SUSAN TIPPETT BRAITHWAITE

Last week took me by surprise. I set out with a sensible plan of attack for my writing goal. Nice and easy; just spread the word count across the four days, and there’d be no need for another crazy Sunday. No need to hit 2K words in a day.

But, like all plans, they rarely survive contact with the enemy. I’m not sure who the enemy was… Okay, it might have been me ? Anyway, things went a wee bittie psycho.

Review 14th – 20th April 2022

Here’s what last week’s goals looked like:

• Add 5,000 words to Running the Asset’s manuscript, taking it to 112,121.

How It Started

When I started out on Thursday morning, five thousand words in four days was still a pretty daunting task (1,250 p/d). But, I stuck to what I’d learned from my spreadsheet data (stats for my optimum writing location etc.) and exceeded my goal by a couple of hundred.

I started Friday in a bit of a funk. I’ve been playing with the figures in my head for many weeks now. And by my calculations and guestimations, it’d take me well into July to finally type The End.

On top of that, there’s the time needed to edit and noodle and get the pros involved (editors, proofers, etc.), which takes me to the end of the year before release day.

I’d normally conquer the sense of it taking forever with the old Scots saying, “Monie a mickle maks a muckle,” but it didn’t work this time. (The saying basically means that many small things add up to a big thing… even though mickle also means big ????)

I had to come up with a way to not only get out of the dumps but to get the story finished faster.

I had to come up with a solid goal:

• Finish the story
• Set a date
• Come up with a realistic words per day goal.

The date was easy, though to achieve it by then, not so much. I have time off coming up on the 9th of May (less than three weeks from now ? ). To complete by then, I’d have to write 2,000 to 2,500 words each day (10K p/w). Plus, I’d have to scrounge up extra writing time.

Before finding extra time, I had to see what was possible. Could I write more than 1,800 in a day? Could I do it consistently? Below is how my testing went.

By the time I’d finished early Sunday evening, I knew that I could hit my daily goals and do it consistently. I just had to magic up that extra writing time. Cue my wonderful husband. With him taking over the chores, I now have the next three Monday mornings freed up for writing. Thank you, sweetie! And below is how that went.

My original goal was to add 5K more words to the MS. With my wee test, I managed to add 11,388 words!

Now, for the reality check. Last week caused me a ton of pain in both hands, mainly my CRPS one. But, I have put a lot of thought into what I’m doing. As I’m without a dictation program–and a computer that is compatible with one–I have to choose how to deal with the pain. Either I have a slightly lower pain level for months, or I have a higher pain level over the next few weeks–with a lovely two-and-a-bit-week break at the end.

Oh, and that break is the perfect length for me to prepare my noggin to get into editing mode. ?

This Week’s Goals

• Add 10,000 words to Running the Asset’s manuscript, taking it to 128,509.

That’s it for today. Thanks for stopping by, and take care.

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