This week has been manic.
My role at day-job is shifting, and I’ve begun doing some of the new-style work which takes a bit of getting used to. This weekend I’m in Dorset, and tomorrow I’ve got an important meeting followed by coffee with a friend I’ve not seen for 5 years.
I’m still fitting in time to write, but it’s becoming tricky.
I’ve resorted to trying new things, like story structures and writing scenes out of order.
In fact I’ve not only broken my in-order rule, but I’m currently part-way through six of the scenes. And each day, I’m coming back to all of them, and finding a way to add a sentence to each: until I pass my total of 429 words a day (3000 a week).
And so far, 11 days in, it’s been working. I’ve hit my word count, much like NaNoWriMo, but without feeling stressed to the point of having to add in something silly to get things going again. It gives me that little bit of freedom not to have to slog through a scene I don’t like but to wait a few days until I find something in it that I like or want to expand.
In theory, this should lead to scenes that I like most/all of, and is currently an enjoyable way to write.
Having said this, it does pose the risk of things being out of order – of character’s talking about something before it’s happened – because in my head, I wrote that scene ten minutes ago. So I’m trying to keep an eye on the scene before the one I’m working on; to remind myself of which part of the story I’m in.
I’m not sure if I’ll keep writing in this way, because I only have 20-odd scenes started, but it’s something I hadn’t tried before, which appears to be working for now.