I'm already having trouble adhering strictly to the "30 Days" regime at the moment, because developing characters without a plot in mind feels unnatural to me.

Despite yesterday's initial uncertainties I eventually settled and spent time developing a group of characters and their relationships. I even surprised myself on occasion with the ideas that popped out of my subconscious as I wrote!

Well, my outline is written (still a few holes in the middle, but hopefully the characters will think up things to do), and I've just churned out my first 700-odd words before breakfast. Just time for this quick blog entry before I go to work...

Chapter One was completed yesterday, but now I'm exhausted!

Didn't write anything yesterday, having lost momentum on Wednesday :( Part of the problem is that the "30 Day" method doesn't allow much time for research, and my lack of knowledge about Tudor urban architecture is making it hard to place the events in a satisfyingly authentic setting. I have therefore ordered some more reference books from Amazon; mostly ones aimed at kids, which are generally well-illustrated and full of amusing period details.

I did manage a bit of revision of Chapter 1 this morning and have been working on scene outlines for Chapter 2 in odd moments. Fortunately today is my last day of work, so tomorrow I'll be knuckling back down to it...

Not a good start to the week - CopyWrite decided to lose several of my documents!

I'm still not sure if it was a bug in CopyWrite or a combination of that and FileVault, but after trying out the latter this morning I discovered that my CopyWrite documents appeared to be blank!!! Unfortunately I hadn't ticked the box to auto-save my project, so I was kicking myself heartily...

Thankfully I managed to rewrite my new opening scenes from memory, and I think improved them overall.

Yesterday's total: 1353 words - not brilliant, but good in the circumstances.

Yesterday's word count: 1284 (+ 1054 words of plot notes)

Running total: 2637 words (not counting notes and stuff)

On a friend's suggestion, I signed up for a writers' newsletter and also read the newsletter author Randy Ingermanson's article on "The Snowflake Method".

A productive day indeed - Chapter One completed, and more outlining done.

Today's progress: 1774 words

Running total: 4411 words

Only modest progress yesterday, as I had to do a crit of a 20-page submission for the writers' group, and I'm also settling into a new group of characters for the secondary POV.

Daily progress: 878 words

Running total: 5289 words

Still having a few problems getting the secondary POV started, so I skipped ahead to Chapter 3 rather than get bogged down and unproductive.

Daily total: 1025 words

Running total: 6314

Invested in some more books on the period: two selections of plays by Middleton, Dekker, Jonson et al, the Oxford Dictionary of Word Histories and 'Shakespeare's Bawdy' by Eric Partridge.

Daily progress: 846 words (spent too long in bookshops!)

Running total: 7160

Average still over 1000 per day (though not by much!)

Rather than try and force the story into a strict (and quite long) word count per chapter, I have decided to split the long first chapter into two, and allow the problematic chapter to be short as well. So far today I have mostly just revised what is now chapter three, for a gain of only about 400 words, but hopefully in bringing it to a close I can now get on with the main storyline.

Update:

Final total for the day: 1039

Running total: 8199

An excellent day's writing - finished off one chapter and wrote most of another!

Daily progress: 1907 words

Running total: 10,106 words

Another outstanding day :) Admittedly I skipped ahead by a chapter at one point because I fancied starting on the inquest scene, but I need to do a bit more planning before completing that.

Daily progress: a record 2539 words

Running total: 12,645 words

Not much progress today as, although I finished a scene, I also deleted a couple of substantial paragraphs elsewhere that I had decided were irrelevant. Plus I realised the next scene I'd planned was just padding, which required time out for a re-think.

Today's progress: 753 words

Running total: 13,398 words

A stonking 2959 words today! Not quite sure how... However it just goes to show that having a slow day is no reason to despair. Sometimes you just have to slog through the tough patches and be glad you wrote anything at all. Then when you hit an easy stretch - go for it!

Today's progress: 2959 words

Running total: 16,357 words

Only modestly productive today - finished off a couple of mostly-written chapters and made a start on a new one. Didn't do any writing this afternoon as we took advantage of the sunny weather to buy some bulbs and plant them.

Daily progress: 834 words

Running total: 17,191 words

Got caught up in domestic issues and also bogged down in plot problems, so didn't quite hit my minimum target today.

Daily progress: 476 words

Running total: 18,183 words

Still caught up in plot difficulties, plus back to work after my fortnight's holiday - no actual writing of narrative as such, and I'm none too happy with what I wrote yesterday :(

Daily progress: 0 words

Running total: 18,183 words

Managed to exceed my minimum target today, despite barely an hour's writing time, fitted in between work and domestic commitments :)

Daily progress: 651 words

Running total: 18,834

Writing ground to a halt again whilst I sorted out my fictional calendar - conspiracies require such careful timing!

Daily progress: 0 words (too busy making notes)

Running total: 18, 834 words

Made limited progress today, as the scene I was writing was not working out. I had to delete and rewrite a fair chunk of it, so my progress overall was not as much as my actual quantity of writing :( However I did get some good feedback from the writing group, which has helped to highlight some of the strengths and weaknesses of the first draft.

Daily progress: 171 words

Running total: 19,005 words

Only a tiny amount of progress again yesterday :( Partly this is because I'm having trouble getting into a good routine now I'm back at work, but I'm also getting a bit anxious about the pace of the draft. I had planned to have the first act end about one-fifth the way into the novel, i.e. at around 20,000 words, but I've written over 19,000 and the end is nowhere in sight!

So, I've printed out what I've written so far, to discourage myself from making further revisions and 'fiddling' (as well as being a useful backup in case of computer failure!). Now, with encouragement from "Re-writing: A Creative Approach to Writing Fiction" I'm going to skip ahead to Act Two and leave revision of Act One until after the manuscript is complete.

Daily progress: 166 words

Running total: 19,171 words

My plan seems to have worked - freed from worrying about how to complete Act One within the alloted space, I was able to write the final chapter of that section and make a start on Act Two.

Daily progress: 2622 words

Running total: 21,793 words

Weirdly, having given myself permission to jump ahead, I now feel inspired to write the intervening chapters and explore the characters' relationships. Oh well...

Daily progress: 2287 words

Running total: 24,080

Spent my writing time thinking through some possible plot changes, so no actual manuscript progress today.

Daily progress: 0 words

Running total: 24,080 words