Deadlines

I’m entering a kind of writer’s crunch time.  NaNoWriMo begins in ten days.  I still have nearly 40 chapters worth of outlining to complete before then.  (I suppose I don’t have to complete all 40 before then, but I learned from last year that not having a complete and well-thought out outline can lead to a disjointed narrative, and while this is going to be a very rough first draft novel, it is one that I plan on trying to sell eventually and I want to be as good as it can be.)  In addition, I am partway through 3 different short pieces, one of which I’d like to finish and send out before my focus turns to novel-writing in November.  That means getting at least a first draft completed in the next 10 days.

For NaNoWriMo, I’m going back to my schedule from last year, where I do my quota writing between 5-7 am weekdays and 7-9 am weekends.  I’ve been trying to get up earlier lately and just haven’t had the energy.  Kelly says it’s because I’m not getting any exercise and I think she’s probably right.  I’ve become pretty darn lazy about things. I’d like to say that I’m going to jump back on the exercise/early-arousal routine at once, but I’m too lazy to commit to it publicly at the moment. But I am focused on getting the outline and short piece finished in the next ten days.  I generally work better with a deadline and so we’ll see how this goes.