In Like a Lion, Out Like... Well, You Know

Running: I ran 7.33 miles this week in 53:46 (7:21/mile).  It wasn't hard because I only ran one day (Sunday).  I decided to take it (very) easy this week because I was sick on Monday and Tuesday and wanted to make sure that I was feeling good enough before I started running again so that I didn't reset my recovery.

Writing: Didn't write another word.  I should have written more, I just have some sort of block about writing more in the month of September.  I am accepting failure on the 50,000 words in one month challenge, but I am going to keep the beginning of the story around in the hopes that I'll pick it up again and write some more.  I don't think that it was a complete failure because I think that I learned a bit about writing and I'm impressed with the amount that I did write.

So what's next?  I am going to break my 5k PR on November 19th.  It will be very difficult.  Everyone I've mentioned it to has said so.  I ran my current personal best (16:23.79) on a track while I was in probably the best shape I've ever been in.  I have sketched out an ambitious plan for the next 9-10 weeks and am determined to put the work in and take a shot at running under 16 minutes.  Then, depending on the results, I'll be running either a 5k or 10k on Thanksgiving.  And then?  I don't know.  I'll probably start trying to get into longer races.  Until then, I'm taking things one step at a time (no pun intended).  Only 491.3 miles until glory.

-Lane

Training, Week of 6/18 and Novel In a Month Update

Another dual-purpose post.  Hopefully I'll stop taking the easy way out pretty soon.  As far as running goes, this week was another low-ish week, mileage wise.  I ran 32.9 miles in 3:58:37 (7:16/mile average) which doesn't really tell the whole story.  As usual I started the week off well, on pace to run about 50 miles and even had a decent race on Wednesday (the local race for the United Way, I won in 16:59 and set a new course record).  When the weekend rolled around, social commitments made it very easy not to run.  I did get in a 3-miler with Dan and Alex which was awesome.  I miss having anyone to run with and I miss running with them especially.

As far as the novel, progress has stalled.  I didn't write a single word this week.  I will be attempting to restart both my running and my writing starting tomorrow (Monday) in an effort to have a strong finish to the month of September.

Training, Week of 9/11; Novel in a Month Update Super-post

Running this week:  I started off strong, but fell apart over the weekend, taking Friday and Sunday off.  I ended the week with 37.7 miles in 4:36:35 (7:21/mile average).  Not exactly a dumpster week but not great.  Brianna and I headed to Worcester for a medieval fair and didn't get much sleep over the weekend so although I have time to run on Sunday, I decided not to push myself too hard while I'm tired.  I've been invited to run with some of the engineers who run at work, so I'll probably start joining them at lunch, which will take some logistical thought in order to get my work done and run and not be at work all day.  Should be a nice change and will hopefully serve as extra motivation to get out and put the miles in.

The next corporate 5k is on Wednesday.  I should place highly and will need to run pretty quickly to help my team in its rivalry against the local shoe store.  I'm looking forwards to it.

Novel in a Month:  I'm behind.  I skipped a couple days and I need to be at 18,333 words to be on pace at the end of the night; at this point, I only have 10,707.  This means that if I don't get any writing done today (it's not looking promising...) then I will have to increase my average to 2069 words/day.  I don't know if I can do that, but I'm going to keep trying and we'll see how many words I can get in before the end of the month.  I have also decided that if I finish the story before the end of the month, then I'll stop writing.  I am 20% of the way through and I haven't finished setting the story up, so I don't know if I'll finish early after all.

-Lane

The Challenge Continues (Part 1)

I began the challenge of writing an entire 50,000 word work of fiction on the beginning of the month, intending to finish by the end of September (giving me 30 days).  You can read more about that here.  I have done pretty well so far, reaching 5,029 words in 3 days (I have not begun for today, I suppose this is a form of procrastination).  Some things I have noticed:

• My writing style leaves much to be desired.  I write in the same style that I speak and I don't think that I'm very good at communicating ideas clearly all the time.  It is definitely not the same as the books that I have read and it's not different in a good way.
• Writing 1667 words per day is a lot harder and more time consuming than I expected.  I was surprised when it took me two and a half hours the first night.  I thought that I had this great story all thought out but I've decided to let it flow and that's been taking more time than I anticipated.
• As with time, I also find that there are more words than I expect the longer I wait in between checking the word count.  Perhaps having it so available at the bottom of the screen is not a great benefit.
• Getting ahead is not going as well as I expected.  I find that while I'm in the exposition phase of the story, I'm not super excited to decide what happens next and so I'm quite ready to be done when the daily milestone rolls around.  Hopefully when I get to the action the writing as well as the story pick up.

I have changed the paper to be 8.5x5" so that I don't have to look at quite so much blank space when I begin each page and it seems to make the writing go a little faster.  I tried to explain why I'm doing this but I couldn't really come up with a good reason.  I'm not trying to make a quality story, just a quick one and I guess it's just for fun.  Maybe I'll learn something from it?

-Lane

The Challenge Begins

A little while back, I issued a challenge to my best friend and associate blogger, Alex.  He politely declined, despite my best efforts to goad him into accepting.  Nevertheless, I have decided to forge on ahead and undertake this task of Herculean proportions:  I will write a 50,000 word work of fiction starting today and ending on or before September 30^th, 2011.  Furthermore, I will (as stated in the original challenge) start the work off with the sentence “He could not grow a very good beard”.  I will be focusing on quantity of words over quality of story (as you might imagine, 50,000 words is a lot to try to create in only 30 days).  I will be trying to create an interesting story, though I have not decided how and if I will distribute said story.

I have been thinking a lot about how to accomplish such a momentous task.  My strategy is thus: I will attempt to write between 2000 and 1700 words per day.  The minimum average daily word count is 1,667 and so if I can stay at the top of that range (close to 2000) I will be able to accrue a cushion so that I can take days off from writing if need be.  This will be something that I will be trying to avoid but sometimes life gets in the way of hobbies (just look at my ability to run with anything resembling consistency.

I have also done some thinking and outlining of the story, though the proof is obviously in the pudding.  I could start and decide to take the story in an entirely different direction as I originally thought as the characters begin to develop (and hopefully, take on a life of their own).  At least for now, I know where I am standing and in which direction I am facing.  I don’t want to give anything away, but I will be writing a science fiction piece.  Writing entertaining stories has never been my strong suit but this is mostly for my own enjoyment so the story will be what it is, however good that might be.

Wish me luck!


-Lane


Edit: Day 1 is finished.  I started around 9:00pm after procrastinating.  It took me quite a bit longer than I expected but I wrote 1,729 words in about 2.5 hours.  Hopefully when the story gets rolling it will be quicker!  I have also learned the cost of procrastinating and will work harder to avoid it in the future.

A Challenge/Open Letter to Alex

Dear Alex:

This is a challenge.  What are the terms?  I challenge you to write a work of fiction of at least 50,000 words.  It doesn't have to be good, just relatively long.

Seems pretty simple, right?

Wrong.

In addition, it must start with the sentence "He could not grow a beard".  You must not start before 12:01am September 1, 2011 (EST).  You must finish before 11:59pm September 30 (EST).  You may plan out/outline your story before then as well as choose a title.

If you agree, I will complete the challenge with you and we can trade novels afterwards.  I also agree to work within the rules written above.  There are a thousand excuses, but only one reason to accept: it will be awesome.  You should have plenty of time while you're commuting, like you mentioned here.

I am eagerly awaiting your reply,
Yours Sincerely,

Lane