The Dry Run

So, I recently decided that 2015 would be my year for writing a novel.  It still seems to be the plan, though I have little idea how I'm going to pull it off.*  One of the problems is that I lack discipline.  That's a major one.  But a more minor one is that I do my writing--for the most part--in notebooks, written out with pen while I wait for things or during lunch breaks.  There's no way to chart my progress if the writing just stays in a notebook.

So, I thought I would do a test, a dry run for the next story/novella I write, and see if I can't force myself to get on here, chart my progress, and see what writing my novel this summer will be like.   Can I do it?

Wait, don't answer that yet.  I got an idea, a couple of months ago, for a story I'd like to someday write, and I found the paper where I jotted it down the other day.  I've been thinking about that idea, and even though I don't have an ending for the story yet, I thought I would choose it as my next writing project, and try to use my blog to track my success or failure with it.

So, what I'll do is, start the story, guess that it will be, say, 25,000 words long, and stick some kind of meter on here to see how far along I've gotten.  As of right now, the meter is thus:



It doesn't look great, but it does the job, right?

So, two things: 1) I have to come up with a title for the story (I'll let you know when I do), but for now it's gonna be "The Dry Run."  2) I can only count the words if they are computerized up and shareable with a potential audience, so that means I need to type up whatever writing I do in my notebook before it gets added to my tally.  Fair enough?

If you'd like a bit more rambling than these short paragraphs, I talk about it in a short, very boring Podcast That Dares Not Speak Its Name, which you can listen to here.



Rish Soon-To-Be-Novelist Outfield

*Which is made all the worse by the fact that I don't know what it's going to be about.  I made a list last week of the novel-sized ideas I still have kicking around inside my head, and without exception, they all feel like screenplays to me, which, last time I checked were not the same thing as novels.