Another week of only 2 days of writing, but those 2 days pulled in a total of about 3,200 words, just a few hundred words short of the weekly target of 3,500. As things stand, I’ve written 16,395 words of new fiction in 2012. That’s behind pace by about 1,600 words. Of course, my aim it to get in my 500 words every day and it is there where I am failing.
The writing I did do this week was focused entirely on a new story, the fifth story I’ve started so far this year. This one is an epic fantasy short story. Aside from being epic fantasy, the other unusual thing about this story is that the idea for it was not fully formed when I started writing it. Usually, when I have an idea for a story, I figure out how it will end before I begin writing. This, more than anything else, ensures that I will finish the story. It’s much more difficult for me to finish when I don’t know where the story is going. With this story, however, I wasn’t certain of the ending when I started. And I wrote nearly 3,200 words without being certain. As of this weekend, however, I know where the story is going and how it will end. On the other hand, I originally thought I might be able to get away with just a few thousand words. I think I’m more than halfway finished at this point, but I can’t be certain. Given the ending I came up with, the first several scene (I’ve written 6 so far) will need to be revamped in the second draft.
I’m hoping to finish the first draft of this story this week, and then see if I can wrap up the third draft of story #1, which has been hanging first seen I rewrote the first scene. I’d like to get the third draft of that story back to the early beta-readers who saw the second draft.
I am fairly certain that the only reliable time I have during the day for writing is the early morning. During the week, this is from 5-6am. On the weekends, it’s an hour later. I could easily get in my 500 words every day if I could just get it done during these times. I set my alarm for 5am each night, and each night, the events of the night (dealing with kids, not able to sleep, etc.) force me to sleep in an extra hour. I shouldn’t say force. I’m choosing to sleep in. If I can get past that hurdle, I think I’ll really be able to start writing more regularly. But it’s not an easy hurdle to overcome with long days and my willpower doesn’t seem to be what it once was. We’ll see how that goes.
I’ve got one story out for submission at the moment, the second story I wrote this year. Tomorrow will be 2 weeks on that one. I’ve been stressing somewhat about the fact that I haven’t made more submissions, but I realize now that I’m building up steam. By the end of March I should have at least 5 stories completed and all of them will be out for submission (or sold!) and I’ll be working on still others.
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