Oct 27, 2009

Pick up the Pace

I've written before about writing under pressure and thought I would share with you my new self-inflicted deadline.
This is my last week of university (next year I will be teaching high school English) and I've almost finished my assessments. I only have 2 essays and 2 forum posts due by Friday.
There is a bigger project waiting for me - NaNoWriMo!
I can not wait to take on the month of nothing but writing. I have my plot and my usually analytical mind will be making room for Fantasy writing.
So what happens with the novel I've been writing about the young girl who enters dog shows and solves mysteries (Dog Show Detective)? I'm so close to the end and I had promised (before discovering NaNoWriMo) that I would 'hire' myself as a writer to finish the first draft in November/December.
I'm not prepared to leave it for a month, but I want to focus on The Costume Maker (my NaNoWriMo story).
So.... I'm giving myself until midnight Saturday to finish Dog Show Detective. I figure I can end the first draft in about  10-12,000 words. Yep 10-12,000 words in 5 days. That's over 2,000 words a day. And I can't just forget about those darn essays.
If I can get this done, it will work well. I'll work on the NaNoWriMo novel in November and then by the time I get to pick up Dog Show Detective again for editing, it will seem fresh.
Today - finish Chapter 15 - Kitty must start to make an association between the mixed-up dogs and hear about her main suspect for dog napping - they've turned up dead!
I love stress, love it. Love the panic. Love the pressure and the amazing work it produces. Love the searing pain running down my left arm the clutching feeling in my chest... wait... that bit might not be good.

2 comments:

  1. I am as excited as you are for NaNoWriMo! This is going to be a GREAT November! I am super excited to keep each other honest on our word counts! I already have a set schedule for writing, writing on my current Oplura novel, and am so excited for NaNoWriMo I dream about it...well, maybe I don't actually dream about it. See you in November! Keep up the great posts!

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  2. Thanks Karisha! It'll be great to see you get another 50k words down for Oplura, you've worked pretty hard on it!
    See you in Nano (and the NanoWave!)

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