How the Writing's Going

Hard. Really hard.

Oh Chillbear, I’m so obsessed with you, too!

The truth is I’ve never written 60,000 words before.

My manuscript is due on November 15th. A few months ago: I created an organized structure for myself that included a few milestones. The target was roughly 20,000 words by June 10 — then 40,000 words by end of July, and finally 60,000 words by mid-September. I even built in breaks (I’m technically on a break this week and next) as well as extended times for editing.

Well, I did the first part. I sat and day after day, diligently hit 20,000 words which is basically 40 pages single spaced. Wow, that was hard. There’s the life stuff that made it hard (it’s summer break, the kids are home, the laundry, the dishes, I’m still making anywhere from 20 to 50 journals a day). Then, the real reason it’s hard: you’re writing without really knowing where you want to go or what you want to say. Yes, you have an outline but it’s just skeletal, it doesn’t contain the heart of your writing. The heart of your writing is an excavation, it’s a journey into yourself that is mapless.