It’s Almost Time for the October Writing Challenge!

Where did September go? Though it went by quickly, it was still a productive month, and much of that was thanks to the monthly writing challenge. It was my second month participating, and I got a lot done. I also noticed a lot of my fellow participants logging big word counts, finishing drafts, and finishing editing passes. It turns out, if you write or edit every day, you get books written! Who knew? And having a supportive group to be accountable to is incredibly motivating.

This is how it works. Announce your participation on Twitter using the #OctWritingChallenge hashtag. Write at least 500 words, or edit for at least an hour daily. Then, log what you did in the participant log, and tweet your accomplishment using the hashtag. That’s it! It’s also nice if you check in with the hashtag every day to provide favorites, retweets and encouragement to your fellow writers. You can get all the info you need at the Writing Challenge website.

So, how were my September numbers? My month turned out differently than I had planned. Midway, I decided I needed to cut my book in half and started investigating how to do that. I was staring down a minimum of 800 pages while I had a perfectly reasonable place to end it near the middle. Since the challenge gives you credit for outlining and editing, I could count all of that time, which was considerable. By the end of the day today, I should be over my 30,000 word goal and pretty well done with a second draft of the first book in my series. I won’t give myself credit for done-done, because I still have to fill in a chapter or two, but it’s pretty darn close.

I’ll spend the first half of October editing book one and filling in those gaps. Then, I’ll switch gears and start doing research and outlining for book two. I don’t like to stop before having the first book pretty polished, but I’d like to take advantage of NaNoWriMo to knock out a first draft for the next one. 50K words won’t complete it, but I should be able to cover at least one storyline. Yes, I know. Too many characters and subplots, as per usual. And after spending so much time editing recently, I’m looking forward to just writing again!

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