SUSAN KAYE QUINN

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Week 7 – Burst Writing

This is my Week 7 check-in of my ROW80 challenge to finish the rough draft of Sekrit Middle Grade Fantasy project by June 14th!

Eek! That’s two week away!
After being stuck in the Middle Muddles, a tremendous burst of writing occurred last week. Do you see the leap in the Word-o-Meter from before (about 23k words)?

google.load(‘visualization’, ‘1’, {packages: [‘gauge’]});

var gauge;
var gaugeData;
var gaugeOptions;
function drawGauge() {
gaugeData = new google.visualization.DataTable();
gaugeData.addColumn(‘number’, ‘Sekrit MS’);

gaugeData.addRows(1);
gaugeData.setCell(0, 0, 120);

gauge = new google.visualization.Gauge(document.getElementById(‘gauge’));
gaugeOptions = {
min: 0,
max: 60000,
greenFrom: 45000,
greenTo: 50000,
yellowFrom: 50000,
yellowTo: 60000,
minorTicks: 3
};
gaugeData.setValue(0, 0, 34483);
gauge.draw(gaugeData, gaugeOptions);
}

function changeTemp(dir) {

gaugeData.setValue(0, 1, gaugeData.getValue(0, 1) + dir * 20);
gauge.draw(gaugeData, gaugeOptions);
}

google.setOnLoadCallback(drawGauge);

{For those of you whose browsers dislike my Word-o-Meter, I’ve logged 34,483 words toward my 50-60k goal.}

Yeah, kinda proud of that. Good thing, too, because the rest of the novel needs to be written.
Soon.
Usually my tangles, the ones that hold up forward movement on a story, involve not really knowing how to get from Point A to Point B. Now that I’ve reached the Act II Climax, I can’t seem to write fast enough. It’s like the forward momentum of the story has built an enormous pressure, just behind my fingertips, and it needs to go, go, go!
Do you write in bursts? Or is it steady, steady, steady?

Comments

  1. That's not bad! I do both… bursts and sometimes I dredge on til the burst comes. I'm now at 65k for my MG and trying to whittle it down to 60k. Tough stuff. 🙂

  2. @PK I think I do both too – I spend a lot of time butt-in-chair and occasionally the words flow a lot faster than usual. Whittling down is tough – have you seen this guide on wordcount? I was surprised how big they were willing to accept MG!

  5. Loved your, "Middle Muddles." Been there a lot, but never had the right way to express it.

    Happy butt in chair time. It helps to know others are in the same place I am. You're a great ROW80 buddy!

  6. I'm hoping for a similar burst now that I've fixed the one scene that has been driving me nuts for weeks. I've had to just skip ahead and work on other parts, hoping a solution would come to me. It did! Whew.

  7. @Bane I believe the turtle won. 🙂

    @Susan Wish I could bottle it, so I had it when I needed it. #writingmuse #fickle

    @CLee It's been wonderful having buddies in this process, and also being able to share! 🙂

    @Laurel Skipping ahead is an awesome writerly trick. 🙂

  9. OMYGOSH! Over 10k? That's is AMAZING!!! I do burst writing, too, but nothing of that magnitude until the last week of NaNoWriMo. I love that your writing starting gaining its own momentum. Isn't it an AMAZING feeling?

  11. @Natasha Thanks!

    @Margo It does feel good! Just wish I could keep it up…!

    @Sheri It's such a huge encouragement to have you guys to check in with on Tuesdays! Thanks for all your cheering! 😉

About Susan

Susan is a former rocket scientist, now speculative fiction author. She invents mind powers and dreams of the Singularity.

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What I’m Writing Now

I’m currently writing Book 4 in the Singularity Series, The Last Mystic. I will be releasing this title in late 2019.

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Susan writes full-time from the Chicago suburbs with her three boys, two cats, and one husband. See what she's up to on her Facebook Group.

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