I finished Project B. I came up one day short of finishing it in January (hence why this blog is a day late) but it is still an achievement to draft a whole novel in 35 days. It puts me firmly ahead for the year which is a great feeling. Of course, I will no doubt just redo my schedule to account for it and try to get everything done faster because I lack the required chill, but such is life.
Progress
The year/month got off to a bit of a bumpy start. I had planned to get a lot done on January 1st as I had the day off. However, I was unfortunate enough to get food poisoning. Then a few days later when I’d started to feel better, I got it again. Both times it was from olives but they were two separate jars and anyone who knows me at all knows I love olives. This slowed me down a bit, but I still managed to write all but two days through all the brain fog and unwellness.
The rest of the month ended up being significant catch-up. In fact, after the food poisoning had subsided and I felt back to normal I averaged over 2k words every day which is the only way I finished the book as fast as I did. Even with my churning stomach I wrote just shy of 60k this month and averaged 1,927 words a day. This is likely my strongest month in at least two years. It beats every NANO month and I believe it only rivals the 80k month that I did back in July 2020 when I wrote my first manuscript. I find this incredibly encouraging as I’ve had my doubts about keeping up my pace and increasing it while having a full-time job. This level of productivity has assuaged most of these fears. And, as a fun bonus, my writing group loved the first section of the project that they read on Saturday.
What I’m learning
I can push myself to extreme degrees. Often I experience burnout, but this month has had surprisingly little for how much I accomplished. Then again, this is the easiest I’ve ever written a manuscript. It wasn’t really difficult at all until the end because the problems with the story had caught up with me (but that’s a problem for another draft). I do find myself exhausted as I’ve been putting near-constant 12-hour days in between my full-time job and my writing. I am tired, but my mind feels sharp and clear. I hope that I have hit my stride as a writer and that these feelings persist.
Leisure
I’ve watched a few different shows this month from Dexter to Criminal Minds, to Severance, which my brother and I are watching as the new season comes out. We’ve been waiting for years at this point and it’s just so good. I also watched John Wick during the switch to the new year and just watched the second one last night. They, of course, deserve all the hype.
On Friday I went to the park in the drizzling rain and fog (we had fog all day and I was cooped up at work so I didn’t get to enjoy it as much as I would have liked) and I did some Kulning. Kulning is a Scandinavian herding call that is meant to echo across the mountains and locks. It created a beautifully eerie atmosphere and I didn’t bother too many people because not many would go out into the rain and fog. But there was one lady with a dog that I could see across the fog-laden meadow and every time I would do a vocal flip the dog would stop and look back at me. If it hadn’t been on its leash I’m sure it would have come running.
Looking Forward
The months just keep on coming and so do my tasks. Next on my list is Cut Throat. I plan to do a read-through of the 50k I’ve already written and re/reverse outline it. Then I will dive straight into my revision and hopefully finish that draft by the end of March. I have no idea how long this will take as it’s some strange kind of revision that I’ve never done before. However, I’m intrigued to see how it goes.
I am also going to attend Boskone 62 in Boston this month. I am looking forward to it but my body doesn’t know what is nerves and what is excitement so it all just culminates in anxiety. I’m hoping some people I know from last year will be there, but who knows? It’s over Valentine’s Day so that may dissuade some of them.
I’m sure I’ll have a lot in the learning category for next month after going to the convention.
Until next time,
Naomi
