Last week, I did something from which I’m kind of still recuperating. I had a lot of free time on my hands (back injury, off from work, blahdy dah), and did something that I would have never believed possible.
I wrote the rough draft of a book in four days, averaging over 10k words a day. It’s even more amazing to me, because the first day, I only wrote 1500 words (as he majority of the day was spent plotting and planning) and so, there were days in there that I was topping 15k words.
Buh? you might say. How did you ever accomplish that?
Easy. I sat in the chair and forced myself to write. It was exactly like running, or going to work – I mean, you don’t all love your jobs, do you? You force yourself to go, right? Except that it was also intensely rewarding. I stayed up into the wee hours of the night, every night, until I was fairly exhausted and ready to crash. And you know what? The longer I sat there, the better stuff got. It was like I was actually living through the characters. They were more vivid, well rounded, and well - real – then any(body) else I’ve ever written. Somewhere around hour four, everyday, stuff would pick up, and I’d be typing at a mad pace, just clacking away. I got lost in these people, in their dreams. I wrote the first scene that I have ever written where I actually cried for one of the characters.
It was AMAZING.
And while there is still a long road to go, in terms of editing and whatnot, just knowing that your secret writing marathoner is waiting in the wings? I gotta say, it feels good.
If you are a writer, I encourage you to try it. Push yourself, I mean really push yourself, through the “I think I’m about done for the day” barrier. Preplot like crazy, figure out where all the pieces go, and then make yourself sit in that chair and actually FOCUS (easier than it sounds, I know) for 6 – 10 hours. See if right after you’re bored and cranky and feeling “done”, something doesn’t suddenly click, and you get your second wind.
