Progress is Slow, but Inevitable: Tuesday Post of Accountability!

All right, here’s what I’ve done in the last couple weeks (since I missed last week – Bad Me!)

1. Finished a couple chapters of The Line. Now, last week I totally slacked off and managed to do a whole lot of nothing. My goal for September was to write 100 pages (count ’em) and I managed 60. At first I was all:

“Man! I’m 40 pages off of my goal. That’s a lot.”

then I talked myself down a bit and was like:

“I wrote 40 pages over what I managed to write in August. That’s a lot.”

It’s all a matter of perspective. Progress was made, so I shouldn’t bitch and moan too much. Plus, I’m right at the end of Part I. That means I’m in the fun writing stage known as: Jacking My Characters Up. The sadistic part of all writers loves this stage.

I’m also upping my ante for Nano. I realize that you’re supposed to write something new, that you don’t really care about, but I want Bigger Word Count. I want to have a rough draft of The Line finished by the end of February – and that’s closer than even I think it is….

2. Started two short stories, which I’m really digging. Again, I’m off my goal because I wanted to have one short story done every two weeks. Since I’m halfway through both stories, I guess I’m not technically off my goal that much…especially if I finish both of them in the next couple weeks. It feels good to be working on somehing that can be finished fairly quickly. The work on the novel sometimes feels like a neverending task and it’s good to have work in ‘different states of repair’.

3. Joined a book group on Goodreads. Our first book is The Count of Monte Cristo. I dig the group. They have these giant books broken up in weekly, totally doable chunks. Since they’re all going at the same pace, I feel like I can handle some of these big novels.