I Wrote 16,000 Words Yesterday and Here's Why

( Originally I was going to title this "16,000 Words Under the Sea", but I was like, uh, that's not gonna tell anyone anything.)

So I was thinking at one point "what would be cool is writing 10,000 words again." My maximum has been a little over 12,000 words in one day. Anyway,  woke up one day and said, "Let's try." I woke up at 9:00 AM and said I would have 10,000 words before Nautical Twilight (because pirates), and then I wrote 10,000 words. 

I wasn't tired yet.

So I thought I'd beat my previous record, and before 7:00, I managed to get out 3000 more words for 13,000 words. Friend goes to sleep, no one else here rooting for me, everything is equilibri-balanced in this world.

Well anyway, I wasn't tired yet. 

After watching a show, I realized that midnight hadn't fallen yet, I still hadn't finished the rough draft, and I had two more hours, so I knocked out another 3000 words. 

Exactly 16,000 words wrote. 

"So you're saying you did this mad dash to write 16,000 words for no reason." 

Yup. I already had a couple thousand words written for N:Era: Tunnels Under Wysdom, the next mainline novella, but I was like, "Well let's get 10,000 words and we might be halfway or so finished". And so I realized there was only a little bit left and that got me to finishing. Admittedly, I did try to aim for 16,000. 

"So is that major progress?" 

Eh, sorta and not really. For example, after each rough draft, there is a whole lot that needs to be structurally fixed, because an outline is a theory of what you want to do, but a rough draft is the field practice of what does or doesn't work. 

For instance, I can theoretically make 36 peanut butter cookies in an hour. In practice, I go " . . . am I baking in the oven, what do I smell?" 

So essentially, I get to experiment with things such as "should this character be here" or "does this actually have the feel I'm going for". In a story that's going to be about liminal spaces and about healing, so far the rough draft doesn't really have much of that liminal feeling, as more of an "odd and eldritch architecture" sorta sense. This is about isolation and being alone as a means of finally processing without anyone else's influence, but that main emotional core hasn't been fully realized yet.

Then there's plot aspects, such as "is this the right time to introduce this major player", or "does this person actually add anything". 

I'll have to review and see what parts failed for me and what parts went right.

"Was this hard"

The odd benefit of not having much planned out for Tunnels Under Wysdom is I had the wide flexibility needed to do this, but I also happened to have enough of a plan that I knew what to fall back on. 

That's the importance of knowing general story structure, because you have to keep building on the last part. Nothing extraneous. What's the logical flow of the story, and when you get to a high part on one end, you need to move on to the next plotline, "back at the ranch" and all that. So I was always interested to getting back to another perspective because I'm like "okay now what's going on with these people". 

I don't really think this was hard. 10,000 words over the course of eight hours, 13,000 words over the course of ten hours, and 16,000 over the course of fifteen hours. 

"Any advice for someone else who wants to try this". 

Whenever I've done this before in the past, I've realized that there can be this thought to rush through but that will give you carpal tunnel. 1,000 words each hour is a relatively safe and strong pace, and will likely garner good results. 

That being said, right now my middle finger (the driver finger) on my left hand has an ache in the knuckle. So I suppose I have to rest that a bit.

Uh, so I dunno if I'd really recommend this of course, but that's not the point of a challenge is "should I" as much as "would I?" 

"Last notes" 

I'm not exactly burned out from this experience, in fact, I feel totally fine. Other times, I've literally forgotten everything I've wrote, and this time, well, I at least know the general thoughts. I wasn't blitzed out. 

So you know, just be safe, be aware. 

(20,000 words next goal.)