I’ll just put this here.

 

It wasn’t easy.

Like last year, I had some business obligations arise in the middle of November.  I was flown to Albuquerque for a little while.  I had to do onsite visits for some companies.  I had to write documentation for some of the projects I’m working on at work.  It ate away at my time, energy, and creativity at some of the worst times.

I fell behind.  I wrote a little most days, but there were a few days where I simply couldn’t get to the keyboard.  I tried to make up for the lost days on the weekend, spending hours and hours at different Starbucks and Paneras throughout the area.

At the beginning of November 29th, I only had 35,545 words.  I wrote around 6500 words on the 29th, and around 8000 words on the 30th, crossing the finish line with 2 and a half hours to spare.

The book isn’t done.  It’s mostly done.  It’ll take fewer words to finish it than I expected a few chapters ago.  Maybe in my mad rush, I’ve skipped over some important plot points, which I’ll need to go back and fix.

In this exercise, I’ve learned two extremely valuable things:

1. I can meet a writing deadline when I need to
2. I can turn off my inner editor, when I need to

So what are my plans now?

• I’m going to finish my “Baggage” story (which I’m renaming to “Unclaimed Goods”).  I received some fantastic feedback this month at Convolution for it, but because I was trying to finish my NaNoWriMo project, I never took the time to act on that feedback.  I want to lift my short story to the next level and sell it.
• I need to finish the first draft of my still unnamed Mel Walker novel.  I’m 50,000 words in now.  There’s no turning back.
• I need to finish the first draft of my fantasy novel, A Clean Slate.  I’ve learned a lot since I started it.  Once I’ve finished the first draft, I can go back and fix the things I already know are broken and wrong.  This is something I can do while the glue is drying on the Mel Walker novel.
• I want to start posting on a regular schedule to my blog.  I was really happy during October when I was posting here frequently.  I don’t think I need to post every day, but a regular schedule would be good for me.

I don’t think I’m going to write anything tomorrow.  Tomorrow, I’m taking a break.