Well, there you have it. I wanted my novel finished by June 1st, 2011 and it didn’t happen. I wrote like a mad woman during the times I could carve out for writing in the month of May, but it wasn’t fast enough. I wasn’t able to shout out over Twitter that I’d met my #writegoal, as I’d hoped.
Sniff. Moan.
Yeah, I feel guilty. I probably should have stayed up all night or gotten up at 4 am every morning to give myself consistent writing time. Unfortunately, I’m one of those people who needs regular meals & 6 to 8 hours of sleep. I’m a mom and a teacher and I couldn’t show up in those roles with bags under my eyes, mumbling about regency rakes and onomatopoeia. I’m trying to strike a balance here…
Sometimes I can make time for writing, and other times I can’t! (Um…and the nice weather of late isn’t helping, encouraging all kinds of outside family fun!)
I did, however, make it from ‘the middle’ of my novel into ‘the beginning of the end’–round of applause please. Last count, I had 12 scenes left to write…(trouble is, I keep adding scenes in! The stepping stones I need to skip across to the finish line keep growing in number like some fantastical dreamscape!).
I’ve also beat that whole ‘perfectionist’ tendency, not letting myself go back to revise or rewrite, just writing it down, just getting it down and done…
So I did make progress, more than I’ve made in any other year and in any other month. And for that I think I deserve to celebrate! (Raise a glass, if you please! Oh, and pass the cherry cheesecake!)
As to my writing goal…I’ve set another one. BY THE END OF THE SUMMER!
So, if you’d kindly keep your glasses raised, I’d like to make a toast: here’s to the endless writing pursuit, here’s to not giving up, here’s to getting back on the horse after falling off it, here’s to setting another writing goal, here’s to having *only* 12-ish scenes left…and here’s to the end of the summer!
CHEERS!
PS. Have you set writing goals? And met them….or not? I’d love to hear about your experiences! Leave a comment below!
Busy Writing 
You made progress, big pat on the back!
Goals are all very well, but it’s the end result that matters. Don’t beat yourself up. You will finish a little later than you’d hoped.
Sometimes the process can’t be rushed, that’s OK. Nobody died 🙂
Take a deep breath and write the best story you can. Good luck and happy belated birthday.
P.S. I write amidst chaos, I homeschool…Sometimes I get frustrated and write into the night, but I get there. You will too!
Thanks so much for the reassurance & support! Sometimes writing is such a solitary activity, and one can get lost in all these ‘ideas of success’. Must finish. Must publish. Must be perfect..Etc.
Whenever that happens I try to reconnect with the joy–usually I remember when I was a kid and how much fun I had (and still have) creating worlds with words. I’m trying not to be disappointed that I didn’t meet my self appointed goal and focus instead on the story, the characters, and all the fun I’m having messing up my feisty heroine’s life…
And as you say, I’ll get there!
Thanks for dropping by! Much appreciated!
Julie J.
Don’t feel guilty. A schedule is a schedule. You use it, You don’t let it use you.
So what if you missed a due date. This is your first novel, right? If it was your twentieth novel, missing a due date would be a big deal. First novel, it’s not really surprising. You are learning. And making mistakes. Boy can I tell you about making mistakes 🙂 I’m a world class champion at making mistakes.
So it’s going to be a bit later than you wanted. No big deal. Keep working. Don’t beat up upon yourself. Remember that 99.99% of the people who set out to write a novel never reach the 25,000 word point of the first draft. You’ve made it well past that. You are already a winner.
Settle down, take it easy, and you’ll do fine.
Wayne
PS: I ordered 50 ISBNs today.