In my head,  I’ve kept up with my word count and I’m breezing along to finishing my novel by Dec. 15, 2017. In reality, I’ve skipped at least 14  days of writing due to being tired and not knowing what’s next (trying to make each scene mean something for the end product).  When I restarted, I was stuck on chapter five and six for the longest time, telling myself I will get to it later. But certain events in my life pushed me to stop messing around and set a goal. 130,000 words here I come!

I am now in chapter eight (of 18...maybe) in Torque. The last month has been the fastest I’ve ever gotten chapters done, and had less slumps. It's clear I need to keep the momentum going so I don't have as many.

I’ve been using Scrivener’s word count tracker to help push me to write between 750 and 900-plus words, for the days that I’ve selected as writing days. Since there have been days that I didn’t plop a single word onto the page, it adds words for the next day so that I can make up for it. Which is nice in a way, but if I wasn’t committed to being done by my self-made deadline, I’m sure that my word count would be way higher. And looking at my goal for the day can be a bit overwhelming sometimes, but as long as I split the writing to before and after work, I reach my goal.

I’ve also been using my book map to keep me on track plot wise. I noticed the other day when I went to Starbucks that I never really finished my detailed outline; breaking each chapter down by characters introduced and mentioned, and a detailed look at three important/ focal points for the book.

While I am all for planning, it’s not realistic of me to try and finish the outline. In the book map, I break it down with a one sentence summary (for both of my main characters, chapter conflict, storyline notes, characters introduced and mentioned, and if there are any important plot points for it.

I know this sounds like more work than the detailed outline, but it works for me. I did my best in the book map to keep everything brief so it wouldn’t take so long to do. As mine is in Google Sheets, it’s easy to adjust and change and I always have access to it.

Since I am trying to write 130,000 words by the end of the year, I need to keep my focus on that, but I will do my best to do one full post and a writing prompt for the rest of the year.

I will eventually have a second Write Reads post on here soon, but until then, check out the first one and let me know what you think.

-Keep Writing