So here we are, two days past my self-imposed deadline to finish the first chapter of the book, and it’s still not quite done.  I knew once I graduated that not having real, hard, consequential deadlines might trip me up a little bit, but I thought I had a good plan.

Giving myself a deadline — two weeks to write a 3,500-4,000 word first draft of each chapter, just to get the story from my outline to the page, that I could tweak and add more detail to later — would net me about 25 chapters by the end of the year, and even though I have a 30 chapter outline, maybe I could cut some corners on some chapters, make them shorter depending where the story took me, and I’d be able to make up the difference.

And while technically it hasn’t been two weeks since Friday, January 1, 2016 (my official start date), I thought having a good part of this chapter pre-written would be one of those short cuts.  As it turns out, I think the reason I never finished this chapter in the first place is because writing about people killing other people in dark rituals is actually kinda hard.

I’m also going over my own word count, which isn’t helping me finish any faster.  I’m at 4,600 words right now, and while there might be some fluff in the middle I can cut out (later — I’m not editing much yet, just trying to write) it’s still packed with information, tension, and action, and I haven’t even gotten to the end sequence that will further set the wheels of the whole series in motion.

To keep my spirit up, I keep reminding myself that I actually have the second and third chapters written already, and I don’t plan to mess with them as I move forward from here.  They were my big “final project” assignment for school, and while they’re far from perfect, at least the story is on the page.  And thanks to my outline, I even know what happens after that.

So maybe the plan is still on track.  Tonight and every night this week, I’ll still try to get this first chapter done and in the bag.  But even if it takes until Friday, once I’m finished with chapter one, I get to move on to chapter four.  I guess that’s pretty good progress heading into the third week of the year.

Meanwhile, I’ll also have to catch up on my Blogging 101 assignments, yikes I’m falling behind on those.  I haven’t even looked at today’s email, but yesterday was all about tweaking my About page, which I look forward to tackling soon.

Well, off I go, wish me luck.  As always, take care and thanks for reading!

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