(#1) Writing in Bulk….

When I decided to write my first non-technical (I.e. YA Fantasy) book, I didn’t have any idea what to expect of myself.

Let’s be frank. I hold a more than full-time job, am a parent to a set of nine and ten year old boys, and a wife who is likely more understanding than I otherwise deserve. I didn’t have the free time to do this.
I decided one day to go to the store, buy a dedicated laptop for this experiment, and start to write.
I did have a few advantages. I had a story already formed in my head, and the semblance of an outline scribbled in a variety of nooks and crannies on my desk at home. I am also somewhat stubborn and single-minded once I get a goal in my head.
My goal was to put words to paper at a tolerable pace until I was DONE. No stopping for a week, no distractions aside from normal life, just do it.
I found myself spending a couple hours each morning between 5am and 7am writing. I did this every day. On weekends, I spent probably 4-6 hours a day.
It was a pace I was able to maintain, and after a month (30 days exactly) I found myself with 110,000 words written down and hitting “save” after completing the first book’s epilogue.
I was shocked.
I did this while maintaining a rather full schedule of being who I normally am – just spread a lot thinner. The family was very cooperative with the experiment and did afford me some alone time where normally that might not have happened.
I printed it out and was utterly shocked. I would never have believed someone could write that much in a month.
In retrospect, my little happy dance of accomplishment was only the beginning of the process I had to go through for bringing my mental regurgitation to something “literary” in quality. Yet it was a start.
I will post in subsequent notes some of the evolution from my first draft drivel to the next things I’d learned along with the actions I undertook to go to something that was hopefully closer to being publishable.
-Mike Rothman