When the last of my classes ended sometime in the middle of June, I set myself a goal for the summer--to have a draft of my novel finished by the time the new academic year begins on September 24th. I've done a lot of reading about writing and publishing novels (I like to know what I'm in for), and most agreed that 80,000 words was about right for a first novel. Not so long that it's costly to print, and not so short that a publisher can't make any money on it; 80,000 is apparently the sweet spot in the middle. So, that has been the bullseye at the center of my target.
Just yesterday, I hit 49, 928 words. A bit shy of my weekly goal of reaching 50,000--but all I could manage with a totally fried brain. (I couldn't think of even one more word). I had figured out a few weeks ago that I needed to write about 6000 words a week to meet my goal, and in the last eight days I'd done nearly 10,000 (no wonder I couldn't think straight)! I took the night off and watched sci-fi.
But all in all, the writing is going well, and I'm starting to feel a bit more relaxed about it. I have 4 1/2 weeks and about 30,000 words to go--which is only 967.741 words a day!
(How come I'm starting to be glad I had to take all that math a few years ago?)
Anyway, I decided that I would spend today firmly planted inside my own head for a change, instead of trying to think like someone else, so I've been working on my project "defense." For those of you who have never written an MA project (most of you, I'd guess), a defense is a lovely little document in which the project producer gets to defend his or her decision to do something other than a thesis for their degree. Since I am writing a novel for my MA project, I get to not only explain why I chose to do so, but how I did what I did, and what the theory and thought is behind the project. In other words, I get to write not only a 250 + page novel, I get to write another (so far) 32 page academic document, too (I think a thesis might have been easier).
However, I am not actually complaining--really, I'm not! I've had the chance to spend the day writing as "just me," and its been wonderful. No considering whether I am being true to a 19th century "voice." No worry about whether I am "telling" too much, and not "showing" enough. No wondering what should come next. I just wrote! Academese, a language that I have not always been entirely happy with, comes much easier than I remembered--and for a few short hours, it's one that's been fun to speak (especially since I have always felt the freedom to speak it with my own accent).
I'm just hoping it's an accent that my committee will appreciate!
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