method of planning a novel: the character stories. It’s also related to an idea from Liz Michalski who posted on Writer (un)Boxed with a tip about revising, but which I think will work for me here. The idea is to look at the story from the point of view of each character separately. I won’t need to do this for my central character Kay, because the story is already clearly hers. It’s even in her first-person POV! But for at least the next 4 or 5 characters in the inner ring, I’m going to map out the changes and arcs that each one goes through. This will give me a clearer view of each person. That, plus the tightening of the scenes that’s spilling over from today’s deadline, will keep me busy for  the next two weeks.

Progress so far:

• 3/1/15: Set the goal (a full 50,000-word draft, or half a novel?) – On time
• 3/8/15: Develop my one-sentence pitch line – Early
• 3/22/15: Establish major set pieces/beats – On time
• 4/12/15: Develop a rough synopsis – On time
• 5/3/15: Complete a rough outline or scene sketch – On time
• 5/17/15: Map out each character’s story line
• 5/31/15: Plan the beginning of the novel, from opening scene to first major turn
• 6/14/15: Plan the middle of the novel, including all the twists and complications leading to the ending
• 6/28/15: Plan the ending of the novel, including the climax and the final resolution
• 6/30/15: Get all my logistics in place (word-count log, file formats, backups, and so on)

MyNoWriMo Step 4: Synopsis

  Rough Story Synopsis

I pulled it together: a synopsis of my story in two pages, 10 paragraphs, following the plan in Janice Hardy’s Fiction University blog. In the process I learned a lot more about my story. I kept going back and adding ideas and layers to the rough chapter sketches I made while figuring out my story beats for my last step. I’m sure this will change a lot as I move forward as well – the more I figure out, the more things change. I’m feeling really positive about how well all the parts are fitting together!

I’ve decided to adjust my target dates a little, moving one date up. I think it was just a mistake the way I set it up before, since I allowed myself three weeks to throw together an idea bank and only a week to plan the novel’s beginning. The list below reflects the revised date.

Progress so far:

• 3/1/15: Set the goal (a full 50,000-word draft, or half a novel?) – On time
• 3/8/15: Develop my one-sentence pitch line – Early
• 3/22/15: Establish major set pieces/beats – On time
• 4/12/15: Develop a rough synopsis – On time
• 5/3/15: Complete a rough outline or scene sketch
• 5/17/15: Complete an “idea bank” with the things I want to include in the novel
• 5/31/15: Plan the beginning of the novel, from opening scene to first major turn
• 6/14/15: Plan the middle of the novel, including all the twists and complications leading to the ending
• 6/28/15: Plan the ending of the novel, including the climax and the final resolution
• 6/30/15: Get all my logistics in place (word-count log, file formats, backups, and so on)

Temptation

  My eyes are wandering…

I’m plugging my way through my plan for MyNoWriMo in July, working on my synopsis – but oh man, another system has caught my wandering eye, and I may switch to that. I just learned about the Randy Ingermanson’s Snowflake Method, and it really appeals to me. I’m tempted to stop what I’m doing and start snowflaking. But this wondering makes me doubt myself. Does it mean I’m just pretending I’m going to write, spending all my time planning and planning to plan and not actually doing any real writing? If I hadn’t finished two books already (one of which is published, but it’s nonfiction so it’s a whole different beast), these doubts might overwhelm me. But I have finished those two books, so I will beat those doubts to death with a blunt quill and move on to deciding which system I will use. Heck, I’ve got a lot of time until July (or at least it seems that way from here *laughs hollowly*), so maybe I’ll work both, in parallel, somehow. So – will I snowflake, or will I road map, or both? This inquiring mind wants to know. I’ll keep my breathless audience posted on my decision.

Moving Along

  Shoes, keep going.

Synopses are hard.

I’m working on Step 4 of my pre-MyNoWriMo plan, which is to write a synopsis. I’ve got a paragraph-by-paragraph breakdown of how to do this from Janice Hardy’s Fiction University site, so it should be pretty straightforward, right? Um, not so much.

So far I’ve written the first paragraph three times. I started out with four or five sentences that are essentially back story – things that came before my actual novel begins, setting up how the main character got to where she is when the story starts. Nope, that’s not where I should begin. Then I started with what she’s thinking about and struggling with internally at the start of the story (which, as it turns out, hinges on that back story), so again, nope. The third time is tied more directly to what’s actually happening at the moment. This is closer to where I need to start, but I think it will take several more tries before I get to move on to the second paragraph.

I planned three weeks for this step, so I firmly believe I’ll get it done, and on time. I should be working on the second paragraph any day now! As long as I keep putting one foot in front of the other, I’ll get there.

MyNoWriMo Step 3: Beats

  Major Story Turning Points

I’ve worked on this a lot this week, and I think I have a structure that’s going to work. I actually framed it out in 20 chapters, with a general idea of the action and importance of each chapter, because otherwise I couldn’t really pin down the story beats. So when you see how vague the beats themselves are when summarized, trust me that I have a pretty clear idea of what each beat actually means and how each one leads to the next. So, drum roll, please – here they are!

• Inciting Incident: Kay (my Main Character) realizes the evil that has been stalking her for years is reappearing yet again. She takes steps to do what she always does, which is run, but lingers to try to help a friend. In the process she meets a team of people who are working against that same evil, though this isn’t very comfortable for her. She deals with trouble by avoiding it, deals with life by staying apart.
• First Plot Point (end of Act I): Kay and the team discover that she carries a curse that makes her a point of strength for the evil. They decide to band together to try to understand Kay’s curse and figure out how to fight that evil together. She is still uncomfortable with this business of joining forces with others and staying to fight, but she can’t find a way to avoid it, and she is starting to form actual connections to others in the team (especially Chase, who is starting to become the romantic interest).
• Midpoint Reversal: After several false starts, they find a way to block the gateway the evil forces can use to attack people in our world, and they are successful in destroying the device that they use for this. However, it is moments too late, and the core of the evil force has now moved into our world. It can use its new position to expand and, eventually, take over our world. Kay is devastated not only by the risk to the world, but her sense that she bears personal responsibility for it. If she could run again, she would, but it’s impossible, and her new friends are pulling her in with them.
• Second Plot Point (end of Act II): The team has engaged in several attempts to stop the evil, without success. Kay is now face-to-face with this ultimate evil all alone, knowing that her curse makes her contribute to their strength in spite of herself. She has now bonded with the team and feels more alone than she did when she started.
• Climax: Kay realizes that the curse that gives strength to her enemies can also be turned against them. She finds the courage to step forward, toward the evil she’s run from for so long, and defeats it, with the support of others, particularly Chase.
• Resolution: The world is safe because of the team and especially because Kay pulled it out. The romantic interest has flowered, and Kay is now able to make an actual commitment to Chase, and to the whole team.

So, my readers – what do you think? Does it sound interesting? Would you read it?

Progress so far:

• 3/1/15: Set the goal (a full 50,000-word draft, or half a novel?) – On time
• 3/8/15: Develop my one-sentence pitch line – Early
• 3/22/15: Establish major set pieces/beats – On time
• 4/12/15: Develop a rough synopsis
• 5/3/15: Complete a rough outline or scene sketch
• 5/24/15: Complete an “idea bank” with the things I want to include in the novel
• 5/31/15: Plan the beginning of the novel, from opening scene to first major turn
• 6/14/15: Plan the middle of the novel, including all the twists and complications leading to the ending
• 6/28/15: Plan the ending of the novel, including the climax and the final resolution
• 6/30/15: Get all my logistics in place (word-count log, file formats, backups, and so on)