First off: Happy Thanksgiving to all of us north of the border. While there are plenty of issues around the holiday as a whole, taking a moment to be thankful is a good thing. So I am thankful for how things have been going lately because I feel like I'm making real progress in my chosen goals for life.
I've been doing more thinking about Nanowrimo goals and I think, rather than aiming for 50 000 words, I want to aim for an average of 2000 words per weekday. It's not quite enough to get me over the 50 000 word threshold, but I think it's a sustainable year round goal. I've been doing fairly well with hitting an average of 1500 per day and I'd like to boost that.
Here's my logic. My stories tend to be around 115 000 to 130 000 words. To get to a first draft, I usually need to write about double that. Call it 250 000 words for a nice round number. If I can do an average of 2000 a day on weekdays, that's 10 000 words per week, which would let me get a draft done in 25 weeks, which is about 6 months, rather than the 7 to 9 months that it usually takes me. It's not a huge amount, but it's the next step that's in my control for my career as an author. If I want to have two series being produced, one self published and one traditionally published, I need to be able to write more in the time that I have available.
Will I be able to do it? I'm going to try but I'm also going to be paying attention to my energy level. I'd rather continue at 1500 per day than push myself to 2000 and end up needing a break.
In other news, the re-edit of Whispers In the Dark and Rose on the Grave has begun with Dynamic Canvas and I've found a new search and destroy word. Every author has their list of words that they overuse. I'm really pleased with the work so far. It's exactly the kind of detail that I was hoping for.
I'm also in the final prep mode for Can-Con next week. I'm really looking forward to this con. It's the last one of the season and it's so friendly and caring. The organizers make huge efforts to make sure that everyone feels safe and that everything is accessible. That way, everyone can just enjoy being geeks together and concentrating on the really important things, like debating dice roll techniques or how grounded science fiction should be in current science reality or what the best glue is to keep your elf ears on. It's three days of talking stories of the imagination in all genres and I adore it. I'll be in the vendor room and on some panels so please do drop by the Sheraton Hotel, October 12 to 14 (Friday: 2-7, Saturday 10-5 and Sunday 10-3). There will be chocolate. Promise.
And I should have a big announcement for next week. I've been sitting on this for a couple of weeks while I get all the details organized but I have been hugely excited about it. It's going to be such a thrill to get to tell everyone.
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