First, let me get the biggest thought out of the way. We’re getting close to the half-way point and, if you’re out there slinging words onto the page, let me just say:
Keep it up, you’re doing great! Whatever your word count is currently, or will eventually be at the end of the month, you’ve got more now than you started with. Go you!
My next thought is:
Every year I get tempted to sign up for NaNoWriMo…and every year I don’t.
No, it’s not like that. I’m a fan of NaNoWriMo. Anything that gets people to put words down on the page is ok in my book.
I didn’t sign up because I’m busy working on projects. It’s a nice kind of problem to have. Sure, I’m still writing, and I suppose I could have signed up and just plugged in my numbers anyway, but I’m not shooting for 50,000 words. Not this time around.
I hope I don’t hit 50,000 words, it’s a 6000 word short story I’m working on.
Anyway.
I’m not going to do that because I’d never remember and I really don’t need another thing to try to work into the juggling act that is my life.
Besides, I think I’ve got a handle on what NaNoWriMo wanted to teach me.
I’ve got a schedule and I’m sticking to it. Day in, day out, month in, month out, etc.
You see, it’s not actually about writing a novel in a month. Now I know that there are some of you that just went:
Keep going!! Don’t look down!
But realize that, unless you’re writing middle-grade or a (very) short YA story, 50,000 words doesn’t constitute a novel in today’s market. On top of that, what you’re going to have on December 1st is a rough draft. November was a sprint. Writing, in general, is a marathon.
More importantly, what you’ll also have on December 1st is solid data regarding what your writing schedule looks like. You simply can’t do the same thing every day for a solid month – even if you miss a few days – without figuring out what times and what places work best for you.
Hold onto that. That’s what you’re going to want to bring with you on December 1st and from then on. You’ll have developed a schedule for your writing. Maybe you can write every day, maybe you can’t. Maybe you’re better on the weekends going for hours, or maybe you’re good with an hour or two in the morning before everyone else wakes up.
Whatever works for you is what you want to focus on and, if you’ve got that figured out, it doesn’t matter if you wrote 5000 or 50,000 words this month.
You’ve won!
What I’m working on:
The Price of Power: I’ve got Page Proofs!! Basically this is the very last chance to go over the story to catch typos, repeated (or missing) words. This isn’t an editing pass. This is the last step before it goes off for publication. I’ve got until Thursday to read it through and note any corrections. I’ll be in book 1 of the two-ebook release. The title is “Trials” and I got to take a look at a mock up of the covers and THEY LOOK AMAZING!! I can’t share them yet, so stay tuned…
Brimstone: So close. Every email that comes in now is a potential acceptance or rejection. Two more days. If you’d keep crossing what you’ve got for me, I’d take it as a kindness.
Partners: Has been submitted! I’m waiting to hear back from the editors, so if Y’all had a mind to cross what you’ve got for me on this as well, I’d take it as a kindness.
Chasing the Kestrel: The number of open queries is dwindling. I’ve still got some open – including an agent who asked for more pages. Unless something hits, I’m going to move on in 2017. Maybe after another book or two, I’ll be able to see what’s keeping this one from hitting.
Beneath the Waves – A Wainwright and Holliday Adventure: Putting this one on hold until 2017
Death…I don’t have a title, yet: I’m submitting this for the “Death of All Things” anthology open call. I’m a linear writer – meaning I usually start at the beginning, and work my way through to the end in a straight line. I woke up last week with the climactic scene in my head and I wrote it down. I’ve been filling in the gaps since then working in a more or less straight line from beginning to end.
What’s Next:
2017: I’m formulating plans and schedules (more on that later) but I want to keep the momentum that I’ve generated this year going.
Total Word Count:
Recently, the idea to keep track of that first million words, and post it somewhere, came up and I thought it was a good idea, if only to provide me with a kick in the ass.
Thanks to the magic of Calculators and Coffee, here is the word count for the week:
5 days of writing = 2197 Words. Rounding down to the nearest hundred = 2100
This brings my grand total to…
286,200 words!!
That leaves 713,800 words to go.
One step at a time…
Time: 12:59 pm-ish
Music: Blind Guardian – Fly