As always, I’d like to begin this week’s progress report by thanking all of you awesome people who’ve followed, liked and/or commented on my blog!

Here are this week’s stats:

Words Rewritten This Week: 9,336

Last Chapter of Second Draft Completed: 23

Chapters To Go (subject to change): 2

Days Until January 20th Goal Date: 8

Thoughts?

This is the last week before my second draft is officially completed! I’m so damn proud of myself for not only just accomplishing that, but for also catching back up to my self-imposed rewriting schedule.

I did notice this week that, whereas before I was doing little more than typing out the edits I’d made to my manuscript, I was instead actually rewriting some parts…like I was supposed to be doing all along. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not mad at myself and I don’t think my book has suffered because of this. But I did want to be honest about my rewriting experience.

This week, it was also brought to my attention that an old friend’s website/podcast is holding its annual short story competition. It’s strange because I’d been giving a lot of thought to short stories lately, and how I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to write something ‘short’ again after writing a full-length book. But then, I read the theme…and the word count expectation…and I got an idea. And last night, I wrote 850 words towards what I hope will be my submission for the competition. Wish me luck!

Goals For The Coming Week

In the next week, I’d like to complete the second draft of my book, which means rewriting Chapters 24 and 25. Because of all the extra writing I’ve been doing, I only managed to read the Captive Prince short story, Pet. So I’d also like to make an effort to read and finish Prince’s Gambit by C.S. Pacat. And if I have time and the inspiration, I’d like to continue to work that short story idea.

Note to Self

Don’t underestimate yourself. You can do just about anything you put your mind to. Hell, look at all you’ve done already!