I love dad jokes. Can you call the title of this blog post a dad joke? Maybe. Let’s move on.
Why should you call me the hare? Let’s take a moment and think back to the classic fable of The Tortoise and the Hare. The hare started off strong, got cocky, and ended up slacking off and losing the race against the much slower, but much more stable and reliably paced, tortoise.
I started this month off strong. If you remember my goal from last month’s blog post (as seen here), I wanted to average around 2,500 words per week. The first two weeks, I hit that goal. I more than hit that goal. I got closer to a 3,000 weekly average and I felt pretty good.
Then things got crazy. Life happens, to the surprise of no one, and it can often get in the way of less important things. Work got crazy halfway through August, I went on a camping trip, my kids were sick, I felt sick, etc. etc. Unfortunately, I don’t have the luxury of unlimited free time, so some things that aren’t necessary (like work, family, etc.) have to be pushed aside. (Just to clarify, I’m saying that work and family are neccessary, not that they can be pushed aside…)
But let’s take a look at the positive side to this. It’s not like I got nothing done. When last I provided an update, I was working on chapter 12. I’m currently in the middle of chapter 15 which is building up/right in the middle of an action scene and (hopefully) a great character moment/reunion. I’m excited to write it. Plus, I feel like what I did write this month was pretty solid.
Chapter 13 was the first flashback scene in this book, and it’s from a character that didn’t get any flashbacks in book 1. I got so wrapped up in writing it, I essentially wrote the entire 2,200+ words in one or two sittings (resulting in a very late night writing session in bed, much to the annoyance of my wife. Sorry!). I really like how it turned out and I’m excited to fill in some backstory and flesh out this particular character. They are one of my favorites, and this book will get a really good look into their past, their thought process, basically just all around why they are the way that they are.
(Side tangent. I just spent a few minutes looking up whether or not it was grammatically appropriate to end a sentence in “are” as I did in the previous sentence because it looked strange to me for some reason. I thought you should know that the general consensus is that, while it is a valid sentence structure to end with “are”, it is generally not used in more formal writings. But we’re friends now, right? I don’t have to be as formal with you, right? Right. So, we’re good.)
Back on course here, chapter 14 was also a great moment for another character, albeit a much smaller side character. We got a bit more information for them and (again, hopefully) that will help flesh them out as a character. It was also a bit of the catalyst for the kick-off in chapter 15, so that’s fun.
Right now I’m sitting at just over 27,000 words so far. That means I wrote around 6,500 words last month. When chapter 15 is finished, I’ll be 25% of the way through draft 1 of book 2. Again, I’m not at the pace that I would like to be, but I am making (somewhat halted, semi-inconsistent) progress. I promise, I will get this book written. It may just take me another full year to do it. Fingers crossed that’s an overexaggeration.
Until next month. Stay frosty.
P.S. I think my ADHD is out in full force today… Can you tell?