Week 1 of the 50k Challenge

Because of where the start of November fell, week one of the challenge was quite short. However, I covered a very good amount of ground. I mention I wasn’t truely starting from zero for the challenge this year. I had around 5k prewritten although it required significant changes which changed that word count and the 3k of the short story I was modifying. This significantly impacted the amount of words I got down in the first 3 days.

Day 1: I wanted to get through most of the 5k so I honed in on those words. I ended up getting rid a few thousand words 🙁 but then added a few thousand more 😀. The plot points I covered was the Exposition-establisment of the status quo, and the inciting incident. Total word count hit 10,577!

I can’t believe I hit that high, but I definitely hyper focused a bit and hit a writing time of 2 hours over three writing sessions. Hyper focus really changes my word count. I don’t know if it is something that you have ever experienced. However, to give you an idea of where the crazy word count came from; if I write for a half-hour normal brain I average around 300-500 words. However, if I hyperfocus write for the same amount of time that average becomes 800-1,000. It was really helpful for writing my master’s thesis! However, hyper focus is not something that I can count on. It is not something I know how to trigger or how to get out of. It can be as problematic as it is helpful. I still don’t know why I hyper focus. I have a few theories, but nothing I can back up enough to mention at this time. However, as this challenge progresses, there will definitely be discrepancies over the days I hyper focus and the days I don’t.

Day 2: The plot point I covered was the completion of the inciting incident and part of the first beat of the rising action. I had to talk myself out of going back to edit. I already have areas I am noting are weak or will need changes. However, the point of this challenge is not to make something wholly beautiful. It is to make something complete. So, I noted my concerns and begrudgingly pressed on. By the end of my writing time, I had 3,306 words. Still higher than the average, but it was because I was incorporating the short story that initiated this project rather than a frenzy of writing. I am officially at blank page.

Day 3: Ah, Sunday. Sundays are the hardest for me to write because it is when the most social demand is placed on my time. Additionally, I will never hide that I am Christian. My faith is a key point in my world view and it would be disengenouas to omit it. So, Sundays also have a chunk of time dedicated to going to church. However, I was pleased to manage 318 words. Considering how much I was doing other things on Sunday, having that many words felt like a lot. When I planned out my writing, I omitted Sundays as writing days because I didn’t expect to get any writing done on those days.

So, Week 1 conclusion. I have a total of 14,162/50,000 words. I am starting rising action going into week 2. I’m not loving ignoring back edits, but I know I will get to them. I hope you are doing well with your own November goals so far! Let’s accomplish something together!