I’m just going to do a quick ROW80 check-in because I’ve been super busy for over a week, and I’m not done yet.  I’ve been super productive, too, so it’s all pretty good.  I haven’t been just running around doing busy work and not accomplishing anything.  I didn’t get as much of the novel planning done as I had hoped, but I am still determined that I am starting to actually write the story this week.

This is what I’ve done writing-wise to get things going so I can actually finish someday:

• Decided on a weekly word count goal–5,000 words/week broken into three sessions
• Set up a word count meter (over there to the left) for Inheritance
• Figured out a problem with my antagonist that makes what she does make so much more sense
• Created a writing schedule (Wednesday and Thursday nights and one floating day to reach my 5K)
• Came up with a decent logline which always seems to help me focus on my story and really get it moving

I set a preliminary goal of 80,000 words for Inheritance because that seems like a good starting point.  It’s a genre novel, paranormal/horror at that, and I’ve read that those are expected to be a little bit on the short side.  80K may not be right.  It may end up longer.  But I figure it’s a good number to aim for starting out.  At 5K words/week it will take about 4 months to get a first draft written.  I want to have a full draft written and at least the first chapters through one revision by the end of July because I want to take it to the Willamette Writer’s Conference in August and pitch to an agent.  I don’t expect this one to be my groundbreaking first novel, or necessarily even my first published novel.  What I do want is to start practicing some of the submission process so I have a feel for it so I can guide my writing clients through it better.  And, although I know this isn’t true, I’ll feel more like a writer if I’m submitting at least now and then.

So that’s where I am now.  Next week you’ll see progress on that shiny new word meter, and maybe I’ll have a little more time to do a fuller post.  I hope the writing is going well for everyone!