Time and Light Switches

As the year comes to a quiet close, I can’t help but look back at it with satisfaction and mild perplexity. It was quite the year, a new lifetime low of loss, while meeting the greatest accomplishment yet.   I lost my grandfather this year, and I wrote 100,000 words onto my second novel. These things seem to parallel one another. The contrast of my year. I began the year waking in another country, in a different home, and now will celebrate it’s end in another. I moved across the continent and it has been a doozy of it’s own ups and downs.  I think getting older it like that. Where the middle ground seems easier to find, more comfortable to sit in. I’ve been a creature of extremities, black and white in thinking if you believe my father, but as I turn the chapter into the new year I think I’ve become at least a little more calm.  It was a year where so much happened it feels as though there is little to say about it, I was too busy living it. Whether chosen or not, ...

Writing in the dark has made my inner teenager happy. I used to stay up till all hours of the night painting, and now at 24 staying up to write my novels has become something of great joy. It’s pretty easy to get the dark part now that it’s the winter months, but even before that it was something I was finding happy.   Each writing project is so surprisingly wildly different. For example, my first novel I almost exclusively wrote in the afternoons. Sometimes I’d start early, or others I’d run into the evening when I was on a roll. But almost the entire book was written in the afternoon hours. This second one I’m writing however I don’t seem to start till the afternoon and almost always run into the night. If in fact I don’t not start at 9 o’clock at night. Yes I did that this past week and wrote till 1 am. Not the best move but it got the job done.  I like to set up a fake fireplace on my tv and let that run in the background while I type away. It don’t feel as cozy if the...

  The first thousand words are quicker than the second thousand. Go figure, I’ve no idea why it goes like that but it does. When I’m writing and trying to hit 2,000 words a day, the first half goes so much slower than the second. Maybe it’s just a matter of flow and rhythm, but even when I start off on a good foot it feels like the first half takes me double the time.   If you didn’t know, or you’re new here, I am working on my second novel at the moment and trying my darnedest to get as much written before the news year as possible. I am self ‘employed’ and disciplined, which means I keep the strangest of hours. From waking to 2:00 in the afternoon I’m likely to be puttering about aimlessly, or taking care of my cousin. But there are days I don’t stop writing till midnight. I always knew I’d likely end up in this way, just wasn’t aware of how much I’d love it.  Knew I’d be some sort of artist type who kept owlish hours. Funny to see how much life it’s brought to me. ...

  2,000 words a day has been the name of the game this week. Normally my word goal is more ambiguous and I just try to write as much as I can, which means I write anywhere from 100 - 3,000 words a day. Often leaning towards the 100 side of things. But with the gap in major holidays I decided to try and write as much as I could before the new year.   I had had a specific goal of where I wanted to get in the story before the new year, but it quickly became clear it was out of my reach. I’d severely underestimated how much further I had to go before reaching that point. So I’ve pivoted to trying to hit a consistent world goal every writing day till the festivities kick off at full gear.  So far so good! I’ve hit my goal for the last three days in a row. It’s an attainable goal, but still a challenge. That’s what I love about it. I love a challenge, (of the correct variety) and having a concrete goal to work towards has felt fun.  Finally hitting my stride at full ...