Home Stretch, Ha!

Must...finish...this...draft. So I've been staring down the last few thousand words, struggling a bit with character motivations at the first part of the month. I believe I have that figured out, at least to the point where I can, eventually, type The End.

I thought I'd share some brief updates since people learn in different ways. As you may know, I participated in JuNoWriMo this summer and was able to make excellent progress on the WIP. This was such a lovely feeling of accomplishment. One of the things I noticed in looking back on my wordcounts for June was that I had several zeros (12!), which made me think I had stared down the daily wordcount goal and decided not to write at all. Silly writer.

So I wanted to change it up for July and see what that would accomplish. My plan for July was to write every day. And I did that. No zeros. My total wordcount for July was around what I'd been able to write in June, but without the guilt. There were clear advantages to pushing towards a larger wordcount goal over a month's time, but staying in my story for so long, even if it was briefly some days in July, prevented guilt. And that's always a good thing.

Heading into August I knew would be rough, mostly for personal reasons, like back to school prep and increased childcare demands. That added up to less overall time and energy to write. So, August, despite my fab progress in the J-months of summer, has been a bit of a bust, other than on the weekends. And, to the surprise of no one, once I got off-track with my daily writing, my wordcounts went downhill. A writerly snail's pace. Sigh.

But, I look back because I want to learn and I hope I can set myself up to do better next time.

I am within spitting distance of finishing, with scenes in the absolute middle and then the very end to complete. And as my kids are all back to school by tomorrow, at least, I have realized that I have to put butt in chair and write every day until I finish. I am that close and this is quite doable. (And fun and exciting!)

I wish I had a little gem to end on but really one thing I've learned about my summer writing is that I can try different things, make adjustments, and (al-freaking-most) get there. There's always more to learn. Sometimes it takes multiple attempts to get it. This is where I am, this summer, with this WIP.

What have you learned about yourself this summer?