Writing Updates: March 2008

March was not a great month for me. I got pretty sick, and on March 24th I was too out of it to write. But I did manage to go eighty three days straight without missing a day. I’ve also been working long hours, which caused me to somehow miss another day as well. I’m still not feeling 100%, but I’m getting there. I wrote 11,781 words this month, making it my worst so far this year.

WIP Novel

7.5k words added to the novel this month. Not bad although I’m dumbfounded as to how I managed 50,000 words in November and I can’t seem to manage 10k now. I’m trying not to get discouraged, but I’m ready to be done with the thing. I had hoped to be finishing up the revisions on Miracles by now, and it’s starting to eat at me.

Last week I stepped back and tried to figure out why (besides lack of time) it was going so slow. Looking things over I realized I just couldn’t fit everything I needed to fit the way I had things laid out. Some part of me was aware that my current outline just didn’t work. Finally the message got through to the thicker headed parts of me and I re-plotted the remainder of the book. I ended up adding two chapters giving the story the room it needed to unfold. I don’t think it will affect my 90,000 word estimate because some of the other chapters were shortened up a bit in the process. Hopefully it will allow me to just push on through to the end.

Future Plans

I really do need to nail down a date to drive towards to finish this book. So I’m going to put a stake in the ground and try to have the first draft completed by May 4th. There I said it. I’m going to continue to try and write every day, so if I can get 500-600 words on the novel each day I should make it.

Since that takes me through the end of April I’m not going to plan beyond that at this point, as it’s likely to just distract me from getting this done.