Friday is the New Wednesday

Hey all,

Happy Happy Friday. 🙂

So I’m late posting this week—again. Yikes, I’ve got to stop doing this. But maybe it was worth waiting to post this week because I now get to share with you my neice’s new blog.

Riley posted for the first time last night and seeing her words on the page, well, it made me catch my breath a little. How can my sweet neice, Riley—one of my very first readers of this blog and one of the very first kids to read my very first novel be officially writing too? Some of you may remember her from her participation in our Critique Corner events. Well, now she has her own blog and her first post is amazing—incredibly helpful for any writer. You can check it out at https://rileyiswriting.wordpress.com/ .

She’ll be blogging about mixing her writing life with college life. I have a feeling it will resonate with many college age writers out there—or any writer really.  And BTW, her writing is extraordinary. I have a sneaking suspision we’ll be reading her books one day.  🙂

So besides reading Riley’s blog this week, I made some pretty hefty goals.

I decided to give my Writing Grid a go…you know the one I mean. Click back to last week’s post if you don’t. Now that my MG  is polished and patiently waiting to find the perfect home, I’m onto Book 2.  Yes, Rebecca, my lovely agent extraordinairre, and I are hoping I’ll need a Book 2!

I’d like the draft (and hopefully one round of revsions) to be completed before winter’s end. I could take the plunge and try to whip off a basic draft by doing NaNoWriMo next week, but that method just doesn’t fit into my life right now. Why, you ask?

Well, My son’s 16th birthday is the first week in December. That means a fair bit of planning has to happen in November. (Note to other parents out there: It doesn’t pay to make a giant deal out of your daughter’s Sweet 16 birthday, if you aren’t planning to do the same for your son.) Hence the upcoming Super 16 Celebration. Yikes!

My daughter is leaving mid November for a 9 day school trip abroad. (More on that later.) So that will take a fair bit of my attention too. Ya know, worrying, stressing, worrying, stressing… No amount of writing will alieve that, so I won’t even try.

And then off course there’s normal life-work, kids, husband, house… I do envy those that can push all that aside and motivate themselves to write 50,000 words next month. Believe me, I’ll be cheering each of you on!!

So anyway, I’ve decided to instead embark on a 20 week to completed draft experiment. I began this week, and I’m planning to average 2500 words (or more) each week, until I hold that baby in my hands by early March. The timetable is managable and I’m so hopeful it will work for me.

I have all the tools in place…I ’ve never completely planned out a draft ahead of time like I have with this one. I feel so organized and accomplished! I’m usually a combination planner/ pantser. It feels kind of good to be at this point. Before this week I had already completed the first two chapters. I was at 2265 words when I started Monday.

Now today, after writing this week, I’m now at over 5,000 words. I was able to check off all five 500 word blocks on my grid for week one by Thursday and now any writing I do today or this weekend will be a bonus.

I’m posting about this draft and my writing grid because I know how it feels to be a hampster running on the wheel. With so many family, work, and other life commitments, it’s hard to fit in time to write. So I’m here to motivate you—to tell you that you can fit it in. It may not be easy to do so everyday, but if you find a pocket of time that works for you, and you consistently attempt to find that pocket of time, pretty soon that’ll become your norm. That’s why I’m using a writing grid to keep me on track this time around. I’m hopeful that even with all the other commitments the next few months throw my way, I’ll still be able to fit in my 500 words 5 times a week. That’s the plan anyway. 🙂

Have a fantastic weekend, my friends. Happy Halloween! May it be full of many delicious, gooey treats and even a few fun crazy tricks!