49,000

If I were to cut this draft short at the 50,000-word, reduced goal, then I would be almost done. So, I'm starting to write and engage with the project more from a sense of "how do I complete this draft" rather than a sense of "what else can I say to make this cover all the issues that I think are important?"

I'm over 49,000 words tonight, but I know that a bunch of my recent additions will either be cut or necessitate cuts in the main text.

47,000

making a little progress...
writing right now, but got over 47,000 words and looked at the clock and wanted to post a blog before midnight, so I officially only missed one day since my last post.

some days, not so much

I struggled for hours with writing today. And to little avail. I console myself by remembering that there are bad days sprinkled in with the good (or vice versa, depending on how things are going), and that the bad days are often days when I'm struggling with important issues. Things were very productive in early June, not so much lately, but at least I put in the time.
I wrote a few hundred words and considered the elimination of significantly more.
My word count is still 46,000+, with about 4000 words to get to my low-end goal of 50,000, and 14,000 to get to my initial 60,000 word goal.

Problems, problems

It's funny how the problems shift.

About ten days ago, I was struggling to get writing done and thinking that I should just cut the draft at 50,000 words.
Today I got to 46,000+, and suddenly 50,000 almost seems like it won't be enough. I feel that there must be more than 4,000 words of material left. Not that I can actually think of it right now.

In any event, with the reduced goal of 50,000 just a short jog up ahead, it's funny how my sense of the problem shifted. Of course, it's not a problem at all: the 50,000 word goal is not a limit; I can go over if I want.

Whatever; for now I just want to keep on plugging so I can put the complete draft together, and then step back a little and try to see how the whole thing hangs together.

Getting back on the horse (again)

What's to do when circumstances keep one from a project? Berate yourself? Or get back on the horse?

In June I was cruising for a while, writing very productively--if I had kept that pace, I would have reached 60,000 words by now. I didn't. Should I hang my head in shame? Should I spend time lamenting what was lost? I don't know, but those don't seem like they will help me finish the book. If I spend time lamenting what was lost instead of working on the book, won't that give me something to lament in the future: the hours I spent lamenting instead of working?

So I want to get back on that horse every time I fall off, as quickly as I can.

I'm over 44,000 today (thanks, partly, to finding 1000 words I wrote years ago that will suit).

It may not be graceful, but I'm riding again.