Project Sagittarius: December 2022 Update

General

Total word count: 15,008

I knew this month would be hectic, but looking at my daily word count table, I underestimated just how difficult writing this month would be.

DateTotalToday
12/1/20227852309
12/2/202278520
12/3/202278520
12/4/20228553701
12/5/202285530
12/6/20229088535
12/7/20229368280
12/8/20229529161
12/9/202295290
12/10/202295290
12/11/202210321792
12/12/2022103210
12/13/2022103210
12/14/2022103210
12/15/202211055734
12/16/202211756701
12/17/2022117560
12/18/2022117560
12/19/2022117560
12/20/2022117560
12/21/2022117560
12/22/2022117560
12/23/202212051295
12/24/2022120510
12/25/2022130871036
12/26/202213617530
12/27/202214038421
12/28/2022140380
12/29/202215008970
12/30/2022150080
12/31/2022150080

That long pause in the middle of the month was a vacation I took to Asheville to visit family. The other gaps were caused by the usual December events: holiday parties, rushed updates by vendors that the department now has to patch, etc.

But that’s the benefit of having such a low daily quota: if I miss a day, making it up later won’t be arduous.

So far, I’ve been pants-ing (i.e. writing by the seat of one’s pants) the first act of this novel. It’s helped to organically grow the world building, characterization, etc. of this story. However, once I hit an act break (probably around 25K words), I’m going to assemble some plot scaffolds. I probably won’t do chapter-by-chapter breakdowns as I’ve done before, as in my experience they suck the fun out of writing. Instead, I’ll write little mile markers. Here’s an example from a well-known film (assume Act 1 is complete):

Break into Act 2: Luke leaves the rebellion to train with master Yoda on Dagobah.

Act 2: after training with Yoda and learning about his own pull to the dark side, Luke sees a vision where his friends Han and Leia are in danger from Darth Vader.

Break into Act 3: Luke leaves against the advice of Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi to rescue his friends.

Act 3: Luke confronts Vader on Cloud City and loses badly. After learning of his fearful parentage, Luke refuses to join Vader and must be rescued by Leia.

Conclusion: Luke recovers from his injuries, reunites with most of his friends, and is determined to rescue Han, who was abducted during his fight with Vader.

The aim is to be broad, but concise. Details would be filled in organically – in this example, I left out all the little training exercises Yoda puts Luke through, since it’s more fun to come up with those on the spot (and in my opinion, creates a bit of spontaneity).

Chapter-by-chapter breakdowns can be written afterwards during revisions, because by then structure and detail are far more important than spontaneity, and are essential in shaping the story during that phase.

And with that, I’m done writing this year. I hope you and yours have a happy 2023!