Day Four - The Tough Part

So it's Day Four, and I'm a little ahead of schedule.


My plan was to work out the plot on Day One, flesh out the characters on Day Two, and then write a chapter a day starting on Day Three, which would give me fifteen days to re-write and edit.
If you visited that link I gave you to Diana Scimone's blog, you'll notice that she wrote two chapters a day and left only four days for editing. Why did I give myself so much extra time?


Simply because I'm writing a fiction book. Diana's was nonfiction, and she had another person telling her what went in each chapter and how. A novel requires much more revision.




Anyway, I should be on Chapter Two, but I'm on Chapter Four. In reality, I skipped writing Chapter Three for the moment because it's boring and I didn't want to do it until I could make it unboring, so I'm about a quarter of a chapter ahead of schedule.
That's another reason we work out the whole plot in the beginning, though. A technique I like to use if you're writing two and three chapters a day is to reward yourself using the chapters themselves. Look at your plot outline. I bet there are at least two or three chapters in there that you cannot WAIT to get started on already! So what I do is, when I'm bored in the middle of a chapter, I tell myself that if I finish this chapter, I'll get to write one exciting one that I'm dying to write.
Or, if you feel that one chapter needs to be different, but you're not totally sure how to change it yet, you can simply skip over it and write on, because you know what happens in the next chapter.


And one more tip for today: (Gosh Karyn you're just a barrel of helpful today!)
In my book, the main character (a writer) has a problem with letting her emotions get the better of her, and it shows in her writing. If she's angry, the characters in her writing are angry. If she's happy, so are they. If you have this problem, listen to music while you write. And even if you don't have this problem, listening to a playlist that has music that fits the intended tone of your novel, it can really help you stay on track! I've been listening to Awake My Soul by Mumford and Sons on repeat for two days now!


Anyway, that's about all for today. If you haven't checked it out yet, I made a website, a Facebook, and a Twitter!
It's all still under construction, but if you've been following the blog, I would love it if you added, followed, subscribed, anything! I need all the support I can get right now.
Thanks in advance, and I'll see you guys tomorrow!


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