Last week’s log:
MONDAY: 6,635 words
TUESDAY: 12,374 words
WEDNESDAY: 9,481 words
THURSDAY: 10,495 words
FRIDAY: 12,002 words
SATURDAY: 5,547 words
For a total of 56,534 words for the week.
It’s interesting how much your perspective can change in the space of a week or so.
If you look merely at the word count, this was a spectacular week for me. Tuesday was a personal best, coming in at half-a-page under 50 pages for the day.
The total of 56,000+ words for the week is the equivalent of a standard book. If my book was only 56,000 words, then I would have written it in six days. That’s also a personal best.
However, I was frustrated towards the end of the week, because life kept getting in the way of my warp speed push to get the book finished.
As you can see above, on Saturday, errands and running around the city took a big bite out of my day.
Sunday (the day I am writing this post), I had intended to sit down and write all day, and with a bit of superhuman effort, maybe get the book finished. (I can see the finish line from here.)
Then I had a look at my calendar for next week, and had a small meltdown. Between family get-togethers, including one at my house (which involves <sigh> cleaning and stuff), and a pair of author events which will chew up a large amount of time, my writing time will be whittled down from the warp speed pace I would like to keep, to even less than my standard schedule.
In addition, there is no time for me to write blog posts and emails and other marketing material.
So today, I am trying to get a week ahead on blog posts and email.
Next week, I will write in all the time that I can write, and try to be graceful about not being able to write as long as I want to.
The week after that, I will knuckle down again and maximize writing time. By then, not only will I be a week behind, and more, on this book, but I am now chewing into the time for the next book. I should’ve started writing the next book three days ago — never mind getting it plotted!
The pressure is there, but as long as I stay calm and continue to work in all the hours I can and not procrastinate or goof off, then I will eventually catch up.
As Tuesday shows, dictating is starting to pay off already. The extra speed will help me now. In fact, dictating my books and posts will make this doable. If I was still using just the keyboard, I would be seriously worried.
To continue the surfing analogy, I’m still in the soup, but paddling out of it and working steadily against the rip.
t.