BIAW - Back in the Saddle Again

Finally, after months of inactivity due to the crawfish season, I'm writing forward again. Looking back I can see that those long trips to haul crawfish allowed me to brainstorm the characters, their world and the genre. Something was missing. This was to be a contemporary romantic mystery and I'd already written about 15k. When I decided it needed a paranormal twist, the twist took on a life of its own and now, it's an entirely different book.

Barbara White Daille's Book in A Week, BIAW, which is offered one week out of each month, began this week. If you're interested you can contact Barbara at BIAW@barbarawhitedaille.com.

I had never participated before because I thought it was like Nano, only allowing you to write a new story, all new material. Barbara cracks a gentle whip and encourages writing forward but also allows revising/editing, outlining, though no research, blogging, tweeting, etc. which makes sense since those activities are such time hogs.

It felt good when I began the week with 11,000 words in three days. Once I'd completed a synopsis/rough draft, I had to stop, split my scenes up in scrivener and then create my outline from those scenes. That took a day. Then I was able to write a couple scenes to wind up with around 12,500 words for the week.

If I hadn't joined BIAW would I have been as productive? I don't know for sure but doubt it. I readied myself for the starting gun. If not for the Monday goal, it may have been Wednesday or next week before I stopped researching and planning and started writing.

It was wonderful to be creating again. Even better than singing for a small intuitive audience who loves guitar and ballads. With singing, the feeling comes from fine tuning the sound or in rendering it in a new way. I don't write the songs. Writing is a newer passion. It's hard. And it's pure joy!

Have you tried BIAW or BIAM. How did you find these shorter programs in comparison to NaNoWriMo.