Monday, September 30, 2013

The Autumn of Not Sucking

700 words again yesterday, and I'm going for 800 today. About halfway there now. The scene is slow going, but not as painful as I feared. It's tough to pull off a dramatic confrontation without it descending into cheezy Lifetime movie dialogue. Also, from Willa's perspective, the antagnonist's actions are shocking and make no sense at all. I think I need to back up do a little freewriting about from his perspective-- his wants, his needs, what he's trying to accomlish here-- before I move on. As Joely says, every character is the star of his own story.

I am wary of making any pronouncements or setting any challenges (since we all know how well THAT'S gone lately), but I would like very much to make this the Autumn of Not Sucking. I've figured out that if I write 850 words a day, I could be finished with the draft by the end of November-- and that includes a few days off to host Thanksgiving. There's not really going to be a better time than this to make a push for the end: The Son is in school full-day and my tutoring schedule is light right now, which means there is no reason in the world I can't write 850 words on weekdays. Weekends are more challenging, but not impossible. I have an article deadline coming up, but it's a pretty straightforward article. I want to paint our downstairs bathroom, but we're having some work done on the exterior of the house in October so I wouldn't do it until after then anyway.

Now is the time.

Of course, I could totally blow it. At this point in the blog, it would be folly to pretend this isn't a possibility. But I'm going to give it a try: 850 words a day, with the goal of finishing the second draft by Nov. 30.

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