Writing progress for July 30

I managed to get in two writing sessions today!

The first one was right around noon while Kelly and the Little Man were out. I joined a Google+ writers hangout that Mary Robinette Kowal started (but from which she was mysteriously absent) and managed to get about 600 words written on scene #3 of my novelette.

Then, between 5-6 pm, I wrote another 1,200 words in that scene. But the scene is not 1,800 words long. I realized after the first 600 words that the scene was too slow. I came in too early and was planning to stick around too long. So during that second session, I rewrote the scene in a way that I think works much better (because I can get in some additional background information) and still carry the action forward. It also means that I may be able to cut the story down to 15 scenes if I play my cards right. But this is the kind of thing that happens to me as I go along.

Interestingly, I’ve felt “in the zone” all day. I can usually tell when the story-telling soil is particularly fertile because no matter what I am doing, in the back of my head throughout the day I am constructing scenes, tearing them down and figuring out better ways to tell them. I hear snippets of dialog race through my head. I can see the overall arc of the story and that is certainly how today went.

I was hoping to get to scene #4 tonight–another scene that I am excited to write–but I’m a little too tired now. I’ll have time in the morning to get another scene or two written, however. So I’m taking the rest of the evening off with a pretty good sense of accomplishment, especially in light of how painfully slow the writing has gone over the last several months. Both yesterday and today were good writing days.

And I think tomorrow will be, too.