Round One, Fight!

So, yesterday was more of a trial run than anything. As I said, my brother suggested writing at least 1,000 words a day, and yesterday I only managed 583. Now, that might seem like a lot to you if it's been a while since you've written anything. I thought that when I set a goal of 500 words it would take me a while to come up with 500 words to type.

Well, today I followed his advice and increased my daily goal to 1,000 words. I am happy to announce that  in less than two hours I typed up 1,142 words, and completed two additional scenes in the prologue of my book. In addition I wrote my first dialog between characters.

Some of you may be wondering what I mean when I say that I wrote two scenes. Well, the approach I am taking to writing this is what I would consider highly organized. In addition to the three scenes that I have written so far I also have four more scenes with descriptions and notes that are going to make up the remainder of the prologue. I also have numerous character sheets full of information about the characters in the story so far. I also have other information that will be useful as a reference for writing the later chapters of the book.

Back to the scenes though. I am breaking down every chapter in to a collection of scenes. First, I isolate what I want to be the main goal of the chapter. Once I know the main direction that the chapter is going to take I can begin to plan out the scenes. Generally I know where I want to start and end the chapter so I add scenes for those with brief descriptions. Next, I figure out how I want to take the reader from the start to the end of the chapter. I take them there by adding additional scenes in between. When the general flow of my scenes is sound I begin to flesh the main content of the scenes out in my scene notes. After that I start writing.

I actually have seven scenes in my first chapter, which is going to function as a prologue. Each scene has a generic one line description. Something that you would say to someone else to give them the gist of the scene without any of the details. Each scene also has notes. Maybe I want someone to die in the scene. If I think of a really cool way for them to die then I jot it down in the scene notes. This is especially important to me if I haven't begun work on that scene, and might not for a day or so.

So that basically sums up my current method of organizing my work, and concludes the end of my first 1,000 word day. It really doesn't take that long to write 1,000 words. If I can do it, you can too.