A Start

Last night went well. Not perfect, but well enough to keep going.

I think my math is wrong. Shocking!

I wrote a bit longer than an hour (one of the reasons the night wasn't perfect) but I wrote almost 700 words. I must have written my previous books single-spaced for a page an hour. That bumps a page up to 500 words or so, which based on last night, seems about right.

I can officially calm down. One to two hours of writing to meet a deadline of 600 words a day I can handle. I'm sure I can. I'm pretty sure I can.

I will not get cocky. Slow but steady is my approach. If I should happen to speed up at any point, it will be purely accidental.

Here's a funny thing.

Not 24 hours after reading Roland D. Yeomans post about finding the magic and loving your writing and getting inspiration where you can (and the link to that lovely song I can't get out of my head), he posts about not starting a book without the end in mind.

Oi.

Well, he has a point (one firmly shared by Jeff the Publisher), but I'm going to ignore it. Mostly. I need to write here, not continue thinking about writing while doing nothing.

TT: This came in quite handy last night. Aside from a quick Internet search about big helicopters, followed by an immediate invention of a bigger helicopter, I glossed over any fact that might possibly get in the way of my fiction.

What will I have to fix later? I don't know. What I know is it's easier to revise than create. Right now, I'm worried about creating. I'm using the NaNoWriMo mindset in December.

What I did take from Writing in the Crosshairs was the need to consider the themes of the book. What giant, over-arching emotional issues will these characters address? That should help keep me focused. Except my current list has about 8 things on it.

Oi. Again.

No matter. As I write forward, I have faith my subconscious will spit up something useful. The trick is letting it do so.