Jennifer Hillier

Slowly, slowly, slowly…

Apr 12, 2010 | Uncategorized

I can feel the wheels in the part of my brain that writes first drafts beginning to spin.

It’s been a tough start getting back into the new WIP.  Last week didn’t go as well as I’d hoped.  So let’s just say that this week needs to go a whole lot fucking better.

The irony is that I was so totally inspired to write this novel two months ago.  I had an entire vision for the book (which of course I didn’t jot down), and now that I’ve got nothing but time on my hands to get back into it, I can’t remember what the story was that I was originally so inspired to tell.

This is why I HATE taking breaks during a draft.  Some writers, I’m sure, can handle it.  Can find their rhythm again easily.  Can stop and start as many times as they need to.  I, unfortunately, cannot.  I only feel comfortable taking a break between drafts, but I made an exception this time because… well… I got an agent.  And my agent wanted revisions on the book she represents, which is Creep.  And nothing was more important than that.

Duh.

Anyway, I feel really good about today’s session.  I normally don’t write on weekends, but I since I blew off Friday to go to the Tulip Festival, today was penciled in as a working day.  And finally, finally, finally, I can feel the juice coming back.

The tulips were worth it, though.

As part of my commitment to finishing this new novel, I spent a few minutes today figuring out my deadlines and quotas for this book (subject to change should an emergency arise):

First draft completion:  July 30, 2010
Writing sessions between now and then*:  75
Final word count goal:  90,000
Word count quota per writing session to make my goal:  1,022

(*Writing sessions don’t include Saturdays or Sundays, long weekends, or trips I’ve planned.  Taking all that into consideration, there are 75 working days between now and my deadline.)

Do me a favor and keep an eye on my word count to the right of these posts.   If you don’t see that number crawling up, NAG THE SHIT OUTTA ME.

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