A month ago I posted the first scene of my work in progress, a dark psychological thriller I’ve titled THE BEDWETTER. It’s about an abused young man with chronic secondary nocturnal enuresis who, as pressures mount, embarks on a killing spree using the tools of his dark fantasies.
I’ve started to keep track of my writing progress and wanted to update you in a more comprehensive way than my daily Facebook status updates and tweets.
Idea Development in THE BEDWETTER
I originally received inspiration during some time off I took at the end of last year. I got the idea about a young man being punished in a horrifying way for wetting the bed. I used those two weeks to formulate a big-picture plan for the story, filling out plot and character questionnaires, just getting to know the story.
From that point on, I began to hear this character’s voice and was often interrupted by creative “downloads” of information that I would later work into scenes and dialogue.
Plotting of THE BEDWETTER in Truby’s Blockbuster 6
I spent all of January and the first half of February doing more detailed plotting using John Truby’s screenplay development software, Blockbuster 6. The application leaves a lot to be desired, but it enabled me to draft a list of scenes and arrange them in the right order. Then, I fleshed out each scene, answering questions such as:
- My challenge in writing this scene
- My strategy for writing this scene
- The scene goal (POV character’s desire)
- The character’s plan to achieve the goal
- The opponent in the scene
- The scene’s conflict
- Any twist revealed
- The scene’s moral argument (value A vs. value B)
Blockbuster 6 also enables you to include the structures of up the three genres in your story (for example, horror, thriller, and myth); track six storylines; and monitor key words, symbols, and tag lines.
I completed a scene form for 59 scenes in the book, and included in each scene some details about what needs to happen and the information I must reveal when I write the scene.
Drafting THE BEDWETTER in Scrivener
I downloaded the Beta of Scrivener for Windows over a year ago and played around with it, but didn’t use it seriously. I got serious with THE BEDWETTER. I created folders for characters, research, and scenes. Scrivener 2.0 isn’t perfect either, but it offers scads of cool project management features geared toward writers. I love using it now and likely will continue to do so.
Starting mid-February, I began taking my Blockbuster scene sheets and writing actual scenes from them. Weeknights I would spend two to three hours in any one of half a dozen coffee shops around Pittsburgh’s east end—the same on Saturdays and five hours on Sundays—drafting scenes and making progress. I didn’t start keeping detailed stats until March 3, but here are my word count stats so far:
Date | Daily | So far | Weekend |
2/12/2013 | 1000 | ||
3/1/2013 | ? | 6,980 | |
3/3/2013 | 1691 | 8,671 | |
3/4/2013 | 406 | 9,077 | |
3/5/2013 | 1253 | 10,330 | |
3/6/2013 | 1848 | 12,178 | |
3/7/2013 | 912 | 13,090 | |
3/8/2013 | 1001 | 14,091 | |
3/9/2013 | 1201 | 15,292 | |
3/10/2013 | 2290 | 17,582 | 4,492 |
3/11/2013 | 711 | 18,293 | |
3/12/2013 | 666 | 18,959 | |
3/13/2013 | 875 | 19,834 | |
3/14/2013 | 884 | 20,718 | |
3/15/2013 | 884 | 21,602 | |
3/16/2013 | 942 | 22,544 | |
3/17/2013 | 1,845 | 24,389 | 3,671 |
3/18/2013 | 541 | 24,930 | |
3/19/2013 | 604 | 25,534 | |
3/20/2013 | 766 | 26,300 | |
3/21/2013 | 537 | 26,837 | |
3/22/2013 | 735 | 27,572 | |
3/23/2013 | 1,907 | 29,479 | |
3/24/2013 | 2,134 | 31,613 | 4,776 |
My initial goal for a first-person, present-tense novel in this voice was 42,500 words. But by the time I finished the beginning scenes and started writing the middle, I realized it would be longer. My present goal is 52,500. We’ll see where it comes in at when I’m finished. And I already have 45 scenes; my total will exceed 59.
Read the First Scene of THE BEDWETTER
I invite you to read a draft of the first scene. I’m warning you, it’s dark. (I’ll confide that some of it has been tough to write.) But I must remain true to my inspiration. This story wants to be told, and I’ve never before enjoyed such a flow of ideas and writing.
I’ll keep you updated on my progress. In the meantime, I’d love to hear from you!
5 replies on “Progress Report on THE BEDWETTER”
Keep up the great work! I like that you shared the actual word count progress.
Thanks, Hunter. I’m trying to learn more about my productivity so I can maximize it. Writing consistently helps me to stay in the “mind” of the project.
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