This week was an interesting week for putting words to the page. And interesting one indeed. I found myself writing at the oddest times, stealing words randomly, doing lots of research as new characters were introduced to the story, changing up where I wrote, and forgetting to count words altogether. I honestly couldn’t tell you if I met my stretch goal this week or not, that’s how disorganized I became.

I’ll blame all the planets currently settling into Aries at the moment. It’s chaotic up there, so why wouldn’t I be, too?

Where I Started

Last week, I wrote 5,267 words, had completed Chapter 27, and my Overall Word Count was standing solidly at 98,238 words.

My Goals for the Week

Honestly, I had zero specific plans for this week when it came to goal setting. At this point, habits have set in and it now feels really weird not showing up every morning to write. Like an itch I cannot scratch with anything else.

How the Week Went

I woke up at 4 AM on Monday, unable to sleep, which meant that I was able to do all my morning chores and sit down exactly at 6 to start writing. I wrote for one hour in total (broken up into various sprints) and put down 1,776 words. Many of them were from a flashback I’d written last year, but the words still count, especially now that they found their way into this particular draft of the manuscript! I also wound up spontaneously documenting my entire writing day and went into even more detail about my writing process over on my YouTube channel (Yep, I have a YouTube. I’ve just revived it from a three-year slumber.)

Tuesday wasn’t productive in the word writing sense. I woke up late (probably as a direct result from my 4 AM, early-bird nonsense of Monday) and only put down 704 words the entire day. I did, however, do a lot of research into my characters, getting really granular into their backgrounds. I have loads more to do in regards to them, but the headway I made on Tuesday really helped to push me forward throughout the rest of the week.

I figured Wednesday would be a struggle as I’d tossed and turned all night because of sunburnt skin keeping me up and uncomfortable. However, even though I woke up late, I woke up with words in my head. 600 to be exact. Unfortunately, I failed to count how many extra words I wrote the rest of the day, likely because my skin was still bothering me. Whoops!

On Thursday, managed to connect the majority of a scene together and was quite ready to wrap it up (I believe I was working on Chapter 28 at this time?) This was another one of those days, like Tuesday, where I wrote at odd moments. I even did one writing sprint with Taylor P. in which we spent the majority of our time together brainstorming potential book titles for this manuscript. Something I won’t need for ages, but was fun nonetheless. In the end, I wrote 1,170 words for the day, and I’m pretty sure this was the day i completed Chapter 29. Fun fact: Taylor is actually the one who named my first novel, since I am terrible with naming, well, anything.

On Friday, I took my writing to a new location: the coffee shop! I didn’t wind up writing all that much (only 508 words + research into ornithology), but I did find that the change of scenery was really nice and loosened something within me. Which was confirmed when I met up with my in-person writing cohort on Sunday for a bonus writing day!

So yeah, on Sunday, I met up with Jess (an aspiring author) and Lucy K.R. (a short story author). We all got together to first indulge in a hour of reading with the Silent Reading Bookclub in Athens, after which we headed across the street to snag brunch and do a bit of writing. It was truly a breath of fresh air getting together with other writers in-person. I hadn’t realized how much I was craving community connection away from a screen (not that I am not super appreciative of the connections I’ve made online, because I am!), especially with other writers. We talked about so much, including what our current WIP projects were, the difficulty in starting a project, what it means to have deadlines, and everything in between. We wound up only writing for about 30-ish minutes, but in that time, I personally poured 1,181 words into Chapter 30 and it felt…easy. I didn’t feel the pressure I normally do when showing up to write. Something about the company and our day of conversation and the beautiful weather and the amazing drinks all day really helped to take away some of the stress I often carry when it comes to projects that are important to me.

Where I Ended + Upcoming Plans

In the end, I wrote (around) 7,120 words (probably more) and finished Chapters 28 & 29 and began Chapter 30. My Overall Word count now stands right around 105K words, which means, this novel is HUGE but also, I get to reward myself with a new milk frother since I crossed that 103K threshold. Yay!

Looking forward, I plan to keep steadily chugging along, writing a little bit every single day. I am starting to get antsy, wanting to jump ahead to a big catalyst happening inside the story, but there is still a bit of buildup left to go. And I know that it will take time to get there.

I am also still very much aware of how many words I have, and how this story is outside the norm as far as word count goes. But I am also reading Anna Karenina which is an 800+ page novel and so far, I am loving it. Even the mundane aspects that don’t seem to matter. Yet. Somehow, I can’t imagine how this book would be without those aspects. Even though they are common they still feel. . . important? They add texture to the story, and life, and importance in their simplicity. I don’t know how to describe it, but basically, all the words seem to matter, and I wouldn’t want any of them cut to fit into the “social norm” of “average book length.”

And no, I don’t believe my own work is on par with a classic such a Tolstoy’s, but at the same time, if he can write such a large book and have such a lasting impression on readers, so much so that we are reading it to this day, then why can’t I have a slightly larger-than-average story of my own?

Just some thoughts that keep rolling around inside my head the futher my word count climbs. Anywho. . .

Wish me luck!