The summer of half-baked writing challenges is officially over, and I challenged some of my fellow writers to go out with a bang. So after #50in5 and after double novel July (to go hand in hand with Camp NaNoWriMo), I challenged them to:
7 Day Novel(la)
It’s based off of the 3DN (3 Day Novel) that very few want to participate in, especially around Labor Day. So I thought that I could get more crazy people on board if I raised the day count to seven and lowered the word count requirement to 15,000 words.
I was right.
The WriYe 7DN ran from Sunday, August 4th until Saturday, August 10th. I, of course, had to participate. And it was a success.
I wrote a novel called The Seventh Pretty Maid based off of the fairytale The Elf Knight (or one of it many other names). There were a few planning parties that I had with my fellow WriYers in the months leading up to sort through our plots, our characters, and figure out just how long the novel(la) might be.
During it, I made an outline via a method erin had devised years ago. And I did something new with it that I hadn’t tried before. Instead of figuring a word count goal per day (though, let’s be honest, I had one), I figured out the number of plot points on my 30 point outline that I wanted to finish.
So far, this is is the best method I have found.
Here’s a glimpse of my process, with some word counts included:
Those were my first five plot points for day one. Dividing the novel into five per day gave me six full days of writing, which meant I ended on Friday. Yesterday, I added in two scenes that I needed to make the novel feel complete. And then I called it a complete zero/first draft.
Things I enjoyed: Finishing a novel in a week because, c’mon. If I could write that quickly every time? I could be more prolific than Stephen King.
Things I did not enjoy: I took off from work this week and made the mistake of letting family know. I had my days booked with activity Tuesday and Wednesday, which did not help my writing. So there were some days when I felt like I was ignoring the spouse and child just to hit word counts.
I do not like doing that.
I purposely schedule my time so that I can devote whatever the toddler needs to the toddler and to help around the house with things. My spouse didn’t seem to mind, but I did.
Things I fear: Editing this thing. I sent it to a few writing friends (who seemed excited to read it) and we’ll see how quickly they’ll throw it back with “WTF?”
I edited briefly first, of course. No spelling or grammar mistakes I could find on the read through (not an in-depth one). But I have a feeling I can hear some of their comments already…
Next Steps: Editing it and seeing if maybe this is something worth preparing for query instead of something that was a fun experiment.
Stats
Total Count: 66,335
Highest Word Count Day: Monday, August 5th (12,129)
Lowest Word Count Day: Wednesday, August 7th (8,006)
Favorite Character: Prince Kenelm
Least Favorite Character: Queen Ysabel (I have to work on her)
Grey Matter Margarita 