Thrusters on full!

So May’s done, and so is the month’s writing output. Tomorrow we’re into June. I’m concerned a bit about a few headwinds I expect to encounter. First, there’s a week-long vacation toward the end of the month (but I’ll absolutely be taking my computer along for that, so I will DEFINITELY get some work done), and second — and more importantly — I am now reaching the part of the book that has been the vaguest in my mind for the entire time I’ve been writing it.

So far, this book has been a much different experience than the first. I know just about all of what happens in this one, except for most of the third act. Which I just reached. Oddly, I know how the third act ends, but getting from there to the end is a bit troublesome right now. But I’m confident that the Muse will show up and toss some ideas at me out the window of his crappy car; I’m learning to just keep showing up to do the work, and trust the Muse to offer what help I need, when I need it. Hell, just yesterday he handed me the solution to a plot element that I’d been wondering about ever since Chapter Two.

Anyway, the work goes on. Keeping my upper limit at 180,000 words, I need to produce 78,000 words (roughly) between now and July 31. I can do this, absolutely!

As for May, specifically: I only had eight out of thirty-one days where I fell below 1000 words in total output. But I also offset those with eight days where I was over 2000 words for the day. My lowest output came on the 17th, with just 515 words; the evening that day was taken up by some family obligations, though, so that day’s output was just what I managed to cram in during my early-morning, pre-work session. My largest day of output was the 28th, just this past Tuesday, when I cranked out 2680 words.

So now, on to June and the third act of this book. My new quota is 1300 words a day, which is a bit more than the 78K words I need to reach 180,000 by July 31, divided by the 61 days in June and July. I set the quota high so that every time I meet it, it puts me a little more ahead of the game. Now all I gotta do is figure out what happens over the course of those 78K words.

As always, Zap! Pow!