Slow and steady… (Aug. 2021)

We’re back with another monthly update post! Thankfully, this one is a bit more positive than the last one. Let’s get into it.

So the big news is obviously that I’m actively writing again. As I warned in my last post, however, it wasn’t even close to the pace I was taking with book 1.

With my previous pace, I was getting, on average, 5,000 words per week on the first book (looking back, I don’t know how I maintained that pace consistently for 5 months. It was insane).

This month, I hit roughly 7,000 words total. I started by finishing up Chapter 8 and I’m currently working on Chapter 12 of the planned 60 chapters (for those keeping track, I did end up splitting one chapter which increased the total chapter count from 59 to 60). That means I’m close to 20% done, which isn’t terrible. I’d like to bump that pace up a bit (I’d like to be closer to a Brandon Sanderson rather than a George R. R. Martin), but I don’t know how likely it is to see that 5,000 words per week again. I am feeling the excitement of getting my ideas on the page which is a good sign.

I am also excited to say that I have good news on book 1. About two weeks ago, I randomly woke up around 4:30am and had a bit of an epiphany. I got up, trying not to wake my wife, and spent about an hour typing up the way I’ll fix book 1’s plot issues (at least in one aspect). There were some character motivations and some plot issues that I wasn’t happy with in the first two drafts, but I think this fix will help a lot. I’m pretty sure I won’t get to it for some time as I want to finish draft 1 of book 2 first, but I’m working on updating the chapter-by-chapter outline for book 1 in the meantime.

I know this update is super short, so I apologize. I’m hoping to get at least 10,000 words this month as my initial goal which will be an average of 2,500 words per week. It seems doable as long as I can write around 500 words a day leaving two days off a week.

Stay tuned for next month’s update!