For my last book, I completed an 82,293 word first draft in a month, so I thought I could do something similar this time. Boy was I wrong. Not only did I forget that how much time I took off from work last time, I failed to account for the fact that my job is busier now and the world is adding a lot of stress to my life.
This time it took almost exactly six months, punctuated by two month-long droughts shown in the charts below. What happened in March is that I traveled by myself to a book site in Asia, with weeks of intense work in California on either side. I thought I could somehow come back from that and jump right into writing again. The drought in April and May shows what happened instead. My recovery throughout this summer was accomplished only when I swallowed a whole bunch of humility and started to respect my body’s capacity. I wanted to finish sooner, but it was not humanly possible for me at this moment in my life. I had to adopt the drafting mindset many times and let crappy writing happen. I know I can make it much better in revision. Accepting my human limitations helped me make what progress was possible, and now I get to celebrate being done.
I wrote 23% more words (101,607) than the last book’s first draft, and I’m confident the extra time I spent outlining means my story will survive revision largely intact.
