I honestly don’t know how I did that

I turned in my story at about 10:20 pm on Monday, a bit later than the 9:00 o’clock I was shooting for. However, I did pretty much finish up the last line at about nine, so I’m okay with that.

And yes, I realize that I’m being ridiculous since I have until 9:00 am on Tuesdays to get it in.

But everyone is getting their stories in the night before, and it’s remarkable how much that’s a motivator.

So, it’s 6,000 words.

I wrote 3,000 of them today.

Seriously, I have no idea how that happened. 5-6,000 was my original estimate for how long the story was going to be, and then while actually writing it, I revised my count estimate to about 4,000. So, having 3,000 down by Sunday, I figured I was set.

And then I wrote 1,200 words this afternoon. After taking a nap. I genuinely don’t remember it feeling like I was writing that many.

Then I wrote the remaining 1,800 words this evening after dinner, and those were definitely more of a slog. But still: they came.

I don’t think I’ve written that many words in such a short time… ever.

Mind you, I think the story is kind of a hot mess that doesn’t go down nearly far enough into the themes I’m trying to explore–especially given the subject matter–but it’s a solid working first draft. It gives the story room outside my head to get worked on.

HOLY FUCK, DUDE.

Also, speaking of naps? On Sunday, I took a nap in the afternoon when I was working on the story. (I’m pretty much chronically short of sleep up here, in case you’re wondering.) The way through the story worked itself out in my dream. My subconscious (unconscious?) worked that shit out and gave me a solution–which meant that I knew where I was going from words 1,200-on. Sometimes, sleeping on things will resolve them for me, but damn.

This experience–the writing, the learning, the critiquing, the cross-fertilization, the friendship-making–is amazing.

Even if I hit the wall this week and my story is ripped to shreds on Wednesday, this will all still be one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself.

Seriously: I wrote 3,000 words in eight hours or so. I’ve never done that before.

It’s kind of amazing.