Writing Well

For 2009, I am going to set myself the goal of writing every day on something, whether I’m working on a story or am between stories. The guidelines are going to be simple.

• 700 words (approximately two college ruled pages) per day every day but Sunday
• Any subject, event or character as long as it’s prose or dialog. No plotting notes or editing questions allowed!
• The subject does not need to be related to an existing story, but may be.

On this page, I am documenting my successes and failures in meeting this goal.

I will also be noting any ‘special assignments’, amendments and additions to the guidelines for the exercises.

Daily Writing Project

January

January 1, 2009 – Travel Day – No Writing

January 2, 2009 – 946 words

January 3, 2009 – 1,408 words

January 4, 2009 – 1,986 words

January 5, 2009 – 1,992 words

No problems writing today. I was up until midnight, January 4 fleshing out an idea for that day’s exercise. When I finished that, I took a fresh sheet of paper and began writing on today’s exercise. 830 words before going to bed. That’s a great way to get started on a day’s To-Do List!

January 6, 2009 – 708 words

A light writing day today because I spent most of the evening shopping for a frame for a newly finished portrait.

January 7, 2009 – 2,035 words

January 8, 2009 – 1,754 words

January 9, 2009 – 738 words

Up until today, I’ve been writing whatever came to mind for this exercise. But a couple of days ago, I began setting up pages with specific ideas in mind, with the intention of selecting them at random and assigning myself subjects ahead of time. Today was the first day I did one of those assignments. I have to say it was a struggle to get the required number of words with this method, but the assigned topic wasn’t something I would probably ordinarily do something with. It was a good exercise, though, and without it, there was the very strong possibility that I might have written only a few words or not written at all. So it served its purpose.

January 10, 2009 – 0 words

All day at the gallery, closing with an artists reception in the evening.

January 11, 2009 – 1,434 words

January 12, 2009 – 718 words

January 13, 2009 – 769 words

January 14, 2009 – 743 words

January 15, 2009 – 1,759 words

Oops! So much for the self-restricted word count! This was the last thing I did tonight and I decided to type it rather than write it longhand, hence the large word count. The words were off my fingers almost before I realized it.

January 16, 2009 – 1,224 words

January 17, 2009 – 918 words

A bit of a struggle today due to a full schedule at the gallery and a lot to do at home. Writing was the last productive thing I did in a busy day. It works much better if it’s among the first things I do.

January 18, 2009 – 728 words

January 19, 2009 – 3,819 words

With a trip to Michigan looming this coming weekend and appointments on both days of our time there, I decided to write some words ahead. The goal here is to average 700 words per day for this week and make the maximum use of the days I now I have time so that the pressure is off those busy days. Today was a great writing day (it was a great creative day) and I’m already at an average daily count of 477 per day for eight days if I write no more. I can’t imagine that happening, so I’ve made a good start on a tough goal.

January 20, 2009 – 1,289 words

January 21, 2009 – 748 words

I reached the 700 word average for the eight days between January 19 and January 26 by writing 516 words before heading to work this morning. Everything I write for this exercise from this point to the end of the day January 26 will be icing on the cake.

January 22, 2009 – 2,072 words

Travel Day – Up to Michigan after work this evening.

January 23, 2009 – 46 words

January 24, 2009 – 102 words

January 25, 2009 – 722 words

January 26, 2009 – 205 words

Travel Day – Back from Michigan. Did a paragraph or two on the way and a little bit while winding down after getting home, but not much. The average daily word count for the past eight days was 1,125 words. Not bad, considering three of the last four days barely saw words on a page!

January 27, 2009 – 937 words

January 28, 2009 – 1,279 words

I began preliminary work up toward the rewrite for Perfect Opportunities today by adding and deleting the text and making the other changes I marked during the initial read through.

January 29, 2009 – 950 words

January 30, 2009 – 700 words

January 31, 2009 – 796 words

Making the word count for today for this project was a challenge. I’ve been in the ‘pondering’ phase of the first round of proofreading Perfect Opportunities since January 29 and yesterday and today were both very good days for considering alternatives. I spent a lot of time both days writing on that project and left this one until the end of the day.

In addition to that, I downloaded a new office suite (Neo Office, for those of you who run Macs and who are interested in free software) and I’ve had a lot of fun learning how to make it sing. I got a bit carried away with that tonight and it was ten o’clock before I realized it. So I was trying to get in 700 words after ten o’clock and while dealing with a pounding headache.

To be honest, I don’t know how coherent those words are, but they did get written.

February

February 1, 2009 – 740 words

February 2, 2009 – 1,180 words

Writing the second draft for Perfect Opportunities officially begins today. I am as intimidated by the prospect as I would be facing a brand new project. More intimidated. New projects usually come with lots of good ideas.

February 3, 2009 – 710 words

February 4, 2009 – 817 words

February 5, 2009 – 931 words

February 6, 2009 – 700 words

February 7, 2009 – 708 words

February 8, 2009 – 827 words

Major frustrations with Perfect Opportunities. Too many ideas to proceed, believe it or not. I’m going to set it aside for a week to concentrate on this exercise and on the Lenten Devotional.

February 9, 2009 – 798 words

February 10, 2009 – 708 words

I had a difficult time getting word count today. I’ve noticed an overall decline in creativity this week, even in painting. I can’t help but wonder if the stagnation over Perfect Opportunities is spilling over into other writing areas and into the studio.

February 11, 2009 – 768 words

February 12, 2009 – 708 words

February 13, 2009 – 706 words

February 14, 2009 – 729 words

February 15, 2009 – 1,200 words

February 16, 2009 – 1,599 words

February 17, 2009 – 843 words

February 18, 2009 – 732 words

February 19, 2009 – 771 words

February 20, 2009 – 1,072 words

February 21, 2009 – 1,574 words

February 22, 2009 – 0 words

February 23, 2009 – 808 words

February 24, 2009 – 703 words

February 25, 2009 – 741 words

February 26, 2009 – 738 words

February 27, 2009 – 824 words

February 28, 2009 – 828 words

March

March 1, 2009 – 0 words

Sunday

March 2, 2009 – 717 words

March 3, 2009 – 1,008 words

March 4, 2009 – 756 words

Getting started today was a rough go. When I got home from work, I wanted to paint or read more than I wanted to write. I even preferred ironing shirts to writing and usually that gets the creative juices flowing.

I finally had to sit myself down and I make myself write something. Once I got started, though, I was able to do the required word count and then a little, but it wasn’t much fun.

March 5, 2009 – 230 words

Computer problems tonight and not much enthusiasm for writing.

March 6, 2009 – 0 words

All day trip to the National Cowboy Hall of Fame & Museum, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, for art research!

March 7, 2009 – 894 words

March 8, 2009 – 0 words

Sunday

March 9, 2009 – 209 words

A sorry state of affairs today. No enthusiasm for writing whatsoever.

March 10, 2009 – 706 words

March 11, 2009 – 1,565 words

Ah! New ideas for Perfect Opportunities or a new story. I’m writing everything that comes to mind with no thought for sticking to 700 words if there are more in the mind.

March 12, 2009 – 948 words

March 13, 2009 – 1,538 words

March 14, 2009 – 918 words

March 15, 2009 – 0 words

Sunday

March 16, 2009 – 795 words

March 17, 2009 – 747 words

March 18, 2009 – 746 words

March 19, 2009 – 752 words

March 20, 2009 – 736 words

March 21, 2009 – 1,401 words

Today’s writing was used to work out a potential scene for the story I’m currently working on, Perfect Opportunities. Whether or not it will be used for that purpose is still unknown, but it was helpful nevertheless.

March 22, 2009 – 870 words

Since today was Sunday and is not typically considered a writing day, I did something a bit different on a whim. I wrote nothing but one-liners; the sorts of lines that open stories. Or that could open stories if given half a chance. Lines like, “It was a dark and stormy night”. No, I didn’t use that, but that was the sort of thing I was looking for. It was definitely stream of consciousness sort of stuff, but I ended up with some interesting ideas.

March 23, 2009 – 881 words

March 24, 2009 – 1,077 words

March 25, 2009 – 891 words

March 26, 2009 – 754 words

March 27, 2009 – 1,348 words

March 28, 2009 – 1,495 words

March 29, 2009 – 0 words

Sunday

March 30, 2009 – 0 words

I spent all of my writing time reading old stories I’d written in the mid to late 80s and liking them very much. Four or five more ideas to clog up the works.

March 31, 2009 – 916 words

April

April 1, 2009 – 1,099 words

April 2, 2009 – 752 words

April 3, 2009 – 995 words

April 30, 2009 – 879 words

April 4, 2009 – 1,462 words

April 5, 2009 – 700 words

April 6, 2009 – 715 words

April 7, 2009 – 712 words

April 8, 2009 – 700 words

April 9, 2009 – 701 words

April 10, 2009 – 0 words

Sunflower Arab Show – no writing today

April 11, 2009 – 0 words

Sunflower Arab Show – no writing today

April 12, 2009 – 0 words

Sunday

April 13, 2009 – 773 words

April 14, 2009 – 0 words

April 15, 2009 – 1,073 words

April 16, 2009 – 0 words

April 17, 2009 – 727 words

April 18, 2009 – 774 words

April 19, 2009 – 790 words

April 20, 2009 – 733 words

April 21, 2009 – 839 words

April 22, 2009 – 1,197 words

April 23, 2009 – 983 words

April 24, 2009 – 741 words

April 25, 2009 – 763 words

April 26, 2009 – 814 words

April 27, 2009 – 816 words

April 28, 2009 – 723 words

April 29, 2009 – 790 words

May

May 1, 2009 – 731 words

May 2, 2009 – 0 words

To Kansas City, Missouri today; Signature Canvas tour & Dave Ramsey Live!

May 3, 2009 – 0 words

Sunday

May 4, 2009 – 1,288 words

May 5, 2009 – 1,451 words

May 6, 2009 – 1,107 words

May 7, 2009 – 700 words

May 8, 2009 – 971 words

May 9, 2009 – 700 words

May 10, 2009 – 0 words

May 11, 2009 – 785 words

May 12, 2009 – 0 words

May 13, 2009 – 757 words

May 14, 2009 – 701 words

May 15, 2009 – 815 words

May 16, 2009 – 828 words

May 17, 2009 – 78 words

May 18, 2009 – 701 words

May 19, 2009 – 1,243 words

May 20, 2009 – 750 words

May 21, 2009 – 708 words

May 22, 2009 – 798 words

May 23, 2009 – 811 words

May 24, 2009 – 0 words

May 25, 2009 – 733 words

May 26, 2009 – 1,131 words

May 27, 2009 – 703 words

May 28, 2009 – 707 words

May 29, 2009 – 336 words

Computer tie up and too late a start today

May 30, 2009 – 821 words

May 31, 2009 – 0 words

Sunday

June

June 1, 2009 – 1,699 words

I’m planning on participating in National Novel Writing Month in November. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. In order to do this, I will have to write 2,000 words every day but Sunday. To prepare for that, I am strongly considering upping the daily requirement for this exercise to 1,000 words per day for June and July and upping it again in August and September. Training, if you will. I haven’t decided whether to apply all the words to this exercise, or simply to set the goal of writing that many each day, all writing work to be included. Stay tuned!

June 2, 2009 – 1,174 words

I’m changing the guidelines for the Daily Writing Exercise, effective today. The first change is word count, which I’m increasing to 1,000 words per day for the month of June. The second change is that I’m going to count all words written toward this goal instead of keeping a separate count for the Daily Writing Exercise. That should help me monitor increased production and little more easily. On those days when I have something to write that is not related to an active story, I will put in the Daily Writing Exercise category.

June 3, 2009 – 1,332 words

June 4, 2009 – 1,015 words

June 5, 2009 – 1,315 words

June 6, 2009 – 1,979 words

A word gust of 2,600 plus! Wow! A couple of hours of dedicated writing with no interruptions other than checking the horse racing web site and doing a bit of online research and this is the result. Woo-hoo!

June 7, 2009 – 0 words

Sunday

June 8, 2009 – 1,321 words

June 9, 2009 – 1,205 words

June 10, 2009 – 1,248 words

June 11, 2009 – 3,480 words

June 12, 2009 – 2,251 words

June 13, 2009 – 4,218 words

June 14, 2009 – 0 words

Sunday

June 15, 2009 – 2,348 words

June 16, 2009 – 2,094 words

June 17, 2009 – 2,690 words

June 18, 2009 – 2,434 words

June 19, 2009 – 2,596 words

June 20, 2009 – 2,677 words

June 21, 2009 – 0 words

Sunday

June 22, 2009 – 2,219 words

June 23, 2009 – 3,515 words

June 24, 2009 – 3,362 words

June 25, 2009 – 3,543 words

June 26, 2009 – 2,922 words

June 27, 2009 – 2,694 words

I finished Parting Gifts this evening at 11:06. Thank You God! 80,559 words total, most of which was written this month.

June 28, 2009 – 0 words

Sunday

June 29, 2009 – 3,600 words

June 30, 2009 – 1,934 words

Today was the end of the one month challenge. At the end of the day, I’d written 1,934 words, which gave me a daily average of 2,355 for the 26 writing days in June and a total word count for June of 61,225. That is so far above what I intended to do that I’m not sure where to go from here. I almost hate to give up writing actively to work on the second draft of Fine Lines, but maybe I can do some writing there, too.

July

July 1, 2009 – 2,248 words

A new set of goals for July. In two steps, I want to complete the next draft of Fine Lines by finishing the analysis portion of the work by July 7, then devoting the rest of the month to rewriting as necessary.

But I also want to keep up some writing momentum by doing 1,000 words a day on something, whether it’s Fine Lines or something else. I used the words today to write alternative plot ideas.

July 2, 2009 – 4,895 words

Participated in a “word war” with some NaNoWriMo friends at ChristianWriters.com. The goal was to see how much we could write in one hour. I managed 2,404 words, which was more than I’d done for the rest of the day.

July 3, 2009 – 2,278 words

Started reading through the current version of Fine Lines. Also began some rewriting with new scenes and a new opening.

July 4, 2009 -1,063 words

July 5, 2009 – 28 words

Sunday

July 6, 2009 – 3,234 words

I finished the reading and analysis of Fine Lines today. I’ve been developing alternate plot ideas for the story as a whole and for individual characters this week, too, and will plan to continue that until July 11.

July 7, 2009 – 6,728 words

July 8, 2009 – 2,724 words

July 9, 2009 – 3,924 words

July 10, 2009 – 2,506 words

July 11, 2009 – 1,656 words

Big doings at the Carriage Factory Art Gallery today; a nearly full day of activities so even though word count is less today than I’ve been averaging, I was pleased with it. I hadn’t expected to have any writing time at all!

July 12, 2009 – 0 words

Sunday

July 13, 2009 – 3,021 words

Finished alternate plot evaluation for Fine Lines by writing summaries for each of four viable alternatives and one new one, then paring them down to one or two and, finally, the one I want to use for the rewrite. Tomorrow, rewriting begins.

July 14, 2009 – 2,162 words

I was a little light on Fine Lines words today, writing only 792 on the first day of rewriting. But I more than made up for it by writing 1,370 words on a random idea.

July 15, 2009 – 1,752 words

470 words on the Daily Writing Exercise, 1,282 on the Fine Lines rewrite. I finished two chapters today and was very happy with that!

July 16, 2009 – 2,629 words

1,556 on Fine Lines rewrite (Chapters 3, 4 & 5!)

1,073 on other writing

July 17, 2009 – 3,559 words

1,857 on Fine Lines rewrite (Chapters 3, 4 & 5!)

1,702 on other writing

July 18, 2009 – 1,749 words

Fine Lines

July 19, 2009 – 357 words

Sunday

July 20, 2009 – 3,182 words

All on Fine Lines and mostly this evening after all but ignoring it the rest of the day.

July 21, 2009 – 3,135 words

2,026 on Fine Lines

1,109 on Daily Writing Exercise

July 22, 2009 – 5,671 words

2,855 on Fine Lines, including more plot development

2,816 on Brad Christopher

July 23, 2009 – 7,031 words

4,503 on Fine Lines, including more plot development

580 on Brad Christopher

1,948 on other writing. A good writing day today!

July 24, 2009 – 5,662 words

3,532 on Fine Lines, including more plot development

617 on Brad Christopher

1,513 on other writing

I’m holding my breath; I think I may have gotten over a major hurdle with Fine Lines today and may be able to wrap it up or nearly wrap it up by the end of the month as planned. Stay tuned!

July 25, 2009 – 3,075 words

Most of my writing today concerned documenting new ideas, with only 718 words on Fine Lines

July 26, 2009 – 2,043 words

Another day spent documenting a new idea. Over half of the word count went into that.

813 words on Fine Lines

July 27, 2009 – 4,140 words

All Fine Lines today.

July 28, 2009 – 5,498 words

July 29, 2009 – 4,325 words

Here I go again. I spent my writing time doing a chapter outline for a second story featuring the lead character from Fine Lines. It could be either a prequel or the first story. I haven’t made up my mind what to do with it, yet, but it’s told in third person instead of first and it could turn into something else altogether.

July 30, 2009 -3,629 words

1,113 words on Fine Lines (still struggling along)

2,516 words on the new idea chapter outline

July 31, 2009 – 1,503 words

All Fine Lines today, but not on the rewrite. sigh July’s goal of getting a complete rewrite has fallen by the wayside. Lots of progress, but this work is not yet complete.

August

August 1, 2009 – 2,201 words

That time of the month again: New Goals.

Goals for August are two-part.

First, develop chapter outlines for three stories for possible use with NaNoWriMo

Second, write 1,924 words per day of fiction. Any other writing I do (plotting, outlines, etc.) will not count toward this goal. Fiction word count is what will be recorded here for August.

August 2, 2009 – 02 words

Sunday

August 3, 2009 – 1,952 words

Worked on a chapter outline for the first of three ideas for NaNoWriMo in addition to the daily word count

August 4, 2009 – 2,012 words

August 5, 2009 – 1,832 words

I fell short of the 1,924 word count goal for fiction today. Just couldn’t eke out an additional 90 words before crashing!

August 6, 2009 – 5,910 words

Worked on a chapter outline for the second of three ideas for NaNoWriMo in addition to the daily word count. This idea is brand new and I managed a twenty-nine chapter outline. Fiction writing was more of a stretch….

Also made the daily fiction word count goal with some writing on the Daily Writing Exercise.

August 7, 2009 – 2,309 words

August 8, 2009 – 2,064 words

Also worked on a NaNoWriMo idea and another idea.

August 9, 2009 – 0 words

Sunday

August 10, 2009 – 1,935 words

Also reviewed/worked on three NaNoWriMo chapter outlines

August 11, 2009 – 4,195 words

2,039 on fiction

August 12, 2009 – 2,365 words

812 on fiction. I didn’t meet the daily count, but the daily average to date is on target thanks to a lot of writing in the last several days.

August 13, 2009 – 862 words

No fiction writing today. My bad!

August 14, 2009 – 4,945 words

3,683 on fiction

August 15, 2009 – 3,993 words

2,704 on fiction

August 16, 2009 – 1,742 words

September 16, 2009 – 1,500 words

September 17, 2009 – 957 words

September 18, 2009 – 981 words

September 19, 2009 – 790 words

September 20, 2009 – 0 words

Sunday

September 21, 2009 – 875 words

September 22, 2009 – 1,149 words

September 23, 2009 -1,211 words

Up to today, all of my fiction writing has involved Perfect Opportunities. Today, I hit a bit of a roadblock and only 145 words applied to Perfect Opportunities. Everything else was either part of the Daily Writing Exercise proper or on some other story.

September 24, 2009 – 2,150 words

A good writing day! Over 1,200 words on Perfect Opportunities.

September 25, 2009 – 976 words

September 26, 2009 – 1,661 words

September 27, 2009 – 0 words

Sunday

September 28, 2009 – 0 words

A disappointing day today. I tried several times to work on Perfect Opportunities, but there was nothing in the tank. I didn’t have anything else to write, either, and finished the day doing nothing in the writing department.

September 29, 2009 – 706 words

I worked on something else today and set Perfect Opportunities aside. I don’t like doing that when something is so close to completion, but sometimes taking a break is the best way to advance a project.

September 30, 2009 – 1,291 words

A good last day of the month, again working on the other project. In spite of some hardships getting writing in on a few days, I finished the month with an average daily word count of 863 fiction words. That’s a lot better than I expected!

October

Goals for October.

• 800 words of fiction a day
• Parting Gifts read through
• Decide what in the world to do with Perfect Opportunities!

October 1, 2009 – 879 words

October 2, 2009 – 916 words

October 3, 2009 – 0 words

The only writing I did today was in one journal or another. No fiction. Instead, I spent most of the day doing the first read through of Parting Gifts. Conclusion? Very good read, needs work.

October 4, 2009 – 0 words

Sunday

October 5, 2009 – 800 words

October 6, 2009 – 1,650 words

October 7, 2009 – 1,741 words

October 8, 2009 – 2,414 words

October 9, 2009 – 1,326 words

October 10, 2009 – 4,029 words

A slow start but a great finish today. Fiction words all went into a single, semi-new story, a historical fiction set in a small, Kansas town. I wrote parts of five chapters without even thinking about it.

October 11, 2009 – 0 words

Sunday

October 12, 2009 – 3,270 words

Fiction writing was spread across three ideas today, including the one I worked on two days ago.

October 13, 2009 – 1,791 words

October 14, 2009 – 3,049 words

October 15, 2009 – 966 words

In spite of it being a travel day! I’m impressed!

October 16, 2009 – 469 words

In Michigan

October 17, 2009 – 0 words

In Michigan

October 18, 2009 – 0 words

In Michigan & Sunday

October 19, 2009 – 0 words

Travel Day

October 20, 2009 – 1,624 words

October 21, 2009 – 2,155 words

October 22, 2009 – 951 words

October 23, 2009 – 1,571 words

Second draft of Parting Gifts began in earnest today. All of my fiction writing was on that manuscript.

October 24, 2009 – 1,347 words

Parting Gifts

October 25, 2009 – 0 words

Sunday

October 26, 2009 – 101 words

Parting Gifts

October 27, 2009 – 119 words

Parting Gifts

October 28, 2009 – 425 words

Parting Gifts

October 29, 2009 – 821 words

A couple of different projects

October 30, 2009 – 0 words

October 31, 2009 – 1,039 words

Parting Gifts

November

Goals for November.

• NaNoWriMo Novel: Saving Grace
• November Challenge: Parting Gifts second draft
• 3,000 words per day, fiction
• Advent devotional

November 1, 2009 – 0 words

Sunday

November 2, 2009 – 8,301 words

Saving Grace: 7,148

Parting Gifts: 1,153

November 3, 2009 – 5,867 words

Saving Grace: 4,714

Parting Gifts: 1,153

November 4, 2009 – 6,917 words

Saving Grace: 5,831

Parting Gifts: 1,086

November 5, 2009 – 6,713 words

Saving Grace: 6,440

Parting Gifts: 273

November 6, 2009 – 9,362 words

Saving Grace: 7,890

Parting Gifts: 206

November 7, 2009 – 6,638 words

Saving Grace: 5,946

Parting Gifts: 692

November 8, 2009 – 0 words

Sunday

November 9, 2009 – 5,399 words

Saving Grace: 4,217

Parting Gifts: 1,182

November 10, 2009 – 4,632 words

Saving Grace: 4,632

Parting Gifts: 415

November 11, 2009 – 7,063 words

Saving Grace: 6,047

Parting Gifts: 1,016

November 12, 2009 – 5,704 words

Saving Grace: 5,483

Parting Gifts: 221

November 13, 2009 – 6,876 words

Saving Grace: 6,876

Parting Gifts: 0

November 14, 2009 – 6,073 words

Saving Grace: 6,073

Parting Gifts: 0

November 15, 2009 – 0 words

Sunday. No writing.

November 16, 2009 – 5,916 words

Saving Grace: 5,834

Parting Gifts: 82

November 17, 2009 – 5,868 words

Saving Grace: 5,868

Parting Gifts: 0 fiction; worked on plot planning instead

November 18, 2009 – 4,483 words

Saving Grace: 4,483

Parting Gifts: 0

November 19, 2009 – 6,309 words

Saving Grace: 6,309

Parting Gifts: 0

November 20, 2009 – 6,783 words

Saving Grace: 6,783

Parting Gifts: 0 fiction; worked on plot planning instead, then promptly lost everything. I’ll have to recreate it tomorrow. Hopefully, it’ll be even better!

November 21, 2009 – 7,296 words

Saving Grace: 7,296

Parting Gifts: 0 fiction; Recreated the lost Snowflake Step One this morning; as anticipated, I ended up with more options and most of them were far superior to whatever I lost yesterday. Many goods!

November 22, 2009 – 0 words

Sunday. No writing.

November 23, 2009 – 8,574 words

Saving Grace: 8,574

Parting Gifts: 0 fiction; Reviewed one-sentence summaries, chose three and development them at Snowflake Step Two.

November 24, 2009 – 5,048 words

Saving Grace: 5,048

Parting Gifts: 0 fiction; Reviewed one-paragraph story summaries, began character development

November 25, 2009 – 10,406 words

Saving Grace: 10,406 (A new daily word count high!

Parting Gifts: I think I may set this aside for attention at a later date; the push is on now to finish

November 26, 2009 – 4,251 words

Saving Grace: 4,251

Worked on Chapters 57 – Epilogue

November 27, 2009 – 6,451 words

Saving Grace:

November 28, 2009 – 3,854 words

Saving Grace: 3,854

November 29, 2009 – 0 words

Sunday. No Writing

November 30, 2009 – 4,142 words

Saving Grace: 4,142

The last official day of National Novel Writing Month!

December

Goals for December.

• Print Saving Grace
• Update Scene Worksheet Saving Grace
• Write Character Histories Saving Grace
• Write Story Background Saving Grace
• Write Time Line Saving Grace
• Read through Saving Grace
• Read through Saving Grace
• Analyze Plot & Structure Saving Grace
• 700 words per day, fiction
• 3,000 words per day Saving Grace

December 1, 2009

Fiction – 745

Saving Grace – 2,460 Finished snowflake, worked on character development

December 2, 2009

Fiction – 748 words

Saving Grace – 5,612 Finished snowflake, worked on character development

December 3, 2009

Fiction – 879 words

Saving Grace – 5,831 Worked on character development & story background

December 4, 2009

Fiction – 755 words

Saving Grace – 13,335 Wrote a time line for the entire story

December 5, 2009

Fiction – 1,849 words

Saving Grace – 5,429 Worked on character development

December 6, 2009

Sunday, No Writing

December 7, 2009

Fiction – 1,193 words

Saving Grace – 4,997 Worked on character development

December 8, 2009

Fiction – 1,215 words

Saving Grace – 7,068 Worked on character development

December 9, 2009

Fiction – 1,047 words

Saving Grace – 3,536 Worked on character development

December 10, 2009

Fiction – 1,048 words

Saving Grace – 3,279 Worked on alternate beginnings & a little bit of character development

December 11, 2009

Fiction – 748 words

Saving Grace – 1,563 Made a few plotting notes and journalizing, the officially set the story aside at least until December 15 and probably until December 26.

Interim Project – 3,981 Character development

December 12, 2009

Fiction – 1,523 words

Interim Project – 4,920 Character development

December 13, 2009

Sunday, No Writing

December 14, 2009

Fiction – 1,280 words

Interim Project – 3,975 Character development & snowflaking

December 15, 2009

Fiction – 981 words

Interim Project – 3,155 Snowflaking & scene development

December 16, 2009

Fiction – 776 words

Interim Project – 6,275 Character development, time line, snowflake

December 17, 2009

Fiction – 1,525 words

3,287 – a variety of projects, including the Interim Project

December 18, 2009

Fiction – 4,444 words

December 19, 2009

Fiction – 719 words

December 20, 2009

Fiction – 917 words

December 21, 2009

Fiction – 3,140 words

December 22, 2009

Fiction – 3,979 words

December 23, 2009

Fiction – 2,167 words

December 24, 2009

Fiction – 0 words

Travel Day – Trip to Michigan

December 25, 2009

Fiction – 0 words

Saving Grace – Reading begins

December 26, 2009

Fiction – 1,526 words

Saving Grace – Reading concludes

December 27, 2009

Fiction – 416 words

December 28, 2009

Fiction – 1,533 words

December 29, 2009

Fiction – 719 words

December 30, 2009

Fiction – 1,087 words

December 31, 2009

Fiction – 2,468 words

Total 2009 Challenge Word Count: 306,111
Total 2009 Word Count: 961,563

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