I finally finished the current wip, a fantasy regency.  On the last day of my holidays, although the story had only been trickling out at 2 or 3 pages a day, I was determined to finish the book before going back to work.

I ended up writing 24 pages in one day.  I had to crow a little since that's the largest number of pages I've ever written in one day.  Felt terribly good.

I did learn something valuable on that last non-stop writing stint.  A new technique for getting my butt in the chair and writing.

I gave myself a half hour every hour to goof off, skim Email, play Free Cell, whatever I wanted.  The other half hour, I timed the stove clock to buzz in 30 min and I had to write for those thirty minutes.

This worked really well for two reasons:

1. The stove was in the kitchen and I couldn't see the time from my office (less distraction)
   
2. It forced me to get off my chair whether I was in the middle of a good scene or not, to go turn it off, or it would keep beeping annoyingly

So, I got exercise by having to walk to the kitchen and stretch my legs.  I came back to scenes at the next 30 minute slot usually in the middle of scenes.  This made it easier to get back into the story, especially since I left frustrated at not finishing it.

I consistently managed 3 pages in 30 minutes, 2 if it was mostly dense narrative, which was also a clue for when I returned to switch to dialogue soon.

I'm going to remember that for the future. 

Shereen