One Mile at a Time, One Scene at a Time

4 Comments / biking

On shorter bike rides, I mentally pass the time between great inspirations by thinking
“Boy, is it nice out today” (observational), “I wonder if I can catch/keep up with that hottie for a whole mile”
(challenging/fantasy) and “I’m at the half-way point of a 30-mile ride. One more mile and I’ll be at 8/15ths!”
(computationally distracting). On longer rides, these mental games would devolve into despair if I thought of where I was overall.
I cope by breaking the longer ride down into segments.
For example, a 65-mile ride becomes a thirty-five mile ride,
with a quick break at the rest stop, and three 10s, each marked by jubilation whenever
the tens digit of the odometer flips. It depends on the ride, though.
On the first day of this year’s
RSVP, the ride
was broken into a twenty, two tens, and twenty-two threes.
It came very close to being one mile at a time.

I’m having the same experience with NaNoWriMo.
After six days, I’m at 11,107 words. This is slightly ahead of schedule,
but I’m already tired. According to NaNo-lore, the coming two weeks could be ones of despair as I wrack my brain trying to define my characters and pull a plot out of a hat. I knew this was coming, and will try to apply the “one mile at a time” concept to writing: One scene at a time. Instead of being 11,107/50,000ths done, I’m on chapter three, with another 4,000 words to go.

Of course, I’ll let you know how it works out.

4 thoughts on “One Mile at a Time, One Scene at a Time”

  1. Debbie

    I just think it’s cool that you are so far along.

    I have started to write a novel twice this year, but I always allow myself to get so bogged down with what’s going to happen next in the story that I give up almost as soon as I begin. Obviously, I need to put your philosophy into play.

  2. Lisa

    Regarding the comment in your header… at least you don’t have 45,000 words to go. I’m starting to feel toasty myself. Ergh… 🙂 Although, my characters just did have a baby. Welcome mythical Isabel Alexandra into the world. LOL

  3. kbuxton

    You’ve already made it almost 10x as far as I did last year 🙂 (and I elected NOT to this year)

  4. Woodstock

    Hey, congrats on the word count! I’m suffering the “being attacked by rabid weasels while my characters run amok” syndrome here in week 2 myself.

    You’re right about one scene at at time, though, like pearls on a string. I hope it keeps going well for you 😀

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