And The Horses Are In The Starting Gate

Well, It's Jan 1, 2013. We survived the Mayan doomsday. The world kept turning on Dec 22nd, and the 23rd... Guess they got that one wrong. Since we're all still here, I might as well get traction on this year.

New year. New goals. To that end, I've decided I need to get better at a writing schedule and sticking to it. The vast majority of my new writing last year happened in November. In the first two days. At that point, I really hadn't written anything since Nov '11, and very much at all going back to July before that.

November rolled up, and with it the annual NaNoWriMo - the National Novel Writing Month Challenge. For those who haven't heard of NaNo before, it's a challenge to write a 50,000 (or more!) word novel in the 30 days of November. I'd won this 4 consecutive years, a veteran. I'd hit 50K words in as little as 15 days one year. I figured I'd grab an idea and run with it all month. Been there, done that, I'd have it in the bag. No sweat. I failed spectacularly.

A couch slug does not simply buy brand new sneakers and then run the New York Marathon.

To go from so much inactivity to trying to crank out 1667 words or better a day to keep the NaNo pace just wasn't going to happen. After 12hr door-to-door days at the day job (You know, that thing that pays for life's little niceties, like food and internet), I didn't have the mental energy to write my name much less 1667 words a night.

So, I'm going to stretch this year before running that November marathon. Here's how:
January - 500 words/day for 31 days = 15,500
February through July I intend to add 250 words/day each month, ending up with 2000/day in July.
August I'm dropping back to 1000 words/day, building up again 1750/day in November. Notice, this is ahead of NaNo pace. December I cut myself a break and drop back to 1000/day.

Grand total for this schedule as presented is 464,500 words.

I want to prove to myself I can win this thing with a full time day job, and if I stick to this schedule I'll be in shape to win that marathon. I also want this year to be one not of new beginnings, but of finishes. I have stacks and stacks of projects with notes attached, and maybe a few paragraphs, or  WIPS (Work In Progress) with 5-10K words and a few notes for later. I've even got one WIP that, if I'd had a child when I started it, the kid would turning 21 in July!

The only snafu I have with this whole grand scheme is this: which of my (many) unfinished projects do I work on first? I'm going to let you, the readers decide. I'll post a short synopsis of each contended and let you all vote until Sunday on which I should start on first.

1: Echo-13: From the Files of the X-Corps - the oldest horse in this race. Ultra-deep top secret special forces action with the fate of the galaxy hanging on their next move. Lots of gun battles, space fights and explosions everywhere. I've said for the last several new years that I would finally finish it. Will this be there year?

2: The Dytek Enterprises Field Agent Handbook - Urban Fantasy. One man simply trying to clear his name at work. Oh, he works as a regional field agent for Death.

3: Jameson Hewitt Airship Mysetery - A Steampunk-ish mystery thriller set on an airship crossing the Atlantic at the beginning of a worldwide war.

4: Hunt Starfire Saga - Scifi, chronicling the birth of a mercenary startfighter unit. Book 1 of a planned 6-7 book series.

There they are! Go vote in the comments. I'm looking forward to seeing which horse wins this race.

Wednesday Check-in

Much like the heat in Texas, I'm hot. I've hit my ROW80 goals every day for 11 days now. (Haven't started writing today's yet) 11,112 words. And on my 1kx365d goal, a 10 day streak for 11,713. There's some free writing in addition on this second goal that's giving the difference in numbers. I've got two separate spread sheets going to track all this.

Yes, I am being that organized for this. I blame the NaNoWriMo report card someone started several years back.

Where are all these words going? Well, everything written for ROW80 has gone into finishing a novel I started 4 years ago. I have few scenes left to write, and then I have a completed draft zero for DEFAH. (My acronym for the current title) Once that's done, I'll need to add/adjust my ROW goals to include some editing/revision time for DEFAH. Logan, Miss Farnsworth, and the gang are almost ready to see the world outside of my head. they've been scared/tortured enough in my mind for the last 4 years.
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ROW80 Check-in

And ROW80 rolls on. I've been hitting all of my word counts, 1000/day this week. Since Sunday (750), with my ROW writing and the free writing I do after my ROW is finished, I've also hit my personal daily 1K for 365 days goal for a week straight. This beats my previous longest streak of 6 days. However, I'm still 164K behind on this goal. LOL On Monday the ROW goal goes to 1250, so I hope to extend that 1k/365d streak for the next two months. And catch up a bit!

DEFAH is growing. I'm ramping up to the big fight scene. Logan has just been escorted into the Big Bad's lair, and is now being informed on just how badly he's been tricked. In video game terms, Logan has already dispatched of on the minor bosses, and he's about to face off against two level bosses, and the villain. All at the same time. And he's essentially got three bullets left in his gun, so his aim has to be perfect.

What's in store for Logan today? That is yet to be written. It's time to gather all the loose threads together and thread the needle.