Update 13 - A Month of Relative Consistency

Friday marked a whole month of more consistent writing. It equates to an hour or so an evening, sometimes more. I find it hard to get started, but once I start in on the story I adjust. It’s almost intimidating- not necessarily scary, but like jumping into a cold pool.

I’ve been working on the story of True North since about October of 2019. I’ve written stories, rewritten stories, drafted notes, scrapped several stories, considered tropes, read other writers widely and read on writing wildly- it’s been a lot. But it’s been a lot of flailing as well, a kind of excuse to escape the physical world for a little bit.

In August of this year I made a more basic plan than I’m used to. I collected my notes, drafts, maps, and reminders, and put them all into one place. The result was about 321 single-spaced pages of notes on the story and on writing itself. That’s what we’ll call the Notes to Consume document, or just the Consume document.

My thinking was to consume those 321 pages and digest them into three separate documents:

Draft: The draft and outline of the story itself. At this time, I’ve split the tale into 78 books across four volumes. The volumes are numbered 0 through 3, as volume 0 is more of a world-building and historical collection of tales not so directly related to the main story of True North, while Volumes 1 through 3 contain the main body of work.

Notebook: The notebook is split into Notes on Writing and Notes on True North. It functions as both a good collection of notes on writing itself, as well as a world bible for reference

LC: LC is a collection of notes for a completely separate book different from True North.

So, looking at the numbers from when I started this process on August 8th, to September 9th:

8/8/23

Consume: 321 pages

Draft: 10 pages, 1,347 words

Notebook: 33 pages

LC: 14 pages, 1,552 words

9/9/23

Consume: 182 pages

Draft: 138 pages, 25,418 words

Notebook: 98 pages

LC: 12 pages, 1,621 words

The page counts are slightly skewed, due to reformating on the individual documents. Still, roughly 140 pages of my notes were consumed and hammered out into something usable. I’m a little surprised at myself that the outline has reached a little over 25k works. So what do these numbers equate to?

Volumes 0 and 1 are more or less complete in their outline. Volumes 2 and 3 still have major gaps in the story. I’m going to work to take my remaining story notes and finish the draft outline and notebook. Once all of my consume notes have been addressed, I’ll be able to see the remaining holes and poor stitching.

Then I write a shitty first draft. Then I try to do the story justice and finish it.

Now the formatting is consistent, and I keep eating my Consume document. 182 pages by October 10th is what I’m aiming for currently. It’s not as simple as copying and pasting, it’s more like untangling a gigantic ball of colored strings. Sometimes it makes it hard to think, keeping so many moving pieces in mind. Thank God for being able to write thoughts down.

Happy Sunday, reader.