katecavanaugh

Writing on Road Trips Experiment (& upcoming Double Stream Days!) (Patreon)

Published:

2023-09-20 17:18:21

Imported:

2024-05

Poll

Writing on Road Trips Experiment (& upcoming Double Stream Days!)

Miles driven = words written (so 300 miles = 300 words) 27
Multiply miles driven by 2 (300 x 2 = 600 words) 43
Multiply miles driven by 3 (300 x 3 = 900 words) 8
Multiply miles driven by 4 (300 x 4 = 1200 words) 1
Coffee adds 500 words 55
Coffee adds 750 words 2
Coffee adds 1000 words 3
Coffee is a 2x multiplier 9
Bathroom breaks add 100 words each 3
Bathroom breaks take away 100 words each 54
Books bought +1000 words each 19
Books bought are +500 each 30
If I buy jewelry at a bookshop multiply it all x2 16
If I even so much as stop at a book store, add 500 words regardless of purchase 27
Roadside "monuments" or attractions take away 500 words 31
Roadside "monuments" or attractions add 500 words 9
Roadside "monuments" or attractions divide everything by 2 because why not 16

Content

HI FRIENDS.

As of last night, I've successfully brought the catalyst in Project Death down from ~18,000 words to 11,084 words!!! (This is close enough to my 10K goal that I'm okay moving onto the beast that is my "debate" period bahaha.)

My goal for today is to reread what I have, map out the scenes between the Catalyst and Break Into Two, and start rewriting!! To quote my brain goo-ey self from a couple days ago: "The progress is progressing." And I feel good about it!!

That means that, on our next Double Stream Days, I should be just about to the Fun & Games section!!

Speaking of:

Double Stream Day #3 will be on Friday, September 22nd at 2:00pm CDT.

And Double Stream Day #4, our final one for September, will be on Saturday, September 23rd at 10:30am CDT.

(So we'll get to celebrate the changing of the seasons together, HOORAY! 🌱🍂 I will have, hopefully, just assembled my giant 10-foot skeleton, so I'll have to let y'all know how that goes bahaha.)

Now as some of y'all know, I'm heading out on a 1300+ mile road trip to get to a writing retreat. Then on the way back, I'll be doing a little jaunt over to Nashville for a research trip.

Of course, along the way I'll still be working on Project Death (hopefully finishing at that retreat, eek!), visiting my brothers, and stopping in as many cute cafes and bookshops as I can find.

And like most things in my life, I thought, why not gamify this?? So for this month's (loose) writing experiment, I wanted to get y'alls suggestions and thoughts on how many words I should be trying to write/revise each day along the road up to the retreat! In my mind, different "tasks" could be "bought" with words.

Hang with me here.

I'm thinking miles driven each day = # of words (or potentially double words?? triple? quadruple?) I should write, coffee shops stopped in should be like a +500 (or +750?), restroom breaks could be -100 or something (because they take up time? lolol), and if I buy a book, maybe +1000 words??

So here's how Day 1 could potentially shake out ~mathematically~:

From my home in San Antonio to my brother's place in Dallas, it's ~300 miles.

So 300 miles (x2) = 600 words to write, plus let's say I stopped for coffee once (600+500=1100) and used the bathroom twice (1100-200=900) and also found the cutest bookstore where I couldn't help myself and bought a new release (900+1000=1900), my goal for the day would be 1900 words lolol.

OR if we wanted to go kinda crazy:

300 miles (x3, because why not) = 900 words. I stopped for coffee once (x2 instead, for chaos = 1800), but I also stopped to see a strange monument along the way (-500, because maybe I could use it in a story someday = 1300). And I also bought 2 books (1300+2000=3300 total goal).

Does this make sense?? Lolol.

I'll technically only have 3 "on the road" days:
San Antonio ➡ Dallas (~300 miles)
Dallas ➡ St. Louis (~650 miles)
St. Louis ➡ Columbus area (~450 miles)

So depending on how we vote, certain days might get REAL crazy real fast lololol. Other important info: I will be staying with my brothers for a couple days (both in Dallas & St. Louis), so even if they do get crazy, I'll have plenty of time to make up the words on my non-driving days!

I've set the poll to allow multiple responses, so please vote once for each "category."

Also, if you have any other suggestions for word count additions (or even subtractions or divisions or multipliers, let's go crazy), let me know!

Thanks y'all and happy writing!!