Hello there! Good grief, it’s been a long time since the last post. I can’t believe we’re over halfway through January already. Then again, that’s what happens when you undertake to write 50,000 words in a month…
Today’s post is, basically, a quick progress report. I have two coldy kids on the sofa and a nice sore throat of my own, so a blog feels like about the most I can manage right now. Hoping that normal service will resume tomorrow!
So, about that 50,000 words… I’ve joined together with a subset of the Fiction Writers Group on Facebook to do JanuWriMo (guess where we got the idea for that one?!). I did this last year, writing two novellas in January, and had a great time, so why not do it again this year?
Only this time I have a new part-time job to throw into the mix. At the end of December I worked out a plan of how many words to write each day, budgeting 3000 for a free day, 1500 for a half-day, 1000 on weekend days, and so on. And having given myself New Year’s Day off, and waited till the kids were back at school, I began. I even chalked up some 4K-plus word counts in the first week.
It must be a truth universally acknowledged that the minute you take on one extra thing, all sorts of other interesting bits and bobs come along. So I’ve taken on a few more tutoring hours (with the extra prep that involves), agreed to co-facilitate an event – no, two events now, with the possibility of more to come, booked onto a training event next week… and I still have 18,000 words to write this month! What was that resolution I made about work-life balance?
I have to say though, the new book is going well. It’s the sequel to A House Of Mirrors, and it already has a provisional title: In Sherlock’s Shadow. My protagonist is antsy, often frustrated, put into all sorts of difficult positions, and as a result I have plenty to work with. I should be passing the halfway point this week (35-37K-ish), and I think that ‘over the hump’ feeling will help a lot. I suspect that this week will be about survival, though, stuffing bursts of writing between the cracks of tutoring, prep, ferrying the kids about, etc. If I don’t have 50,000 words on 31 January it won’t be the end of the world; but being me, I’m going to give it a darn good try. Wish me luck!
The featured image is muna by Valtteri Mäki, and is shared via Creative Commons license 2.0.
Looking forward to hearing more of this…maybe on Thursdays….keeeep wrrrriting!!!
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Happy New Year Liz – wow have you made a good start to 2017!!
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