Achievement Unlocked: 2000 (Patreon)

I've been keeping track of my word count ever since I set myself the 500 words/day target.  Looking back over the long column of numbers in the spreadsheet is strangely satisfying, despite some of the unfortunate gaps that appeared earlier in the chapter.  According to my data, I started writing the Interlude on 05/09/23.  Clearly, I really struggled to get the chapter off the ground.  Writing was pretty sporadic:

05/09/2022: 467->918= +451   

06/09/2022: 918->1366= +448  

 04/10/2022: 1366->2096= +730   

31/10/2022: 2096->2404= +308

Then it just... stops, until I pick it up again on 25/05/23.  That's when I discovered that the Patreon I'd thought was on pause had resumed - I still feel guilty about that.

But maybe guilt proved a powerful motivator, because the writing has been pretty steady since, climbing inexorably towards its current novel-length word count of 63,754 as of today's writing. 

The first scene I wrote was the one with Katherine reviewing the footage of the attack in the diner.  I'm still not sure why that defeated me.  Maybe it was exhaustion after writing the previous chapter, but at a relatively lean 20k words.... I don't know.

In any case, one of the things that got me writing again, as I explained in a post some time ago, was listening to the audiobook of Stephen King's On Writing. and possibly even a bit of Brandon Sanderson's writing workshops on Youtube though, to be honest, I never came anywhere close to finishing those; I found the pacing made it almost unwatcheable.

The main takeaway I took was the need for consistency - to set and hit a target, every day.  And while I can't hope to do as Stephen King does (2000/words a day, every day, 7 days a week until the first draft is done) - I've done my best to hit something a bit more modest and realistic to my circumstances: 500/day.

But.  Well, it's a post for another day, but one reason why I started writing Constant, way back when, and why I picked it up again, is because I do have some faint fantasy of someday publishing professionally.  Realistically, that boat has probably sailed.  But one can still dream, right?  And part of making that happen is, well, writing; developing the habits that might transform a vague fantasy into something with the potential to submit for publication.

And with that in mind, I've wondered... if I didn't have all the other constraints in my life, work and so on... could I even reach the 2000 word/day target?

Today, I did.  

The word count actually regressed when I started, as editing an earlier passage trimmed a hundred or two words away.  In the hour or so before work started, I tackled the tricky scene in which David is told his fate.  Wherever I had a few minutes to spare during the day, I eeked out another few hundred... probably fair to say my work output wasn't at it's best today.  After work, I polished off the scene and.... I sat at around 1600 words for the day.

I'd already lay the opening sentences for the next scene (memories of the night with Chad) and thought - let's see if I can hit 2000.  So I resumed and the next time I checked I'd passed 2600 words.

Is any of it good?  Dunno.  I'll look it over tomorrow.  But it felt both wonderful to lose myself in the flow of writing a scene; and immensely satisfying to achieve a... professional, I suppose, output of writing for the day.

At this point, I'd say the interlude is very nearly done.  I reckon by the end of the week, certainly by the end of next, it'll be finished.  I'll give it a week to rest, reread and edit the whole thing, and then start to publish it.