My goal for October was to write 50 hours of fiction. I was ahead of my pace--sitting at 33 hours and 32 minutes of writing as of the 20th--until food poisoning hit. That took me out for 3-4 days, which by itself would've made it difficult to achieve the goal. Another problem was that I fell behind at work and have been playing catch up all month. So I haven't written another word all month. Oh well.
But it's a good failure. I feel good about writing my first two chapters--13,050 words total. I'm pretty happy with the beginning.
If it is true that a typical first novel should be in the area of 100,000 and 140,000 words, I can pump out a pretty good first draft in nine months . . . if I can keep up my current pace--an optimistic assumption by any measure.
So now with Halloween on the way, it is time for November goals. Just one goal, really. For November, I plan to have a completely dry month. No beer, no wine. I honestly have no clue whether it will be a difficult or easy goal. I guess I'll find out when I have my first bad day at work.
Despite only having one November goal, I still plan to continue full steam ahead with chapters 3 and 4.
I think I'd like to do a celebration thread for one of my favorite bands sometime soon too. Not sure which one. Maybe Yo La Tengo, a criminally underappreciated band.
Also, I finished Dances with Dragons yesterday. It took more than 40 days to get through its 1,051 pages. But now I'm all caught up with the Game of Thrones world. Now it's just a matter of hoping that George R. R. Martin stays alive long enough to finish the last two books.
But it's a good failure. I feel good about writing my first two chapters--13,050 words total. I'm pretty happy with the beginning.
If it is true that a typical first novel should be in the area of 100,000 and 140,000 words, I can pump out a pretty good first draft in nine months . . . if I can keep up my current pace--an optimistic assumption by any measure.
So now with Halloween on the way, it is time for November goals. Just one goal, really. For November, I plan to have a completely dry month. No beer, no wine. I honestly have no clue whether it will be a difficult or easy goal. I guess I'll find out when I have my first bad day at work.
Despite only having one November goal, I still plan to continue full steam ahead with chapters 3 and 4.
I think I'd like to do a celebration thread for one of my favorite bands sometime soon too. Not sure which one. Maybe Yo La Tengo, a criminally underappreciated band.
Also, I finished Dances with Dragons yesterday. It took more than 40 days to get through its 1,051 pages. But now I'm all caught up with the Game of Thrones world. Now it's just a matter of hoping that George R. R. Martin stays alive long enough to finish the last two books.
Check out the Ted talk by a guy called Matt Cutts, if you haven't already. Might motivate you for all your monthy goals!
ReplyDeleteCool. Will do. Although I think I know what it is about. 30-day goals with the view of slowly improving your life? Great idea.
ReplyDeleteyeah, that sounds about right. it's about 5 minutes long and it's the best description of/for it i've seen. (although it's the only one, i can't imagine any one else describing it better.)
ReplyDelete