Keepers DAY 2

So, by way of a little background and explanation, this "2000 words-a-day" writing goal comes from Stephen King's excellent book titled, On Writing. In it he outlines his schedule when writing a first draft of a new novel where he writes 2000 words per day no matter what. Connected to this is his belief that a book should not take more than 3 months (the changing of the seasons) or you (as a writer) begin to change and, therefore, change the story you set out to write. At this pace he has a manuscript of about 120K to 180K words which, he says, is a good place to start when it comes to the rewrite stage.

I tried this schedule when I started writing The Watchers, and in a just under a month I had nearly 150 pages written. I didn't do it every day, but I was pretty close. It was amazing how the story and the words just flowed. But then I let work get in the way and, to be honest, I hadn't outlined the story well enough and found myself wondering where the story was headed. It was nearly a year and a half before I got back to it. (But I did continue writing, editing and rewriting Shadow Hunter and When Forever Doesn't Last - so I don't think it was "wasted" time by any means...)

Writing 2000 words a day would take on average right around 4 hours. Now, with work and time to spend helping with homework and spending time with the family, I just don't have 4 hours every night to spend locked in my office typing away. Besides, after a long day of divorces and protective orders, I'm pretty bushed. So my plan is simple: I will use my lunch hours and any other "down" time I have during the day (during oral argument, for example, when I really don't have to pay attention to what the attorneys are saying - that's the Commissioner's job...) to outline what I plan to write that night. It is my hope that by doing this I will be able to "unleash" my creative juices and tackle those 2000 words in half the time. Two hours a night, I think, is doable.

So, as I continue to review and make edits to my detailed outline this week, I plan to share with you the origins of the story idea (without giving anything away) and share with you what it's like for me to write a book. But before I finish, I have to admit there is a sense of hesitation and dread with starting this book. I have experienced this feeling each time I start a new project, a feeling of nervous anticipation, a wish that I could just spend my time coming up with new ideas for characters, plot lines, conflict, and everything else that goes into a good story without having to actually do the hard work of getting it all out on paper and in some semblance of order and continuity. But it must be done.

Word count: 0 (+0)

So let it be written...

So let it be done.