Bring it on.

For the first time in all of October, I have two full days with absolutely nothing planned ahead of me. Of course, they also happen to be the last two days of October, which means they are dedicated to all the projects I need to finish before NaNoWriMo comes charging in.

The two biggest projects? The outline for my NaNo novel, of course. I’m waffling on the ending–how cruel am I going to be to my characters? How closely do I want to weave this one in with the other two (still unwritten) novels set in the same world? How many people are going to end up on the brink of insanity at the end? I know some people would just leave it open and see where it goes, but I’m so not good at that approach. My possible endings diverge too widely, and I have to know which one I’m heading for.

Also, I still have like two-thirds of a close edit of Stone Alliance to finish before I put it away for a month. Who on earth starts a close edit of a manuscript with only a week in which to finish it? Oh, yeah. This crazy person right here. But I hit page 100 today, which was my goal. 160 more pages in two days? I can totally do that. Who needs sleep, anyway?

What are you working on? Are you outlining your NaNo novel or jumping in with your eyes closed?

Mission Accomplished!

Guysguysguys!! I just completed a first draft of the sequel to Demon’s Heart! It’s jumpy and plot-holey and awkward, but it’s done! There was a point at the beginning of the month where I had begun to despair of reaching my goal  of finishing this draft before July, but something clicked and it happened. Now I can move on from just making it to making it worth reading.

So the next step is to set the sequel aside and return to Demon’s Heart for a month with my fabulous editor. It will be good to go back and refresh that first book in my mind; then I can start hacking away at #2 with full force.

How goes it with everyone else’s writing/reading goals for the summer?

Progress Report

Is it June already? There was a time back in February when I thought June would never come. Now I’m scrambling to reach my goal of completing a first draft of book 2 in my trilogy before my edits for Demon’s Heart come back. I’m trying chapter 20 for the third time and hoping that this version doesn’t plunk into a pit to die like the previous two have. Hopefully I can get through the last few chapters before my two other novels come butting in with unsolicited inspiration again.

I’m also running twice a week and I think I might die. But it’s getting better. I don’t think it would be so bad if I didn’t have a severe uphill slope in all directions from my house—but it builds character, right?

What have you all got going on this June? Any writing goals? Or other goals?