My mid-week report to you that covers the three major commitments I’ve made: to write, to edit, and to read.
Writing
3600 words or so to knock out 3-4 scenes on Sigils. I’ve got four major “TODO” comments and another 20 scenes to finish. I wanted to go BICHOK 6/7 days this week to get 2-3 scenes in Sigils wrapped up. I definitely got the scenes done and managed to make it 5/7 days. Not too shabby!
This week I’m going to need to do some serious writing because I want to get the first 2/3 of the book wrapped up. That will mean finishing seven scenes. At this point, I’m looking for a couple of alpha readers to slog through the typos, unexpected scene jumps, and other detritus to help me figure out if I’ve got a reasonable story in there.
I know that I am capable of writing about 10k-12k words per week if I put in the effort. That means I’ve got 2-3 weeks’ worth of writing left, and then I can buckle down and do another editing pass.
I got an unexpected five-week extension on “My My, Hey Hey”. I absolutely am going to take advantage of that! Not having that stress on me feels wonderful. Yes, yes - I realize it was self-imposed stress. C'est la vie d'un auteur. I’ll return to this once I reach a good save point for Sigils.
Commitments for this week:
BICHOK. Want to go 6/7 this week.
Get the first 2/3 of Sigils wrapped up (7 scenes done)
Editing
I was going to redo my schedule on Sigils but ultimately decided not to do so. That might sound like laziness, but really, I’m simply being pragmatic. I know what I need to do. At this point, the best thing I can do is execute on that.
Part of getting the first 2/3 of the book wrapped up means finishing of the TODO items in the first 2/3. Which is… all of them, actually. So on top of the writing, I’ve got some heavy editing to take care of as well.
So this week, I will:
Keep to my established editing schedule
Finish off the TODO list for Sigils
Reading
I finished re-reading Legends and Lore of Western Pennsylvania by Thomas White. I need to keep this one handy. There are so, so many story ideas in there!
Next up is Civil War Pittsburgh: Forge of the Union by Len Barcousky. This is another short (120 or so pages) book from The History Press, the same company that published Legends & Lore. They tend to be light, quick reads. One of these days I would very much like to return to telling the story of Patrick O’Malley in 18th Century Pittsburgh, and these books are a great orientation into the life and politics of the time.
Other
I’m continuing to update the #TeamAndMore open calls. I did another combined post for the Team this past Tuesday. Next week, I’ll start splitting things up so there’s something new to publish each Tuesday.
April is continuing busy. Cut up a tree for firewood - well, half a tree. It was a big tree! I’m helping to prepare for a fundraising Ladies’ Tea next month for our local pregnancy center. Volunteered to help paint our church auditorium. Got thrown around like a rag doll as the example crash-test dummy for a women’s self-defense class. All on top of the Day Job, the youngest having her Senior Night outing, volunteering to help with our upcoming Lady’s Conference at the church, and so on. Life stays busy! Which keeps me off the streets… and I think everyone can be happy that’s the case, no?