All right, that’s a stretch. But yesterday was odd. What happened was this: I finished off the editing of the chapters I’d written on the current book, making notes and thus additional changes as I went along, sort of cycling back a few times. Then I decided to get explicit about the main characters’ goals and challenges, and the book’s primary theme, and I also put in a bit about character arcs and at what point which realizations should happen to whom. This was all stuff I’d been thinking about as I was going along, but I thought it might be easier to proceed with the book if I jotted down a few words.
A lot of this was just describing what I’d already written, but it gave me new ideas for both future chapters and to tighten up what I already had. Then….
This is the weird part.
I wrote an outline, describing what may turn out to be the remaining chapters in this book. And then? I wrote down some ideas for not only the future chapters of this book but also the book after. And for the book after that. I even have titles ready.
Seriously, I didn’t see that coming. Never planned to do it. It just sort of happened.
I know some writers work this way all the time–they produce little or nothing without outlining it first. Potentially for more than one book, if a series is involved. Before yesterday? I simply haven’t been able to do that. If I started writing an outline, my brain would turn off. I would freeze. And the whole idea just seemed…boring. Un-fun. Not this time–it was very much an exciting day, though I’m not totally sure how or why it happened.
Downside? I dictated no new fiction. An outline, yes. Other stuff. Supporting documentation, I guess you could call it. About 1500 words’ worth, in total. Which, since it wasn’t actually new fiction, is not being included in my total word count below.
So my question is this: did I just do something productive, that will help me going into the future? Or did I just grab an opportunity to avoid writing new fiction? I guess we’ll see if things go faster today when I’m dictating again (and I actually have the entire day clear to do it, and plan to be wandering around with a voice recorder and no laptop available for transcription). Will my words-per-hour count go up? Or down? Will I be able to string one dictation session after another, since I kind of know what it is I want to accomplish in each chapter?
I truly have no idea. But I’m quite curious. Stay tuned, and I’ll tell you what–if anything–came out of this tomorrow. Meanwhile…I actually dictated this post yesterday afternoon, to maximize my potential dictation hours today. By the time you read this, I’ll already be out there. Dictating a lot, I hope. But maybe just feeling foolish about wasted time. We’ll see.
Have fun out there!
Yesterday’s dictation count: 0 words
Time spent dictating: 0 minutes
Week to date: 3192 words (some via the Neo)
Total words since 1/22/18: 10,698
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