Writing Marathon Day 2

There were tears. Blood. Sweat. Callouses. (not really)

BUT I WROTE 5,000 WORDS TODAY. Actually, 5,149 to be exact!

(I deleted 1900 of the words I wrote yesterday because I changed directions a little bit, but I'm learning to let that go)

What did I learn today? That writing 5,000 words in one day when I am in the middle section of the book is HARD. Sure, I could do it easily near the climax, or even in the beginning when the story is begging to fall out of my brain. But the middle? Jeesh. For a couple hours there, it was like plucking my eyelashes out one by one.

True, I won't keep all these words, but like the saying goes: You can't edit a blank page. At least I now have some WORDS, even they'll be deleted and revised for prose later. (And I did get a good couple thousand words that I really like. :-D)

Fun highlights:

- I wrote a kissing scene that I've been dreaming about for months, ever since I heard this song:

WEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

- My favorite line of today was this (from a scene where my character-- who's been shot before-- shoots a gun for the first time):

"Being on the other side of the gun is delicious."

-I have "tweerleaders"on Twitter!

*Rob Kristofferson ( @Kristoffrable ) gave me some wise words on writing suckage: "Suckiness leads to greatness. If you can't get it out there to begin with it doesn't even have a chance to suck."

* Paul Adams ( @adamspaulr )-- who is doing this with me and wrote 5052 words today!-- made me laugh after I complained about trying to "squeeze out my last 600 words" with this:

*Megan Whitmer (@MeganWhitmer ) promised to be awkward on the internet and post her very first vlog if I meet my 5,000 words a day goal. She's even filmed it and everything! But I have to break it to you Megan, I don't think it will happen. :-(
Today took everything I had to type 5,000 words, and I was at home doing nothing but writing. I am going to the beach tomorrow until Saturday, and I think I'll be lucky to get 2,000 a words a day. But I'm still going to try!

I'm going to try handwriting some of my words for the first time-- I've never handwritten a manuscript before, but I'm not going to bring my laptop on a boat out in the Gulf of Mexico. That would not end well. But my critique partner, Amy Christine Parker, does this everyday (handwrite her novel that is, not fish in the Gulf of Mexico) so I'm going to give it a try!

Oh! I promised on twitter yesterday that if I met my word goal today, I would also make my very first vlog. But since it's late now, and I'll be out of town for the next few days, I think I'll wait until my last day, and make it about this whole project. Sound good? Awesome. See you back here tomorrow! (I might not have internet where I'm staying, so I may be posting from my iPhone. I've never done that before, so we'll see how that goes. Hopefully I'll have wifi...)

Happy writing!