There’s something liberating about working on a longer piece by hand. I’m writing this novella, which should hit around 40,000 words when I’m done. I picked up a nice leatherette journal that’s been kicking around the house for a while and started my story in it, never fully intending to write the entire thing longhand. And yet, here I am, three weeks later, halfway through the story and, as luck would have it, halfway through the pages of the journal.
Yesterday, at the midpoint of the novella, my pen ran out. It was brand new when I started, a Tul gel pen, and I’ve used it for nothing else, so now I can say with confidence that it was good for 20,000 words, more or less. I’m still a bit sketchy on the actual word count, since I don’t have that handy, dandy counter in the corner of the screen to confirm it, but it’s in the ballpark.
One thing I really like about working this way is that I can write at different times and places than per usual. If I go to the bagel shop for breakfast, I can write there. I write during my lunch break at work. I write at the kitchen table when I get home from work while awaiting my wife. My productivity has been impressive—a solid average of 1000 words per day. At this pace, assuming no loss of inspiration, I should have the first pass done by the end of February.
I do feel a little vulnerable, though. There’s no backup at the moment. If I lose the journal, a lot of work will be gone. I did dictate the first 10,000 words, so they’re safe and sound, although in bad need of proofing and tidying up, but the more recent work exists only in streaks of ink pulled across sheets of paper. Makes me nervous enough that I may dictate the next 10,000 words this weekend. That’s an interesting process, too. At first, I read like I was reading to entertain. But then I realized that the software had no interest in my inflection or my pacing. I got the same results if I spoke in a typographic monotone. If I do this too much, my next public reading could be painful.
Rich Chizmar mentioned on Twitter and Facebook yesterday that he is starting to work on his part of a round-robin story for the Cemetery Dance Collectors Club. I’ve done this a couple of times in the past, and it’s always an interesting process. This time, Ray Garton got the ball rolling. He passed his opening to me, and I handed it off to Kealan Patrick Burke. Rich is batting clean-up, given the task of bringing it all home. I’ll be interested to see where the story went after I wrote my part.
