WiP Wednesday: Writing

So, as I've mentioned, I am writing a book this summer.  It's my first, and I'm a little insecure about it.  I thought I'd do a post on my writing process to hopefully solidify a few things in my own mind and start thinking about ways I can improve.

Things I've learned since May 15th:

1.  I need to write first thing in the morning.  Of.  EVERY.  DAY.
2.  I need a space away from home, preferably outside, to write.
3.  On average, I can write between 600 and 800 words in two hours.

Things I've noticed about my writing:

1.  I don't do plot very well..... (more on this later)
2.  I have a tendancy to repeat patterns and formulas in the structures of my scenes
3.  I tend to get bogged down in the minutiae of movements; I'm not good at deciding when a movement/action can safely be cut out and when it needs to be there for clarity's sake.

YyyyyyNo.

Now, about plot.  I really didn't sit down and plot my book out.  At all.  I had a cast of characters and a series of epic events that I wanted to put them through, barely escaping with their lives.  How they got there?  The motivations and reasoning behind certain key actions that set the whole cluster-- in motion?  Nada.  See, I was supposed to start a lot earlier than May 15th.  But I thought I should sit down and plot everything out, but every time I tried, I ended up... not getting anything done.  And so I'd say to myself, "Oh, well, I can't start writing yet, I don't have my plot worked out!"  And that became an excuse not to write. 

I decided I should just jump right in and worry about plot later.  And while that means I have gotten a lot of writing done, I'm headed for a pretty hard edit at the end of the summer.  Hopefully, I'll be able to shape it into a coherent story. 

It doesn't help that I've got all sorts od ideas about the prequal I want to write next.  Not to mention the story of the first werewolf.  Who is actually a sheepdog. 

*sigh*