Well, the first week of writing Heart of Darkness is over and if you follow my Twitter then you already know that I made good progress. I had hoped to reach 30,000 words in this first week, so at least 1/4 of the book written, and actually managed to make it to 36,424 words thanks to some extra time because of football (ah, that’s a good pun) and the occasional wait for a later train back from work in London.
I’m giving myself a big old pat on the back for ending the week 6,424 words up. That’s a whole day of writing shaved off the schedule, and not bad considering that I only get an average of 3.5 hours to write a day (1 hour train journey to work, 30 minutes before work, lunch, and then 1 hour train journey home). I write fast, and many of you know what a prolific and focused writer I am when I get going.
I doubt that I will be able to manage another 36,000 words next week, but it’s possible because my husband is out on Wednesday evening. I might go for a jog and then do some writing.
Still unsure about how long it will be at the end of the first draft. I have 29 chapters plotted out, which should be around 120,000 words for me, but some of my chapters have been quite short so far. I’m at the start of writing chapter 12 now. So, it could be 90,000 words, it could be 120,000 words… but I sense some longer chapters coming soon, and I have some stuff to layer in to the previous ones. I’m still thinking 120,000.
I’m really enjoying writing this story though and can’t wait to get going on it again. I was slow with it at the start, probably because I’d planned it so thoroughly that the initial excitement had worn off and also that I was having doubts about how well I was going to be able to write it. Once I found my flow though, and realised that whatever I wrote, I could always improve it if I didn’t like it, I was flying!
So, here’s to next week. I’ll try to post a catch up at some point but I’m sure you’ll forgive me if it means I write another 500 words rather than blogged.
happy reading!
