It’s come to my attention, mostly from my sister Vic, one of my guinea pigs for this blog, that somethings on my blog are not clear. So instead of trying to say something profound in this week’s ‘diary entry’, I’d like to explain a few things that may not be as obvious to everyone else as they are to me.

First, I know I talk quite a bit about being ‘ahead of schedule’ when it comes to writing the first draft of my book. If you’ve ever wondered about that mysterious time frame, here it is:

That’s right, folks. The inside of my writer’s notebook, with all of the manic scribbles and weird highlighting you could ask for. This time frame wraps up on October 6, giving me a little wiggle room at the end before the actual October 11 deadline. Just in case.

Speaking of deadlines…

You may have noticed this widget in the right column of my blog (or at the bottom, depending upon the device you’re using). My 30th birthday is on June 12, 2019. My goal is to complete and publish my book by that date. This widget counts down the months (then presumably weeks, then days, etc, as we get closer *cue nausea*) until that date.

And finally, a little explanation about the confusing word counts in my weekly progress reports…

Red box: This word count pertains to the words I’ve written in chronological order with respect to my story’s timeline. At one time, when I wasn’t taking this piece seriously as a book, I would write scenes as they came to me, and then try to fit them into the story after they were written. I know. Eww. Unless I get a particularly strong idea for a scene later in the story, I’ve stopped doing this.

Blue box: This word count pertains to every word I’ve written within my first draft document, whether in proper sequence with the story timeline or not. I recently created a “cutting room floor” document in my Google Drive for scenes that no longer work within the story. I keep them in hopes that they can be ‘re-purposed’ later, but mostly, I think those are just dead words I’m too sentimental to let go. The ‘cutting room floor’ document is entirely separate from the first draft document and therefore, those words no longer count towards either word count in my progress reports.

And there you have it. If you ever have any questions about what I post, please don’t hesitate to ask! If you think this is confusing, you should see the rest of my writer’s notebook…