Day 2

Another page edited.

NaPaADaMo, Day 1

That's National Page a Day Month, if you're curious.

Don't worry, I won't keep calling it that all month.

Day 1 has gone as planned. One more page edited. Hurrah.

'Twas the Night Before NaNo...

Okay, clearly I have to do something. My new work schedule has me thrown completely off my game, and I need some kind of kick up the backside to get me moving again.

There's no way I can 50,000 words this month--not even of editing. I'm hosting book club this Monday (which means cleaning the house all weekend). The Son's epic Jedi-themed birthday party is coming up this month. Not to mention Thanksgiving, which I also host. Oh, and I'm teaching an intensive SAT prep course the week of Thanksgiving, too. Plus continuing to, y'know, work and parent and stuff.

However, there are people far busier than I who manage to finish books.

One page of editing a day, folks. That's all I can manage for this particular challenge.

Checking In

Did one hour today, and got through another section... and, almost on impulse, wound up deviating from the second draft scene quite a bit. I was never completely happy with this little bit of the book, though. I think what I wrote today has more life to it.

Officially Re-Entered!

Did my 30 minutes, and finished a section.

Tomorrow I need to tutor in the morning, so I will pack lunch and do an hour afterwards. I'll check back in then.

Re-Entry

It's no surprise, I'm sure, that this summer has been disastrous for writing. I started a new job last spring, and while it's still only part-time it's doubled the number of hours I was working before. Plus, The Son did half-day camps again this summer, so the few kid-free hours I had were spent tutoring and doing admin for the tutoring company. I did some editing work here and there, but never built up momentum.

Time to get back on track. School starts today, which means 7 kid-free hours a day. I'll have to work 2-4 of those hours depending on the day, but that still leaves plenty of time for writing. What worked for my best last year was dropping The Son at school, then coming home to get some dishes and laundry started and do about an hour of admin work, then head to the library when it opens at 10:00 for two hours of editing. Then home for lunch, and more admin work if need be. The two mornings a week I tutored at the library, I would bring my lunch and do my two hours of editing after I ate.

I'm easing back to that schedule now. My goal for today is to be at the library when it opens, and edit for 30 minutes. Tomorrow I'll do an hour, and by Friday I should be back up to 2 hours.

I'll report back each day to stay accountable.

Three Years On

I meant to do a whole Three Year Retrospective thing on June 26, since that's the anniversary of the day I started work on TOB. I was in the thick of planning and packing for our vacation, though, and forgot about it. And frankly, I'm a little depressed by it. I so, SO wanted to be done by now, and a lot of the reason I'm not is my own lazy fault. I just turned 45 and I really want to FINISH something for once in my life, dammit!

So what do I do in response to this feeling? Avoid working on the book for two weeks, of course!

I'm back at it now. I finally bit the bullet and decided the troublesome bit had to be moved back into Act 2, so yesterday I opened the document and just did that, plus added a few more ripple-effect lines to a few more scenes. Today, I opened the document again and finished the scene I was stuck on. Tomorrow, I'm going to try to edit the next scene. Keep moving forward, and I'll get there eventually. Right?