Live Writing Marathon – 2
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As promised, here is another blog post to describe the progress I am making with my 3 day writing marathon. In this post I will give a quick update on how the process has gone, then set out the music playlist I have been using, and what progress I have made with the goals I set.
The process has gone far better than I had even hoped it would. Writing a blog post this morning was a great way to get me started, and help me to feel that I was already writing. Straight after I had blogged, I started work on the manuscript about values-based working. This book has the working title “Believing in what we do”. That may change – not sure it is catchy enough or appealing to the potential reader. But it’s a good enough title to work on at the moment.
The first step today was to take the writing that I had already done on this (5000 words) and read it through, editing as I read. Then I took out a list I had produced in Evernote a couple of weeks ago. This was a list of ideas for possible section to include. I put each of these ideas on a post-it note, adapting them into possible chapter headings as I worked. Then I set the post-it notes out in front of me to work out the best order for the chapters. This process was incredibly helpful as it enabled me to see the natural order for the ideas, and it became really clear that I have two parts to the book – a set of chapters on the practicalities of developing core values and another set of chapters about the theory behind it that I am drawing on.
Then, I took one of the chapters and developed 6 section headings. From that I have been able to then get stuck into some serious writing. The manuscript has grown to well over 8000 words.
If I include today’s two blog posts and the extra words for the manuscript I will have written 4000 words today. I am pleased with that.
The music playlist is important as it helped me to get into a fantastic state of flow. Here is what I played:
- Miles Davis – Agharta (a live double album of jazz rock improvisation from the early 70s. It’s quite abstract and thus very easy to work to)
- Robert Fripp – At the End of Time (Fripp’s solo soundscapes are a favourite of mine for writing to. They seem to get my brain into a highly productive and focused mode)
- Brian Eno – Lux (an ambient album, but quite “busy” sounds going on in this)
- Philip Selway – Weatherhouse (I took a break for lunch and listened to this wonderful album of songs from Radiohead’s drummer)
- Ketil Bjornstad & Svante Henryson – Night Song (gentle ECM jazz duo playing piano and cello. Bjornstad is one of my favourite musicians)
- Last Days – Satellite (Graham Richardson’s music project has a mixture of classical, ambient and found sounds. It’s intriguing whilst not too distracting to work to)
- Eivind Aarset & Jan Bang (another ECM album, this time a mix of avant-garde, minimalist and dark ambient sounds. This one is perfect as I am tiring a little)
So, it has been a successful first day. I have written over 4000 words – I set a target of 5000 words for the three days so I may need to revise that. This will be the second blog post so I am also well on the way with the target of 4. Just one poem written so far.
More updates to follow in the next 48 hours.
3 thoughts on “Live Writing Marathon – 2”
Look forward to it. We can’t have too much inspiration!
Thanks Lizzie – good to hear from you. Watch this space – that book is surely coming 😄
stuart, this is lovely. So generous and so helpful to those who may wish to produce a work of creative non-fiction honouring what is important in their lives. One minor but practical contribution which I as a writing coach can make is that a ‘how-to’ book usually takes about 45,000 words. Not so many. Plan for that using the techniques – music, blogging etc – you have already devised. Good luck!