Over the past six weeks, I pledged to write 100,000 words for the Clarion Write-a-Thon, to raise money for scholarships to attend the Clarion Science Fiction Writing Workshop. The write-a-thon was exactly like it was back in the before-times since it’s an entirely online event, which feels … nice.
Check out my daily word counts!
I started out strong the first week, writing 17,000 words that week, and did almost as good week two… entered week three thinking I was going to crush this.
Ha ha haaaaa
If I look back on previous write-a-thons, I always have writer’s block in week four. Huh, maybe three weeks of intense productivity saps my energy. Who’d have foreseen that? I wrote just 10,000 words in Week Four and fell behind pace to finish on time. I’d also hit a hard block on the novel I was writing, which had been giving me most of my word count.
Monday of Week Five I calculated I had to write 3,300 words a day to finish on time. Ah, but it was Monday! I dedicate Monday nights to writing and have accountability buddies Zoom with me to keep me honest. I had high hopes I could really bang through Monday night and get back on top.
I wrote 3,500 words that night and friends … I was depressed. I had these visions of a 6,000 word night or something and somehow that unrealistic expectation made the very real, very good accomplishment of 3,500 words feel weak sauce. There’s a downside to goals.
Week Five was a slog of depression and self-doubt, and my worst week writing-wise with only 9,000 words written. I started saying “It’s okay if I don’t meet my goal. Just trying for it is enough. I’m glad it got me to write every day.”
At the start of Week Six, I had to write some insane amount, like 5,000 a day, to make the goal. I was like “Cool, cool. I’m not shooting for that goal anymore. I’m just getting as close as I can.” In between agonizing over the novel I’d been working on I worked on a new one and revised some work.
Then a funny thing happened, on Wednesday I noticed that, while I still had a crazy amount of writing to go, I looked a lot closer than I had, even though my rate hadn’t increased. 81,000 can round up to 100,000. I decided it was time to cheat. To write some smut. Brainless, self-indulgent wank material. I write it from time to time, and it always goes quickly. I reasoned that unpublishable trite filth would boost my word count with little effort.
Boy did it. I wrote 6,965 words that day in a delirious rush, even having spent a few hours on a Quixotic quest driving around Cleveland to find Popeye’s Chicken Sandwiches. Suddenly I was back in the game!
The last three days I worked steadily, with only the usual amount of procrastination and a few attempts to write “serious fiction” that predictably slowed me down. (An hour writing smut was an easy 1,000 words. An hour writing this book I want to actually sell was 100 words. Ugh. It feels like switching between a motorcycle and crawling.)
Saturday at 10pm I met my goal with two whole hours to spare!
And I wrote every single day of the marathon!
Eighteen wonderful people donated to my write-a-thon, raising $410 for scholarships ($510 if my pledges pay up too!) To reward their generosity, I’m raffling off four shawls I knit.
I’m going to do the raffle Monday night so you have until 6pm Monday to donate and get in under the wire!
I’ve transferred the names of my donors to a numbered list in random order. I will roll one D-20 die live on Youtube to pick the first winner. That person will be given the choice of which of four shawls they want: Forest, Water, Sunny, or St. Lucia. Then I’ll repeat the process three more times. Yes, the last person doesn’t get a choice, but hey, they do get a shawl!
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