TWR hit 50,000 words today, always a nice milestone to it. Also of note in an amusing way, is it means were this NaNoWriMo I’d only have needed another 15 days. Ha. Ok so yeah September was not my greatest month, but you know, I have had far worse, and any month prior to November of last year was a ton worse. Heck October of last year I was in horrible pain right about now and wasn’t a functioning human being. This time I was smart enough to take holiday as soon as I could, especially given the last real extended leave I’ve taken was in 2019. That was dumb, I need to not be that dumb again.
So I have a provisional deadline for TWR of mid November, which should on paper be much longer than I need. Given even last month I got an extra 3,000 words and I’m doing better this month already, I should have a finished first draft a month today, November 7th. Normally I would put my deadline at October 31st for stretch and challenge, but October 2020 is all about recovery, and rushing a novel is not a great way to recover from burnout. It’s also kind of pointless to, as I decided today that I am not going to move to uploading 3 chapters a week after all.
I did the maths, and while it would give me a more lenient publishing schedule for 90% of the remaining series including TSS, that 10% is a kicker. 9 books fine, one book rushed, but the rushed book is The Way Out, which might be the most important book of the whole series; there’s a reason it’s getting a paper first draft when I’ve otherwise moved away from that, and it’s because I need to get it right. If I did 3 chapters a week, I’d have less than a month between finishing it and beginning to upload it. That is far too tight for my liking, so Imma pass on that.
Even so, I am starting to feel frustrated that I’m about to finish my seventh novel, but my public profile only accounts for three plus the opening chapters of a fourth. I want to look more impressive to the world; yes that’s vain, but there’s purpose to the vanity in this instance: my USP might one day be the rate I can turn out novels. If this is how fast I’m able to right now, whilst I still have a full time job and live paycheck to paycheck, I can only see myself getting faster without the distractions. True, others would take their place, but it’s not as if my speed comes from a yearning to escape; it’s just that I work fast.
…And there is a way to show that off, but it has a huge catch. I need to write more short stories. Actually right now I need to write short stories, given I’ve done almost none in the last few months. Here’s one I did the other day I quite liked. But that is an unpolished draft. I need to start writing little bits here and there like this which are just as ready for prime time as my novels. That is how you build a following, and how you attract publishers’ attentions. So I guess if you click on that link down the line and see a much cleaner story that you remember first reading on another site, you’ll know I pulled my finger out. Sure seems stuck right now.
samshuttleworth.com 