Saturday, February 11, 2012

Day One of Retreat

I have decided as part of my carrot or stick (not sure which) to post my goals here and let you know as the retreat wheels on where I am with them.

notes:  I will be interspersing all my work with walking and meditating. When I'm doing either I consider it part of the work but am only counting desk time as part of the seven hours.

Day One
Checking in at quarter to two!

Checking in at five pm!
Meditate   did this before coming to office
Prepare office - clean up that which doesn't pertain, put up visual board of images and words, find supplies (markers, poster board, reference books for this project, etc...) - yep, not perfect but good enough and I have an inspiration board up on the wall with NOTHING on it... ha!  Took some time to put images on my visual board - prairie scenes, a photo of a woman that seems to look like my protagonist, hawks, pow wow picture- it is helpful.
Breakfast - check
Mind Map of structure - mostly did this in preparing my office - a big mind map of the hero's journey - easy because of all the work I'd done on this notion
Start manuscript work (making changes both large and small) - this may be where I get into trouble! I've finished two of my 51 chapters. aaack. I need to get to ten a day if I'm to be completely finished by the end of Wednesday. Now, I may be spending longer on the first two chapters because other than the contest - no one will see the rest of it unless they ask for more, and realistically I know that will be quite a ways down the path. So, I am going to continue with my plan and not just keep picking away like I want to. I'm going to go up and meditate now and then get to my four page synopsis. The dog will not be walked as it is pissing down.
Lunch - reheated Borcht. yum...
Meditate  - another small stint
Work on 4 page synopsis - hour -worked on this - seems to be getting near done.
Walk dog nope, it is raining buckets, he is sleeping...
2 hours manuscript work - I would say I've done more than two hours. I've got five chapters done. Would like to do at least two more before I call it a day. That leaves me a bit behind but hey! I can't seem to zoom through it just hitting the main points. I have to revise as I wrote, ponderously from one chapter to the next. OK.
meditate


I'll post here from time to time today to let you (and mainly me) know where I've gotten to.
Later....
Maybe Later or maybe tomorrow!

My last report of the day - it is nearly seven PM and I am pooped! The man is making a steak dinner, I'll have some wine, we'll watch some Holmes and Watson, and I'll hit the hay earlier than later. I did six chapters and I've probably cut the manuscript by a thousand words. It is still near 85 thou and my aim is to get it to 80. I think that'll be fairly easy. I seem to have zero tolerance for anything the least bit off the plot - think that is because of all the structure-thinking I've been doing the past few weeks. I know what the plot is exactly now and any meanders are simply irritating.  So, although I've only gotten a tenth of the way through, I feel confident that I can do this. I will be able to have a package ready for the four agents and if I don't have the entire manuscript done by the fifth day - I still have fifteen days to get it done.I'll have enough momentum to do so.
Later dudes. I'm going up to do my last meditation for the day...

5 comments:

Liza said...

Hope the writing goes well!

Anonymous said...

Wow, Jan. You are SO organized. You MUST be making great progress on your writing. I certainly hope so!
Ann Best, Author of In the Mirror & Other Memoirs

Mary said...

Hi Ann I like the sound of your In-House Writing Retreat. Hope it's going well.

Mary said...

Ooops ..sorry Jan ...been reading Ann's blog (Inkpots & Quills)which is how I came across your blog.
Wishing you lots of progress and successful writing this week

Jan Morrison said...

thanks all! It is going well but of course, differently than I imagined.