Writing Week #1

So last week, I made a promise to report in every week about the writing of Hello, Good-bye: how it’s going, what’s working (and not), and what my word count is up to.

I’m happy to report that so far, so good. I missed writing for a couple of days due to some book signings that ran late this week, but luckily my Saturday was mostly free of commitments. I was able to catch up for both my missed days and still stay on track. I think that’s actually a good bit of advice: have a goal, do your best to reach it, but still give yourself some flexibility. For example, I had a book signing on Thursday night in Orem from 6 to 8 and then I had a dinner date with my good friends Ally and Becca. I didn’t get home until after 11 p.m. I was exhausted, but if I had forced myself to stay up for another hour or so and write, I’d be willing to bet that none of those words would even be worth preserving. It was better for the book–and for me–to wait until Saturday when I was rested to dive back into the story. Remember: Don’t kill yourself off too early in the process; your characters need you alive to tell their story.

And the story is coming along pretty well. Sam and Sara are talking a lot, so I don’t have much written in the way of description yet. That’s okay. I can always go back and flesh it out a little more later. Right now I’m just trying to keep up with the conversation.

And in more good news, my plan to switch from first-person POV to third-person POV in alternating chapters seems to be working out. At least so far. We’ll see if I can sustain it in the long-term.

Favorite sentence this week: He tried to ignore the warmth of her skin against his, but not very hard.

Total word count: 5,226 / 70,000