Follow along as I attempt to reach my writing goals in December.
Read about my writing goals here.
December 1
1:32pm. I’ve completed a first draft of “I Really Love You and I Mean It,” a dummy of “Digit” and a dummy of “Scientific ABCs.” This checks the boxes for two of my picture book goals – plus an extra picture book. BONUS.
I still need to read and edit my two chapters of “Dare Club” and then revise those chapters in the manuscript. Hopefully I can get that done and still have time to do my run workout.
December 2
Read three chapters to get back on track. Revised manuscript. Considered additional work that needed to be done while running.
December 3
Barely managed to read a chapter, spent the day with kids at a research study.
December 4
7:28pm. Chapter 14 is read and edited. I am behind on revising but will get to work tomorrow morning, possibly tonight if I have time. I did revise the short story “Will Call” and I submitted it and “The Hunter Case” to a ghost story competition hosted by The Fiction Desk. I also submitted “The Spark and Blade” to Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine. It feels good to submit and check those off the to-do list. I’m at soccer right now and have an hour drive home and chores waiting for me, but hopefully I’ll get some time tonight to tackle “Dare Club.”
December 5
5:29pm. This afternoon I revised chapters 11-14. Then the kids came home at 4pm and needed an hour for homework and snacks. To stay on track I needed to read, edit and revise two more chapters. But I also need to make dinner. It took me 30 minutes to read and edit chapters 15 and 16, but they are done. Can I revise them in another 30 minutes and then cook dinner? Let’s see.
6:03pm. Two chapters revised. Ready to start chapter 17 tomorrow, on schedule. 8 chapters to go, at 2 a day I should finish Friday afternoon.
December 12
8:14pm. Good news, I finished revising Dare Club last week on Thursday, Dec 8. Ahead of schedule. That one is ready to send out.
I realized I couldn’t dive into revising “DNF” yet, because I didn’t know the chapters. And I didn’t know the characters completely yet. And I don’t have the ending written. So I have to revise my schedule, but I’ve read through the whole manuscript and I love a lot of it. Loving it means I’m excited to work on it.
To submit it in February, I need to work steadily for the next month. We’ll be traveling the week after Christmas, though, so I’d love to have a draft with chapters in order and a climax and ending written by Dec 23. That’s only 11 days away. And we’re traveling next weekend, so I don’t get all 11 days, I get about 9. I think I need to write the climax and ending and then work through some of the larger edits like removing junk chapters. Then when the story exists from start to finish I can work on the polishing in January. 11 days. Two chapters a day. Runners know about putting in the work daily. Let’s get started.
Dec 23
6:44pm
I’ve printed out the newly organized draft of DNF. I’ve thought through my climax. I haven’t started reading and revising two chapters a day, but I still think I can do it and be ready to send it out in February. The question is, do I carry it with me on our winter vacation?
Also, new book idea inspired by Hamilton. When do I find time to write THAT?