The Final Stretch

See what I did there? You thought I was going to say The Final Countdown. And I didn’t! Except for just now. So it’s stuck I my head now…

Neglecting the blog for a little bit more. I’m so close to being done with NaFiTFuThiMo. I actually get four extra days to boot since the original goal I set back in summer was “The End for my birthday.”

How close to the end am I? Very. I have two chapters left to go. One might get split into two because the way I’ve been structuring Amity is that I start a new chapter each time
I switch the perspective among the protags. I’m close enough to being done with a week to go that I don’t feel the pressure to finish as bad. I feel like I have the time to make sure I’m throwing down quality words.

And thus ends my experiment with posting from my phone. Ten minutes is as much free time I can spare. The word mines are calling.

NaFiTFuThiMo Update 2

Hey look at me finding the time to not neglect the blog for once!

I feel bad that my productivity around here has plummeted to nothing since I started the push to finish Amity by my birthday. But that’s the way it’s got to be. I have trouble with self imposed deadlines. Back in college I was always the guy who did everything right at the deadline. I’d write twenty page papers that I wouldn’t start until the morning it was due. Because I could do it and get the good grades, I never felt the need to change. So now it’s years after college and those habits are still around and a lot less useful when I don’t actually have any real deadlines to frantically finish against.

So how’s it going?

Well it’s going good. I’ve been getting a lot of words done and they’ve been good words. I’ve been finding chapters and scenes that weren’t on my outline though so I’m writing like a fiend and not getting as close to the end as I should. But the end is still in sight. I was real sick last weekend so lost three days completely to a head cold which I’m still not really over. But if you follow me on ye olde twitter (or saw it over on the left), my word count officially topped 50k back on Tuesday. And that’s my low estimate. I’m writing the first draft with ink and dead trees so 50k is my low estimate.

How much left to go?

Well I’ve got eleven chapters on my outline. At the rate I’ve been going, I’ll probably find at least one more. I don’t expect too much more than that because the climatic chapters have been sketched out in more detail than the last couple I’ve been working on.

So I’m still on track. Amity will be complete on my own deadline.

I still owe the post on Even White Trash Zombies Get the Blues. It’s still awesome though. Go read it.

NaFiTFuThiMo Update

I’ve been a ghost around here for the last week or so. So I owe a post about Even White Trash Zombies Get the Blues by Diana Rowland which I finished a couple days ago (short answer: Even better than the first!). I try not to let those posts sit around for more than a couple days, but most everything is on the back burner because of NaFiTFuThiMo.

Remember? National Finish The Fucking Thing Month.

So how’s that going?
Well it is. I haven’t quite kept up with the word count, I’ve lost the battle with sleep a lot this weeks. It’s a tough battle to fight since my infant kiddo sides gangs up with sleep against me. But even though the word count hasn’t quite been where I want it, I’ve made positive gains every day so I’m taking all the victories I can. I’m still optimistic I’ll have my novel finished by my set goal.

A few days ago, I sat down and did a full bullet point outline straight out to the end of the novel. That was the first I had done that. Previously, I only had a broad strokes outline because it changed as the events in the book grew and evolved. The rest of the plot is locked down except for the epilogue. That’s still marinating in the back of my head as I go.

But I’m getting good writing out of this and solid momentum. I originally estimated I had 30k words to go til the end of Amity but I keep finding more scenes and I’ve even added in whole chapters I didn’t plan on before so I think I’m pushing towards 40k or even a full on NaNoWriMo count.

Circles back around to how I haven’t quite been hitting the word count. Well notice how I’m blogging now and not at work? Oh yeah. I’ve got vacation time to burn before the end of the year. So I’m going to go spew out words until my brain melts. 5k would be nice. I’ll happily take any word I can get though.

So now I leave you with the same thing many other authors of note in the genre circles do when they’re busy, or just ’cause… a picture of my cat.

Blog, meet Mr Pibb. Mr Pibb, the blog.