Return from Temporary Hibernation

I went into hibernation over the last couple of days. I had to…I was nearly 10,000 words behind on the CampNaNo challenge. It is important to me that I win CampNaNo, especially this being my first year participating. What is most important, though, is that I get my manuscript completed. CampNaNo is just the challenge I need to get this book written.

Over the last few days I have been writing. Not so much during the week — just bits and pieces. There’s something about a writer when they prepare to write: life seems to get in the way. Everything that life could throw at me came hurling past me. Anything that would distract me or cause me to procrastinate became a roadblock in my path to 15,003 words — the total word count needed by yesterday in order to be on track.

I am happy to announce, however, that I met and surpassed yesterday’s word count total goal! 1,667 multiplied 9 times gives you 15,003 (yesterday was the 9th day of the month). The CampNaNo Word Validator has validated my total word count at 15,677!!! That’s 674 words more then needed to reach yesterday’s goal, leaving me with only 993 words to complete today and stay on target to reach 50,000 words by the last day of June! Best yet, I really feel good about my manuscript. I am not taking these 30 days to dump garbage onto the page just to say I won CampNaNo. I am putting the time and effort that any serious writer would put into a first draft. It is coming along nicely, if I may say so myself…

I have found that once I put butt in chair and get to writing, the words have come flowing easily. There’s no writer’s block, nor do I find myself struggling to get a paragraph down. This is the first draft and therefore I don’t expect it to be perfect. My method for moving through the pages:

1. Write without editing. I know you’ve heard this before.
2. Each day when I prepare to write, I re-read the previous day’s writing for content only. This will get the creativity flowing in my mind so I can continue where I left off. I do not re-read the entire manuscript. That will have me wanting to edit and it is not time for editing yet.
3. I keep writing nonstop and try not to pay attention to my word count. I don’t want to create a habit of only writing until I reach the day’s word count goal. So I ignore my word count and just write until I am ready to stop. It is then that I verify my count — if I have enough words I stop, if not I plug along some more so that I can keep up with the daily word count. EXAMPLE: I was using Microsoft Word yesterday when I was writing. It keeps a running word count total for you at the bottom of the screen. I knew exactly when I reached the 15,003 words needed but I hadn’t completed writing out my thoughts when I hit my target. So I kept writing until that thought was completely written out. I ended up with an extra 674 words by continuing to the end of the thought…
4. I also print my manuscript when I go to read it. This serves two purposes for me: a) it takes stress off of my eyes from reading a computer screen for too many back-to-back hours, and 2) it gives me a “legacy” of the writing that went into that particular manuscript. The manuscript is printed on hole-punched paper, and then is added to a notebook with the prior’s day printout. When the manuscript has been completed, I will have a keepsake so to speak of the various iterations the manuscript went through over the course of time to “The End.”

It may be a little hokey to retain the various drafts of the manuscript along the way, but I am a keepsake kind of person. I have an avid scrapbooking/paper crafting hobby complete with a scrapbook shop for folks to come hang out and create with me. If you know anything about scrapbookers, you know that they don’t let one iota of “scrap” paper pass through their hands without salvaging it for one project or another. To toss my printed manuscript would be to toss an unimaginable amount of scrap paper and I couldn’t have that now could I? I foresee myself turning my manuscript draft pages into beautiful art journals commemorating their journey to publication. That would be a wonderful way to honor the draft pages while retaining a beautiful keepsake that is not only the original manuscript, but also a beautiful piece of art.

I am excited now to complete my manuscript! Now I’ve got a wonderful new idea to further the publishing experience for myself and make it a beautiful and lasting memory. I will share the transformation of the draft pages into a beautiful art journal once I get to that stage. For now, I need to concentrate on getting at least 1,667 words down on the page each day. Light duty on this Sunday thanks to yesterday’s marathon writing session…

Time to share…
What do you do with your printed manuscript pages? Do you retain them for posterity once the manuscript has been completed? Do you toss them in order to prevent clutter or for other reasons? Will you now create beautiful masterpieces with them now that I’ve thrown that idea out into the world? Share with us what you have done or what you are planning on doing with your printed draft pages.