Day 3
I've set myself a quota of 1,000 words per day -- wishful thinking -- but it's something to aim for. Most days, I'll be lucky to 500 words down on the page, and I expect most of those will be revised or deleted down the road. But at least I'll be writing. Big drum roll: yesterday I wrote Chapter 1, Scene 1, a total of 1,249 words. About fifty percent of them have a chance of surviving the editing process. When I was a journalist, many, many years and careers ago, I learned not to obsess about getting it right the first time, especially the opening paragraph. Just start typing and let it flow. You can always go back and make it pretty. And it's a lot easier today with word processors than when I started with an IBM Selectric and a big bottle of White-out. Chapter One opens with: "Help! I need help. Please!" I'm sure I can do better, but for now, I'm going to work with that. Believe me, it's a vast improvement over my first attem...