The Weeks in Words - 3/17/25 - 3/30/25
"How to move without touching every interactor..."
Output - Data
Total: 10,209 words (21 pages [4,284] + 5,925 typed)
Days of Writing: 10/14 days (.714 WrPCT)
AWD: 1,021/day
Words Added to Avalanche: 464
Words Added to “Sun Story”: 355
Words Added to “Baggage Claim”: 816
Ratio: 16
Longest Day: 3/22/25 - 1,821 words (1 page [204] + 1,617 typed)
The Still Bleepin’ Counts Award: 3/29/25 - 159 words typed
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Output - Synthesis
During the past couple weeks, I finished “Sun Story,” a second flash fiction piece, and it dawned on me: I felt called to focus on spontaneity because I was bored with my writing process—a process that works, yes, but one that is the same damn steps every time. It’s always the note cards then the scene details then sometimes a beat sheet then repeatedly telling myself I still don’t know enough, until it falls out of me unexpectedly.
I tried to spice things up for the current sequence in Avalanche by leaning more heavily on the note cards, but sometimes there’s no way to paper over burn out. Much like any routine, it is easy to lose sight of the joy found within the litany. My creative unconscious knew I needed this time more than I did.
This break allowed me to circumvent the pre-work and focus instead on stream of consciousness. By flying by the seat of my pants and pushing through the not-knowing I was better able to give a name to the aforementioned wall of resistance just before starting. And if you can name it, you can conquer it.
I found the excitement of discovery, too, where writing without planning allowed me to chase myself down little trails I never woulda otherwise considered. It was fun, especially when delving into Magical Realism, but it’s time to return. I feel ready to settle down and cozy up with the process and keep pushing forward.
Except I disconnected from Avalanche in order to write other stuff. So that feeling of not knowing was actually legitimate this time, and it became clear I needed to take a step back before moving forward—I needed to read the damn thing. I’d written around 100 pages now, and a month off combined with setting in on the third act of the storyline meant I needed to sit back and tackle it and figure out just what the hell I’m about to pay off. I needed to take a ride on the reorient express.
I knew there would be changes to make throughout, but I’m choosing to view these edits as ever-green: I can return to them when the time comes—when I inevitably have sights on other changes to make—in order to push upon push upon push until the storyline is finished. We’re getting so ridiculously close, and it straight-up is not the time to get bogged down in editing.
Slowly but surely, we’re getting there, one step of the process at a time.
Input - Synthesis
The stories I read by Gabriel Garcia Marquez influenced my writing during these two weeks. Magical Realism has always caught my interest, and its influence runs strong throughout Avalanche.
This style is all about interweaving the fantastical with verisimilitude, leaving out verbose explanations in favor of wonder within the reader. A similar play on implied foreknowledge would be Amy Hempel, or in horror, where the less you show of the monster the scarier it becomes. Like in the movie Signs: those aliens are way scarier when they’re just off camera, just out of the light, somewhere in soft focus. When supernatural elements are treated in this way, obfuscated, it creates the same effect: the reader creates their own world that fills in the gaps. The key piece to it as the writer is making sure that you know all the secrets in that slow-simmering sauce, because you’re in charge of which details are critical enough to make it into the finished piece.
Beyond that, I also finished up the stories in Sing to It. I will definitely be getting a copy of it at some point. But most of my left over reading time was sucked up by Avalanche.
Input - Data
Book: Sing To It by Amy Hempel
Starting Page: 94
Ending Page: 144
Pages Read: 50
Days Read: 3
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Book: The Collected Stories of Gabriel Garcia Marquez
“A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” (203-210)
“Eyes of a Blue Dog” (47-54)
“The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship” (246-251)
Pages Read: 19
Days Read: 3
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Book: The House of the Spirits
Starting Page: 45
Ending Page: 51
Pages Read: 6
Days Read: 1
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Book: Avalanche
Starting Page: 0
Ending Page: 77
Pages Read: 77
Days Read: 4
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8/14 days (.571 rPCT)
Combined Pages Read: 152
Combined Pages Per Day: 19
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“Reorient express” love it!