Day 20: Judgement Day

Today is Day 20 of the project. I worked a 9-5pm shift at the warehouse. I talked to some fun customers, had fun with my manager...I picked up my tax information and found out I'll be able to attend LitDay as well as the PNWA conference (in Orland and Seattle, respectively). I'm am SOOOO excited words cannot express. After this endeavor, I went boxing because I'm out of shape (and getting sore from playing too much Wii Fitness).

All in all, I didn't start writing until about 7pm. Then I made dinner (which was awful, sorry again, Laura) which took another hour. But...

I did it! I wrote a novel in 20 days. Granted, it needs some SEVERE editing, but it's done!!!

---The progress---

Pages: 200 (Kind of lame, I know, but that's what editing is for)

Word Count: 56,300 (ish) (Not 60,000, nor 70,000. I hope editing will fill some of this in)

Pace: 2816 Words/Day

Day 18: Buisness Cards!

Today is Day 18, and I'm still finding myself distracted (though still able to write, at least). I got an e-mail from VistaPrint that said "Free business cards!" so...I took advantage. I am now awaiting the arrival of my 250 pretty business cards that say:

Stephanie Lynn(e) Schmidt

Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Poetry

Writer

Yea. Cuz I'm awesome. (Not really...but the cards are pretty so it leads me to think so!) Either way, they'll arrive before the PWNA conference in Seattle (if I'm able to scrounge around $495. Plus, this would lead me to the wonderful Ms. Jennifer Olson!), and LitDay in Orlando ($125). It would be awesome to meet people and be all 'Here's my card! Let's keep in touch!' Oh AWP...how you influence me! :)

I haven't written as much today as I had hoped. It's midnight though, and I have the day off tomorrow so I may stay up for awhile. As it stands I'm on:

Page 185

Word Count: 51,836...which isn't too bad. Especially if I'm able to write A LOT tomorrow. 

Alright, that's the baby update. Back on task!

50,000+ Words, Day 17

It's DAY 17 today and still early. I just surpassed the 50,000 word mark! Which means, I need to get at least another 10,000 in 3 days (to reach the 20 day mark). That sets the pace at: 3333 words/day (at least). Double that if I'm hitting the 70,000 mark. (Confessions of an Immortal Heart finished up at 73,000). This of course is negating how far I get by the end of today :)

This daylight savings time crap is throwing off my groove. Well, that and my sister's presence in the Outer Banks. We stay up too late and it's distracting. (Although, technically, I can say it's research...as my narrator has a sister :) ). It's been awesome having her here, but I need to ration my Laura time and increase my WRITING time. It's kind of pivotal now, right?

Getting back to the topic of the blog...Submissions stand at...
Submitting to an agent earlier this morning.
Submitted Breaking Myself Down last night after some heavy edits. Yet another $15 submission fee :(, but oh well. Hoping to win a contest sooner or later :)
I've also submitted to three other competitions this week (different pieces)...which brings my submission fees up to a whopping $72. Yackkkk. I'm also missing my debit card, which is SUPER lame. I may need to order another.

I'll keep you all posted on the progress :)

Also..I'm not sure if you've noticed. I really like smiley-faces. I REALLY, REALLY like the :/ face, which on some chat forums doesn't turn into a face. Either way, it's my favorite.

Early On Day 16: Excuses, Excuses

For Igniting a Firestarter:

47,677 Words

169 Pages (Running A Little Behind...Fully Intend To Catch Up!!)

(This now lowers my page to 3,178 words/day and 11 pages/day)

Now...the excuses as to WHY I'm so far behind:

As previously stated, my sister has come back and we've been spending a lot of time catching up (via Wii). Outside of that, as this blog is called The Submission Process...I've been doing that; submitting.

This week I've entered into three competitions: Creative Nonfiction (their subject is Anger and Revenge. How awesome is that?), as well as a poetry competition from Southeast Review, and their short-short story competition.

There are many deadlines coming up on March 15th and March 31st, so I'm trying to get a head start and the novel project has kind of taken a back seat. I fully intend to catch up between today and tomorrow.

Day 13: Distractions

Last night around midnight my sister, Laura, graced the Outer Banks with her presence. As such, I went to work today and she came in around noon. I was on Benedryl (spelling?) again so I was super tired all day (and thankfully, less itchy). When I got out of work, she still had another few hours left. I went home, cuddled Baxter cuz I was tired. Then Mike came over and we took a very long nap.

Laura came home and we all decided to go out to eat...it's now almost 11pm and I've barely started working on the story. Which, is okay because I'm far enough ahead that I can slack off a bit today, HOWEVER, tomorrow, there is a wedding I'm supposed to go to as well as reception and I'm wondering how I'm going to time manage all of this and still hit the 20 day mark.

Guess we'll see...

Side note, she stole my computer and wrote an ending for Igniting a Firestarter:

And then people lit each other on fire. And the whole world ended. There was, however, one survivor. He reproduced asexually, and dominated the planet. Then, his progeny spread to other planets. Then, the whole entire universe was a monoculture of this one guy’s offspring. A huge, man-eating disease that targeted monocultures came by and killed everything.

El fin.  (She told me this is "The End" in French...I was unaware...)

Day 12 Of 20

Today is the 12th day into the 20 day project. Here are the standings at the moment:

147 Pages

41,652 Words

I have the day off today, so I thought I'd be able to shell out 20 pages or so (which has become a common occurrence on days off. My dog doesn't appreciate the days I spend at home any more because I'm plugged into my computer. All. Day. Long. Which interrupts his beach playing time. Or fetch. Or begging for food. Or just being pet all afternoon. Okay, you get the idea...) I'm starting to think I'll be lucky to hit the 3,500 word goal today....Here's why:

It's Fat Tuesday. I spent the morning going to Starbucks and McDonald's (SHAMROCK SHAKKKKEEEE!), then running errands with Mike. When I got home, I started washing my sheets and blankets because of my dog, Baxter. Beyond that, I've been trying to prepare my sister's soon to be room (Laura is making the 16-17 hour drive from Michigan to the Outer Banks of North Carolina as we speak). I have massive amounts of A.D.D...

Other than the errands, my loving dog seems to enjoy nothing more than a fabulous romp through poison ivy patches. Hi. My name is Stephanie (Lynne) and I am highly allergic to poison ivy. When I was younger I got it once a year and it was hell. Well...Baxter, my adorable pony sized dog...shares my bed with me (thankfully it's upgraded to a queenish size bed rather than the twin we used to share. That was awful...). Which means, I wake up in the morning with my neck itching, or my arms covered in fresh reddish-pink splotches.

It's gotten to the point I'm considering quarantining myself so I don't have to go out in public. Mike and I talked today and he told me to cave in and take some Benedryl (spelling?)...after a mad search of my messy, messy room, I found it.

Now I'm exhausted. I've even had coffee today (I'm severely caffeine intolerant. One cup of coffee usually means I'm up for three days. Not. Kidding. Ask my sister, I hallucinate). Because of the medication in my system...I'm soooo tired. And I can't even take a nap right now because my bedding is either in the washer or drier. Baxter's head is resting near my leg as I type this. I'm a little jealous that he's snoring. I want to be snoring, or productive and writing.

Let's see if I can focus before passing out. :)

The 20 Day Project

It's technically midnight (therefore March 8th), but I haven't slept yet, so I consider today to still be March 7th. I will be writing for a few more minutes then taking a hiatus known as sleep. 

So, here are the most recent stats (or what I've figured out):

In order to stay on task with an approximately 60,000-70,000 word novel I need to write about 3,500 words a day. 

To write a 200 page novel in 20 days, it'd be 10 pages a day.

Here's the pace thus far (thank you dear Word Count tool)...

Day 11

I'm on page 144

Writing pace: 13 pages/day

Word Count: 40,620

Word pace: 3,692 words/day

 If I keep up at this pace, I may have a novel in 18 days :) But, things happen, so I'm still aiming for 20 and no less than that. Besides, if I finish early, that means I get to start editing faster :)

Right now I have the beginning written, most of the middle, and the end finished (or at least the last two pages of the end finished). I need to now connect the dots from middle to end. 

I'm pretttttttyyyyyyyy exxxxxccccciiiiittttteeeeddddddd. :)

100 Pages in 8 Days

As the previous blog states, I'm trying to write 10 pages a day to shell out an approximately 200 page novel in about 20 days. As of 3/4/11, I am on page 100 (and it's still early in the evening, so I may get even further). 

I'm not saying that on the 20 day mark what I've written will be worth reading. At that point I may have some of my readers read the first edition so we can edit together, but I am very pleased with my ideas thus far. Today I was even so productive I named novel number three:

Igniting a Firestarter

Yes, Fire and Starter are supposed to be two words, but read the book and you'll understand. :) I may try to post the first few pages, but I'm undecided (I'm deathly afraid of people stealing my work...especially before it goes to print...which is stupid, I know, but if ya'll wanna read some, shoot me an e-mail).

This novel is also directed at the Young Adult audience (the narrator is 14, potential love interest is 18). Remember how bitchy people were in high school? And how people would talk behind your back, or do things just to get a rise out of you? Well, this novel covers that...and makes it so those awful things that you say actually create damage. Thus, the genre is magical realism. It's supposed to be somewhat believable....hopefully.

Once again, the narrator does not have a name, however her sister does (Jennifer), and the love interest bears the name Alec. Her parents are Mom and Dad. Mackenzie, a friend and classmate sits next to her in her dreadful Genetics class. Her frienemy is named Allison.

I'm glad because I know how the story will end and what the big conflict is. I'm also stoked because this story has the potential to be a series (or one very, very long novel). There's a lot of different directions I can take. It's fun to play out different scenarios between the characters.

Okay, that's all for now! Have an awesome day!

Trying To Write A Novel In 20 Days (Or Under)

The novel I'm currently submitting to agents (The Dying Process/Confessions of an Immortal Heart) took a total of 6-8 years or so to write, edit, find people to read, to take a break from and live life for awhile, re-read, write an appropriate end. I can't really remember exactly the year I started it (my journal is in my storage unit in Maine), but I know it was in high school.

Some Quick Math:

It took four years to graduate college.

It's been almost a year since I've been out of college.

I did not start that novel my senior year. 

So...I'm gonna say it's anywhere from 6-8 years of progress.

So I've been editing Confessions of an Immortal Heart/The Dying Process like it's my job (which it's not by the way. I have a full time job through Kitty Hawk Kites). While Tammy was finishing up edits/reading for me I myself got sick of it (which happens when you've nearly memorized every line, to the point that someone could say to me "You have a spelling error in this sentence: ' _______'" and I could recite the sentences before/after and go directly to the page to fix said error. Yea, I had been eating and breathing that novel....) So, I decided to wait for Tammy to finish up so I could take some time away then finish up as well.

Moral of the story: I feel like that was WAYYYYY too long to finish (mainly because I kept not having a suitable end, which I do now). Now, I want to kick it up a notch (and actually try something most people have said is crazy, or crazy awesome.)

But then I wondered....what to do with my spare time?

At AWP one of the panelists said "Just keep writing. It's the best thing you can do." So, taking that advice, I started writing something that's been going through my head a lot  (this was last Thursday).

Day 1--I wrote 6 pages before deciding to call it a night.
Day 2--I wrote over 12 pages.
Day 3--Wrote all day where I was able. Stayed up til 2am without tiring. It was this day I decided to set a goal:

Write 10 pages a day/night. 

Why? Because 10 seems like a reasonable number. And because my first novel is 210 pages. And because at a pace of 10 pages a day, I'd end up with a novel by around March 14th (right now I stopped last night at page 81, and will be picking up when I'm done with this blog.) And because I think it'd be cool to say, "I just wrote my second novel...in 20 days. Care to read/edit it?" (Okay, sort of kidding. After it's written, I would edit it myself....and then ask for readers :) )

Therefore, it's official. I am trying to write an approximately 200 page novel in 20 days or under. Thankfully, I have two days off a week if I don't meet my goal or if something comes up.

Wish me luck!