Monday 4 May 2009

Bank holiday sitting on my bum days

It's astonishing the highs and lows you can get out of one weekend of writing. I've had the dizzy heights when I can't type fast enough to get the words out of my head, the blank eyed staring at the screen and the OCD tap of the word counter. All of which got me to 25,000 words and it's never enough is it! I found myself drifting into daydreams several times, where I was sitting here Monday night smugly admiring my 35,000 word count. Ah, well.

A little bit of life interuptus came along for the ride as well. An hour in to my peaceful 6 hours of free writing time on Saturday, one of my rabbits started sneezing. After 4 or 5 I looked up, by 20 I was frantically googling for what to do with her, then she stopped. She seemed fine until she fell asleep a few minutes later, and started snoring like an old man. Bad sign, trip to the emergency vet who diagnosed a respiratory infection. She's now fine after lots of drugs (£20) and seemed to like the on call vet (£120...) Unfortunately 4 hours vanished in the process, I'll just have to type quicker!

I have done a few sums though, used all my fingers and am fairly sure about these ones, and think I need 2000 words a day. This leaves me a month to edit the 1st draft into something better. However 10 days of this time will be spent in Washington DC, Niagara on the Lake (looks gorgeous, tips welcome if anyone has been!) and Toronto. Maybe I can get a lot of my editing done on aeroplanes...

Holiday planning will definitely have to be rationed. I can lose hours researching hotels, car hire, best routes to drive, places to visit. You get the idea, tripadvisor has a lot to answer for! If anyone can think of a job which pays me to obsessively research other people's holidays I'd be delighted! I fear travel agent neither pays well nor gets further than booking package holidays.

Anyway, I digress. 2000 words, half of which I can usually manage in my lunch break, and surely I can find at least an hour every evening. Surely...

8 comments:

Karen said...

I know what you mean! I'm trying to manage about 1000 words a day to meet my deadline, but it's surprising how much time gets eaten up doing other things.

Glad bunny's okay (£140 though!!!) and good luck planning your holiday - you might have to ration yourself to ten minutes for that :o)

Lane Mathias said...

Life Interruptus always picks its moments doesn't it.

Glad bunny is ok. Must have been worrying for you, especially on a Saturday (not to mention expensive).

I'm impressed you can do 1k in your lunch hour. I think you're going to reach this deadline no problem. You're focussed and achieving tons. So just a few minutes each day planning your (fab) trip ok:-)

Annieye said...

You'll be fine. I found it useful to 'bank' words if I'd got something on. Draw yourself up a matrix - a realistic one that takes into account busy days and not so busy days and set yourself a target for that day. If you do more words than your target, just 'bank' them for when something crops up.

I find that 3,500 words a day is my maximum when I'm working which equates to about four hours total writing/editing time.

Keep going Denise. The worst bit for me was between about 40k and 60k, then it was all downhill to the glorious end.

Denise said...

Karen - 10 minutes!!! Ooh, you're harsh.

Lane - Naturally the lunchtime after I wrote that I managed 600. Tsk.

Annie - Good idea Annie, though I fear my matrix is rather full of busy this week!

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

Glad to hear your rabbit is on the mend. It's horrible when pets are sick.

Well done on the word count. I know what you mean about losing hours looking up trip info. I just wish the time at work passed as quickly.

Anonymous said...

You remind me of Isabel Bookbinder...only I hope you FINISH your novel:) sounds like you are on the right track!

Denise said...

Debs - If only the two could be combined without getting fired!

MotherX - I had to go and look her up!

Anonymous said...

Keep going Denise...you have to get there and I know you will do it:)