Not obsessing....

[mrissa]

Entirely unstarted: 31, 52, 62, 65.
Started but unfinished: 30, 34, 47, 48, 53, 54, 58, 59.

That's two yesterday and two this morning. I'm still in my pajamas. My agenda for the day is lunch with Rachel and book. I could possibly manage to sort the laundry and make a quick library/PO run, but basically, book it is. Book book book. I think I need to add "not book" to the agenda. Some yoga, that kind of thing. Something that will keep me from just going and going and going until I fall over.

Note that Chapter 30 is still not finished. I am so glad I don't write sequentially, it's not even funny. I am trying not to obsess about Chapter 30. The fact that it's the earliest unfinished chapter should mean nothing. It doesn't matter if I finish it next or last. Nobody will judge anything based on that. I could write in reverse order from here on out, and nobody would ever care, or even know if I wasn't telling you. I could draw chapter numbers from a hat, and as long as I wrote them, nobody would care how I picked which one to write next.

Still. It just sits there. And Chapter 34 is looking quite friendly, and then it's a big jump to 48.

Nobody cares, M'ris. Just write.

Comments

[retrobabble.livejournal.com]

Nobody cares, M'ris. Just write.

I do, I do! I'm utterly fascinated at the concept of jumping around to any chapter that sucks you in.

And no matter how it's done, we can all relate to the Big Bad Chapter who growls in the corner whenever you even peek at the darn thing.

I tend to grit my teeth and tackle the thing. End up with a few bruises, and I never win the first round, but I wear him down eventually.

Go,go!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

But you're not going to go to OWW chat room and talk about how horrible my book will be because of Chapter 30. I'm using "cares" there as "will judge based on" rather than as "is interested in."

Being sucked in is why I do this. Some days nothing will really strike me as particularly interesting, and I try to write then anyway. But if something really is fascinating me, well...why not?

[porphyrin.livejournal.com]

I care.

But just write anyway. :)

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I never write front to back; I always write bottom up. But I'm sure nonfiction is different.

B

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

It took me a long time to swallow the fact that non-sequential writing is perfectly OK, but it really was, I think, the only way I was able to finish my own book in a "timely" fashion--timely being under two years! I had a lot of trouble with four or five chapters in the middle, but went ahead and wrote past them, then finally figured out what to do with them. At the very least I would have added weeks to my writing time if I'd tried plowing straight on through.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

You have to figure out what works for you. I think accepting that there are all kinds of ways that are "okay" to write is a very important step for a lot of people. If it works, it works.

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

So you write out of sequence? Interesting.

I have never tried that; I wonder what it would be like.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I never saw any reason why I should write sequentially in the first place, so I couldn't really tell you.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

"That's two yesterday and two this morning."

BTW, how many words are we talking about here? "Chapters" is not a very universal measure of work.

B

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Not even within this book is "chapters" a very universal measure of work.

Yesterday probably 3 kilowords total. Today closer to 2 so far, though it'll be more by the time I go to bed.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Nice. My traditional long-term sustained quota is 1000 words/day.

B

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I can't sustain more than 1500-2000, but the end of a book makes it easier on me to write than not to write. I'm so close to done at this point that my brain keeps returning to the book when left to wander.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Fiction and non-fiction are different.

B

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yes, for me, too. I can do more nonfiction in an intense day than fiction, but it wears me out faster. I think this is because I'm fundamentally a fiction writer and just do nonfiction from time to time for the money or "just because."