Three steps forward, one step back

Well, the first half week has passed, and my word count has dropped. That would normally be a bad sign, except I decided that one scene I'd written last year just didn't fit with the plot at all, so I pitched it. 9500 words dropped to 7700, just like that. I spent a couple of days reworking the outline, tightening the plot, and then stepped in where I'd left off and ground out 1100 words to replace the 1800 I'd dropped. Now to keep the inner critic locked away.

I have to admit, I'm more than a little daunted. The word processor program I'm using has a feature that lets me set up a date, and a word count total, and keeps track of my daily word count production to let me know how I'm doing against the deadline. I"ve estimated that it'll take about 150,000 words to finish the first draft (more on what that means in a moment), and right now, ywriter tells me that means I"ll have to pump out 1380 words a day. Not bad, but that assumes I'll write that every day. Realistically, there will be some days I just don't have a chance to write. But... I've committed myself. (maybe one of you will be committing me later)

How is that going to come about, though. This week, I did do some writing at work on a break, I found it doable to write 200 words, allowing for time to set up, get my brain out of atc mode and into creative mode, type, then shut down. At home, my word count varies, some nights I glare at the screen and feel lucky to complete 600 words, other nights (or mornings before work) my fingers fly and can pump out 4-6 times that. If I set a schedule, I think it'll be easier.

So that's what I'm going to work on. Being consistent with writing, ask myself to write on at least one break at work a day, and see what happens. This week will be a peek on how that goes.

The other question I've asked myself, what does 150k words mean, and how did I come up with it. Well, in outlining the plot, I've broken things down into 59 scenes. So far, scenes are averaging 1600 words in length. I expect that will double in most of the latter scenes. Allowing for a few scenes that I expect to be much longer (crux situations), I came up with 150,000 words as a rough estimate. That's pretty average for a first draft/fantasy novel. It will probably lengthen when I start in with expanding descriptions and dialogues and such, and shrink when I cut ugly or unnecessary scenes. Final result? Hey, I'm new at this too, who knows.....

I'm still waiting for encouraging words, questions, or whatnot from most of you. Art did commment, and in response, I'd have to say... Ayup, winters in D'oril can be harsh to outsiders. Thats why wintergems are found only in D'oril, takes some really cold weather to concentrate that natural magics that make them so coveted by the Empire (and many mages in the south).