Weekly Writing Intentions: August 13, 2022

Daily Diary, Day 712:

I did really well with my writing this week, until yesterday, but like last Friday, that was a conscious decision. I had two scheduled phone calls yesterday, so my time was already limited, but I was making progress after the second call, and had 386 words written.

Then I got a call from a young relative I hadn’t heard from in several months, and I decided to take the call. We talked for over two hours, and then I got one more call, and then it was dinner time.

Again, one of the benefits of being disciplined, but not rigid, is that I thoroughly enjoyed the long call with the relative, didn’t even pay attention to how much time was passing as we spoke, and didn’t feel the least bit of guilt at throwing the rest of my writing time out the window. Even with this short day, I still averaged 1085 words over the full week.

So, at the end of my third week on this project, I have slightly over 20,000 words written, and I am only at the very start of my story. I have four more chapters roughed out, and if all goes well, I will complete them by the end of next week’s writing (so that is my primary intention.)

At that point, I will try to rough out the next chapters. Unlike mysteries, where I have at least a pretty firm view of what plot points I need to hit (clues, red herrings, secondary plots) these science fiction books are more action adventure stories with some minor mysteries to solve. Fiction writers often categorize themselves as either plotters (have an outline they follow) or pansters (go by the seat of their pants, with no particular plan.) Generally, I see myself as a plotter. Right now this feels much more like I am writing like a pantser. Trying not to feel nervous about this and enjoy the process.

So, writing intentions for this next week: Get through those 4 chapters. I have a phone dates scheduled with old friends, one for Saturday another for Sunday, and then a newsletter to get out for Monday morning and a doctor’s appointment on Monday afternoon. I assume this means I won’t get as much written at the beginning of the week, so I will try to keep other days clear to see if I can make up for that.

Other goals are to continue walking an hour a day, continue to do PT exercises, and start to think about a piece I said I would write for another substack writer. And not let the heat get me down.

The walk this morning was again brutal. Left at 7:30 but already low 70 and 85% humidity. Finished the 60 mins through sheer grit. Did finish listening to the Stephanie Plum, listened to another Shedunnit, and that go the through the full hour of walking. Also found a few more blooms to take pictures of. This one made me feel cooler just looking at it!