And that month sure flew by.
Gosh.
I don’t even know what happened to the time. I started off writing up to six days a week. About 500 words each time. My rhythm was hot. I was seeing the finish line in my sights.
And then work took over.
And that was hard. Like I told my best friend that I can’t hang out for a month. Well, that’s the way it goes for a time. Work is more important. It funds all of this.
Here’s my update from September:
- Wrote approximately 5,500 words. Draft at over 76,000 words.
Once I wrote the first three days it was actually easy to keep it up. I told myself no matter how bad the writing is to just get it out. Messy words with good ideas is still writing. That’s what I did. Stopping your critical mind from editing while writing is the hard part. So easy to lose track of a thought only to replace four words in the previous sentence.
I am glad to say I’m closing in on the end. I estimate there are 6,500 more words to pound out. That’ll connect everything to a big set of chapters I wrote last summer and bring out the final chapter. The images of these connecting threads plug into what I wrote last year. The outline from September helped set this up, if you remember me saying so. I know where it is going and how to end it.
Seven years of this story in my head. Two years and a month (and longer) of writing this draft. And it’ll be finished!
WOOO!
I’ve calculated I can wrap things up in one week, churning out eleven hundred words for six days. Alternatively, since other tasks take precedent, five hundred words for two and a half weeks.
That’s where Just as Human Real First Draft stands. The finish line is in sight. It’s a matter of getting real-life stuff taken care of beforehand. For the next few weeks that is the plan. Gotta pay the bills. When I see several open times, I’m gonna go about taking this home.
If you have read my updates since last year, you have no idea how much I appreciate that. Your support on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Discord keep me excited to share my stories. I haven’t broken into professional writing yet or gotten a piece of fiction put out in the world. Nonetheless, my dream of getting to that point hasn’t let up.
Matthew Birdzell 