Tag Archives: writing marathon

Day 3 of a Three Day Writing Binge

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nakedlunch2

With Chainsaw Mantis finished, today was all about organizing which project to jump into next. Again, waking up without the distraction of 40+ facebook notifications plus messages, texts, snaps, tweets and the rest of the crap was nice. It put my brain right into work mode. Having said that, waking up on a Thursday with no contact with the outside world save my roommate and the counter clerks at the grocery store, I started getting nervous. A LOT can happen from Monday night to Thursday afternoon.

I started getting paranoid that I was missing something. Not facebook drama or set pics from a random super hero movie, but emergencies from family or friends. I hadn’t given anyone the ability to communicate with me, and outside of a facebook post, I didn’t tell anyone I’d be completely unavailable for three days.

But I ignored all that and got to work. I owe a new chapter of Dead Daughter to my newsletter subscribers and I’ve got 12 thousand words started on my next book already. So I got into that and did a fair amount of work till mid evening when I just simply couldn’t take the worry feeling anymore.

Even though my browser blocking software had me locked out of the internet on my computer till 2:45am, I still had my phone. So I turned it on and of course got a deluge of messages and texts and snaps and yada yada yada. Thankfully my worry was for nothing and I just had a bunch of messages and texts encouraging me to get a lot of work done.

In fact, the only thing of note I’d missed all week as the release of the short 80s parody kung fu flick Kung Fury. It was fucking awesome and a great treat to get me back into the world. I made sure to celebrate the completion of Chainsaw Mantis, but also quickly moved on to the next project. You want to keep your momentum going after you finish something. You’re at your damn best after you’ve been killing it with thousands of words a day, and it’s a shame to let that boil simmer back down when you’re on such a roll. But you also have to take the time let it sink in that you just finished a god damn book. You’re a fucking writer and you wrote a fucking thing! That feels amazing, except when you act like it’s no big deal and just trudge on with your life. It is a big fucking deal. A LOT of people can peck at a computer and talk about being a writer. But very few people actually set out and finish a book. Let that have weight. Let yourself feel great about it.

Anyway, so that was my final day in the shark tank. I loved it. I loved writing THE END after a 60 plus page fight scene in Chainsaw Mantis. It’s the longest fight I’ve ever written and I LOVE writing long fights that show character development and plot in the middle of the intense action. Mantis has that in spades.

I had fun writing in my own house, but I probably got 5 thousand less words written than if I’d have gone ahead and rented a hotel. But you know what? I was really comfortable and got to spend 3 full days with Rocco kitty. Now I’m trying to finish up this Dead Daughter chapter so my newsletter subscribers don’t kill me.

I’m going to try to make these 3 day binges a monthly thing. And I’ve already deleted Facebook off my phone. I don’t miss that shit one bit.

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Day 2 of a Three Day Writing Binge

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Today, I felt like a junkie fresh off smack. All I could think of all day was how glad I was not to be tethered directly to my phone and the internet. I know, by now it’s cliché to complain about social media on social media. But the point stands. Not laying around scrolling through other people’s opinions of useless bullshit, pictures of their kids, and memes I’ve seen a thousand times came as a huge relief.

I’ve actually had a sense of nostalgia all day. For the time before smart phones and Facebook. Sure I’ve been connected to the net most of my life, but it’s never been as pervasive, intrusive and ever present as it is now.

When I woke up, instead of reaching over for my already blinking phone and checking the dozens of notifications across social platforms, I simply got out of bed and enjoyed a quiet, sunny morning by myself. After a few minutes, I made a list of all of the things I needed to do including my writing schedule and grocery shopping and then, in my own time, with absolutely no sense of urgency, I sat down at the laptop and got to work.

Sound like your average day? Well, it’s not mine. I can lose sometimes two, three hours returning Facebook messages, emails, snapchats and twitter DMs before I EVER EVEN GET OUT OF BED.

It’s no wonder I’m lucky to get a thousand words typed a day. I’ve already typed thousands of words for hours before I get anywhere near my current WIP.

Speaking of the WIP. Chainsaw Mantis is officially done. The first draft anyway. I pounded out more than EIGHT times my average daily word count and finished the bug book halfway through the second day of my three day writing binge.

So what does this mean for me and social media? I don’t know. There won’t be some big dramatic exit, only to have me show back up a month later doing my same 12 hours a day session like nothing every happened. But there will some marked changes in my internet habits. There has to be. My goals are a writer are lofty and I will not accomplish them posting pictures of my favorite horror movies and chatting with pretty girls on the internet all day and night.

Today was a great writing day and a great day for my mental health in general. Now it’s time to finish my night time session by getting back to work on some mutant girl smut….

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