Love Me to the Bone
Draft 1
Words Added: 1,590
What Happened in the Story: Have you noticed that we are skeletons now? That’s right! Madeline, our beloved MC, finds herself on a train going to a place called Requiem. She’s beginning to put together what’s happened, though there’s a wee part of her that’s still hoping this is all a strange dream. Sorry, Mads. It isn’t.
Additional Notes: Got started a little later than I’d have liked today, because I thought, “Gee, self! Making a slow-cooker soup that will be ready by dinner time sounds like a great way to save time!” And then an hour and twenty minutes later, I finally have all the veg cut up and mixed together to get it started. At that point, it seemed silly to drive all the way into the office for an hour, since I have physio at 2pm anyway. So I decided to write from home today.
I also, impulsively, decided to write this scene by hand! I wasn’t sure how that’d go, given that there’s obviously no word-tracker on a notepad, but honestly, it was absolutely fantastic. I think writing by hand forces me to slow down just a little bit (I can type stupidly fast) and really think about what words I’m picking/metaphors I’m using. I think it also really helped me capture the surreal feel of the scene, like writing down a dream.
One thing I’m focusing on this week is writing in whole scenes. Instead of setting a word goal (my minimum is still an expected 1k/day), I’m trying to encapsulate an entire scene in order to feel the pull and push of tension. If I set a word goal of a thousand words a day, what’ll happen is that every scene will be essentially a thousand words, which feels weird when you’re reading it later. Writing in whole scenes means that, yes, some days I’ll write a lot more, because the scene will require it, but I probably won’t write scenes longer than 4k, because my brain will melt. Gives me a little more flexibility to get the scene arc correct if I do it in one sitting. Feels more natural, so we’ll see if that works in the long run!
Thanks for following along, and I hope you enjoy the ride! I’ll try and make these daily updates (on writing days), but I’ll probably miss a few now and then. Sorry about that in advance, but I’ll do my best to be consistent. If you’re craving some personal stakes in this process, feel free to toss me a “You Can Do It!” donation at my Ko-fi shop! I’m going to need a lot of coffee for this…