tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6010942979784569627.post8100671019743251650..comments2024-02-06T04:20:38.551-08:00Comments on Reading, Writing, Revising: Ramping UpdateLisa Ecksteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469107523441985396noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6010942979784569627.post-36953354827546504232012-10-24T11:02:49.380-07:002012-10-24T11:02:49.380-07:00Thanks, Anna. Yes, life happens. I'm not very ...Thanks, Anna. Yes, life happens. I'm not very good at remembering and accepting that, but I'm trying!Lisa Ecksteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11469107523441985396noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6010942979784569627.post-45250301605403865942012-10-24T10:48:51.659-07:002012-10-24T10:48:51.659-07:00I smiled all through this, because well, you'r...I smiled all through this, because well, you're so darn honest and witty at the same time. Bodes well for the novel, methinks.<br /><br />My work week came to crashing (ha ha) halt, so some deadlines might be shaken. Life happens, and for our best efforts, occasionally things slip. As writing ebbs and flows, editing does too, maybe not to the same extent, but it's not like an assembly line. <br /><br />So I send a gentle twing, if it makes you feel any better. More I say keep up the good work at whatever pace you feel is necessary. Rome wasn't built in a day, and novels are much the same.Anna Scott Grahamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02744202738210301084noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6010942979784569627.post-23219552592107478902012-10-23T14:43:28.898-07:002012-10-23T14:43:28.898-07:00Thanks, everybody, for the supportive comments!
L...Thanks, everybody, for the supportive comments!<br /><br />Lauren: There's a sort of built-in "Running to Mordor" element to revision -- I am on a path that will conclude at The End, and I know how many chapters I have to go through to get there. That does help. I can't imagine having the motivation for any of this if there were no endpoint.<br /><br />Henri: I do also count pages, and on average there's a correlation for me between hours and pages, but hours is a better way for me to set goals. Some days, and some scenes, the writing is much slower than other times, so I could write for the same number of hours every day but not produce a consistent number of pages. I'd rather count the more controllable element.Lisa Ecksteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11469107523441985396noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6010942979784569627.post-22130270987884167792012-10-23T12:16:47.678-07:002012-10-23T12:16:47.678-07:00I've never written a novel, so I have no idea ...I've never written a novel, so I have no idea how people manage a project of that scale. I'm wondering if hours is the way to measure your progress. Have you tried counting pages, say? Would that be better or worse? My projects are much, much smaller, and for me what works is setting intermediary deadlines (and often missing them, but I set them overly early to compensate for that.) Henri Picciottohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06875198126877279937noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6010942979784569627.post-11356106426719487322012-10-23T09:31:54.803-07:002012-10-23T09:31:54.803-07:00That's a pretty good outcome of a "bad&qu...That's a pretty good outcome of a "bad" week (and some productive other weeks). Sounds like a good experiment!<br /><br />The phenomenon of giving up because I've already screwed up part of a week sounds very familiar. I've had some luck with the "every day is a fresh start" model. Also with the "Running to Mordor" model -- I don't know if you were aware of that meme, but for a while, a bunch of runners/walkers were tracking their progress traversing Middle Earth. It was sometimes motivating to me, even when I wasn't successfully hitting a daily/weekly goal, to see that I was still making progress toward some overall goal that didn't have a particular deadline. If I hadn't gotten distracted from the meme before reaching Mordor (or other major Middle Earth landmarks, maybe I would have thrown a party at that point or otherwise rewarded myself. :) Laurenhatnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6010942979784569627.post-68249764492309726362012-10-22T21:03:49.822-07:002012-10-22T21:03:49.822-07:00"neither consumed by self-loathing nor bathin..."neither consumed by self-loathing nor bathing in zen-like tranquility, but somewhere in the mundane middle" <br />: ) <br />I like both the substance and the wording of this. I'm very glad to hear you aren't beating yourself up, and it sounds like some very important progress was made both on the novel and on your understanding of your process. So, well done!Sallyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08575531053523823710noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6010942979784569627.post-27175809630944430852012-10-22T20:48:18.260-07:002012-10-22T20:48:18.260-07:00OK, ready? Here goes: *tsk*
Really, that's ab...OK, ready? Here goes: *tsk*<br /><br />Really, that's about all I can muster. Sounds like you are doing a lot of good thinking about how to make the most of your time and resources, and I really can't get too worked up about that! xoxomamagotchahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02023523603288429407noreply@blogger.com