Just a quick update this month, because I’ve got a lot of things to do.
Last month I dove back into actual revisions on the fourth draft of my novel, though as usual, progress has been slow. As of today I’ve revised 40 pages, or about 12% of the manuscript, which is much, much less than I wanted to have done by now.
For the actual revision process I’ve gone back to setting aside entire nights (from 8:00 to 11:00pm) for novel work instead of grabbing an hour here and an hour there, since I work best when I can devote larger chunks of time to writing. Unfortunately, though, a variety of things (i.e., excuses) have kept me from setting aside said nights, meaning that I’ve really only managed three nights of work in the last month, and that’s not cool.
On the plus side, my productivity during those nights has increased a LOT: I’ve been averaging about 4 revised pages per hour, which is WAY higher than my average of 1-2 revised pages per hour when I was working on the third draft. So that’s good, I guess.
Really, though, the more I think about it the more I realize that I’ve kind of screwed myself by trying to do too many things at once:
- Write a novel
- Work a Day Job
- Maintain this blog
- Run a small freelance editing business
- Have some semblance of a social life
- Get my first novel published
- Get more of my writing out into the world
- Read books I’m interested in
- Keep up with basic household chores
If this list were reduced by half I think I’d be fine, or even if some of the more demanding items (e.g., the Day Job) were taken out I’d be OK—but more than ever I’m realizing that my current setup just isn’t working, and that if I want to finish this novel and establish myself as a writer before I turn fifty, then I’ve got to make a change by crossing something off the list.
More to come soon—promise ;-)