katecavanaugh
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Writing on Road Trips Experiment (& upcoming Double Stream Days!)
🕑 Added 2023-09-20 17:18:21 +0000 UTCHI FRIENDS.
As of last night, I've successfully brought the catalyst in Project Death down from ~18,000 words to 11,084 words!!! (This is close enough to my 10K goal that I'm okay moving onto the beast that is my "debate" period bahaha.)
My goal for today is to reread what I have, map out the scenes between the Catalyst and Break Into Two, and start rewriting!! To quote my brain goo-ey self from a couple days ago: "The progress is progressing." And I feel good about it!!
That means that, on our next Double Stream Days, I should be just about to the Fun & Games section!!
Speaking of:
Double Stream Day #3 will be on Friday, September 22nd at 2:00pm CDT.
And Double Stream Day #4, our final one for September, will be on Saturday, September 23rd at 10:30am CDT.
(So we'll get to celebrate the changing of the seasons together, HOORAY! 🌱🍂 I will have, hopefully, just assembled my giant 10-foot skeleton, so I'll have to let y'all know how that goes bahaha.)
Now as some of y'all know, I'm heading out on a 1300+ mile road trip to get to a writing retreat. Then on the way back, I'll be doing a little jaunt over to Nashville for a research trip.
Of course, along the way I'll still be working on Project Death (hopefully finishing at that retreat, eek!), visiting my brothers, and stopping in as many cute cafes and bookshops as I can find.
And like most things in my life, I thought, why not gamify this?? So for this month's (loose) writing experiment, I wanted to get y'alls suggestions and thoughts on how many words I should be trying to write/revise each day along the road up to the retreat! In my mind, different "tasks" could be "bought" with words.
Hang with me here.
I'm thinking miles driven each day = # of words (or potentially double words?? triple? quadruple?) I should write, coffee shops stopped in should be like a +500 (or +750?), restroom breaks could be -100 or something (because they take up time? lolol), and if I buy a book, maybe +1000 words??
So here's how Day 1 could potentially shake out ~mathematically~:
From my home in San Antonio to my brother's place in Dallas, it's ~300 miles.
So 300 miles (x2) = 600 words to write, plus let's say I stopped for coffee once (600+500=1100) and used the bathroom twice (1100-200=900) and also found the cutest bookstore where I couldn't help myself and bought a new release (900+1000=1900), my goal for the day would be 1900 words lolol.
OR if we wanted to go kinda crazy:
300 miles (x3, because why not) = 900 words. I stopped for coffee once (x2 instead, for chaos = 1800), but I also stopped to see a strange monument along the way (-500, because maybe I could use it in a story someday = 1300). And I also bought 2 books (1300+2000=3300 total goal).
Does this make sense?? Lolol.
I'll technically only have 3 "on the road" days:
San Antonio ➡ Dallas (~300 miles)
Dallas ➡ St. Louis (~650 miles)
St. Louis ➡ Columbus area (~450 miles)
So depending on how we vote, certain days might get REAL crazy real fast lololol. Other important info: I will be staying with my brothers for a couple days (both in Dallas & St. Louis), so even if they do get crazy, I'll have plenty of time to make up the words on my non-driving days!
I've set the poll to allow multiple responses, so please vote once for each "category."
Also, if you have any other suggestions for word count additions (or even subtractions or divisions or multipliers, let's go crazy), let me know!
Thanks y'all and happy writing!!
Comments
Zara Hoffman
I feel like a kid in a candy store grabbing from everything (I didn’t—only voted one option per thing: miles, coffee, etc) but this was so fun!
Kate Cavanaugh Writes
Oooh I love that idea! Parts of Texas have a toooon of cows bahaha. And goats! Maybe once I get farther north, I could even include fields of corn or fall-y vibes bahaha.
Gerinda Kappert
I love how you come up with these awesome challenges! Definitely going to keep this in mind. Good luck!
mothnaut
I'd love it if the roadside "monuments" included animals, e.g. if you see a field of cows, or if you see a dog when you stop somewhere!!
Kate Cavanaugh Writes
Loool never!! It’s such a good reminder. I always forget about that when I’m so excited and before I’ve actually started driving. 😂 It’s exactly why I only plan to do this on the way up! I’ll be too tired on the way back bahahah.
Megan Donnelly
Sorry if I sounded too “mom”! 😳🤣
Kate Cavanaugh Writes
OMG YES DO IT!!! That sounds like such a fun trip! The pictures of Mystic look sooooo beautiful and I've had friends who visited Salem and had such a great time. I feel like extra chaos during NaNo is just what the writing gods want.
Samantha Ferry
I think sounds like so much fun!!
Tib Roe
This is such a good idea! I have a trip to visit friends in RI (where we're going to Mystic, CT and Salem, MA in one long weekend) during NaNo because why not add more chaos to NaNo, right? I might have to do something similar to at the very least keep the words wording daily.
Kate Cavanaugh Writes
That's very true! You have to stay alert. Thankfully I'm all about taking breaks when I need (or just want) them bahaha. I'm also stocking up on audiobooks now so I'll look forward to the moments driving!!
Megan Donnelly
Even though driving = not really doing much, it’s still exhausting. I say keep the word counts low and HAVE FUN 🤩 🤩
Kate Cavanaugh Writes
☕️☕️☕️☕️☕️☕️☕️
Kerri B
Coffee 2x multiplier because I've seen how much coffee you drink in vlogs 👻
