When I was 15, I was enrolled at an open-space public school. The founding philosophy had been “go at your own pace,” but this had already been amended to “go at your own pace, but there is a minimum speed limit.” Some classes were taught traditionally, but others were taught via LAPs (learning activity packets). Do 12 LAPs, get a full credit for English, for example. Most of my peers did no work until May. I front-loaded the work, at least my first year, and got so far ahead in English that it became almost statistically impossible for me to get behind.
I liked that feeling. Then, as an adult, I went to work in journalism where the only reward for doing one’s work quickly was — more work. So I learned to work to deadline, fill the hours of the day.
On my own now, I would love to finish my novels early. And, in fact, I often do. But I use the extra time for subsequent drafts, so the book that goes to New York is as polished as possible. Still, I can’t help noticing that I write more and more as the year progresses. Now, part of the reason is that I’m working on subsequent drafts, and it’s easier to revise 3,000 words than write 1,000 new ones. But there’s also a momentum that builds toward the end and I enter a manic phase. Pity the person who asks me, as Dave “Starred PW” White did the other day, how my work is going. I will tell you. I will tell you at great length. Or pity the college roommate who just got a scary-long e-mail from me. This is despite the fact that I am hunkered down with a goal of getting 15,000 words done this week, a combination of old and new. This may be because I’m hunkered down, etc. eetc. I won’t be finished if I meet that goal, but this book will have a shot at another comprehensive draft before Labor Day. And this was unthinkable just a week ago, before I went through my annual ritual of trying to find the book’s “visual manisfestation.” (This year, it’s a storyboard, but it’s not always. One year, the book looked like a game of Chutes and Ladders, while another one was two color-coded linear columns, with little asterisks denoting hints toward a secret that was not part of the central story.)
It’s Day 2, and I’ve clocked 5,800 words. (Three chapters.) Not too shabby. Do I dare keep a public tally here? It’s moot at this point. If I succeed, I’ll note it here. If I don’t, my silence will be eloquent.
Yay a new book!
I can hardly wait to see where you go with this one. So far it’s been a very interesting journey following your writing. I started out with Sugar House I think and then went back to start at the beginning wuth Baltimore Blues. I’ve been with you all the way and I plan on sticking around for whatever you have to offer. Thanks for all the great reading and the sharing here too. Sly
Afternoon update: Additional work brought today’s total to 3,100.
Now it’s into the showers and I’m going to treat myself to an adult beverage and some almonds.
Ahh, LAPS. I also went to a high school that was enamoured of the “independent, self-paced” philosophy of education. That’s where I developed my still masterful procratination skills, not to mention the math skills involved in carefully calculating each May how may days were left in the school year, how many LAPS total I had left to finish my courses and thus exactly how many days (or hours) per LAP I had.
Good job on the 3100. Is the cliche, “Sometimes the story just writes itself.”, true?
I did independent study in my Senior year at high school. A group of us wrote and produced our own variations on “Story Theatre”, which was off Broadway the the time(1971/1972). It had different short plays based on fables and mythology, like “The Lion and the Mouse”. We performed it for kids all over Fairfield County, CT and Cape Cod, where 8 of us (boys and girls) spent a month at the High School Librarian’s summer home in Dennisport during the summer after our graduation.
We got good grades and we got really high.
“We got good grades and we got really high.”
Ah, life in the 70s.
Thanks for the attempted link. I’m very excited, of course.
Meanwhile, I love knowing how your work is going. I was going to write you back today, but I took a spontaneous drive to shore. I hope it’s going better.
(by the way, the link to the review can be reached by clicking on “web” above.)
Lovely Laura, your silence could never be as eloquent as your words.
And don’t you just love that revision stage?
I love it more than trying to get that Dave White link to work. I give up!
I am not a writer as you know, Laura. However, 3 chapters of 5,800 words astounds me! As is said, Go Girl!
Manic phase rhymes with panic haze.
Send me the Dave White link and I’ll send you what you need to paste.
I’m glad to see you use the visual thing too. I have to “see” the action in the book as I’m writing it, much like a movie in my head. If I can’t “see” it, then the reader won’t either. Not to say I put lots of detailed descriptions in the final draft; just the first one. Then during rewrites I go back and clean out till only the essential stuff is there.
And manic…you wanna know manic? Me on deadline at midnight, when the deadline was 11:30 and the football game wasn’t over till 11:45. Thank God for the Internet!
Your work ethic is astounding. I have another favorite writer whose blog I follow. After three weeks at MacDowell, she has tracked her word count to 9981 which seemed like a lot. Of that count, 3313 was written on her new novel. She posts this count weekly on a word-o-meter which is kinda cute.
Have you ever gone to a artist colony? I can’t recall at the moment if you have ever mentioned it.
As a commercial writer who has managed to break free of my day job (and doesn’t have a family to tend to, not really), I would feel greedy, taking a spot at a writer’s colony. I’m lucky in that I don’t require time or solitude.
That said, I cannot imagine what writer colony would have me!