I spent many hours writing this weekend, especially since I don’t have a car and couldn’t really go anywhere. (Although I went shopping with a neighbor on Saturday and out to a friend’s for dinner on Monday, so carless does not equal outless.) The tally: I’m up to 71,000 words. It’s looking like the total will be closer to 80,000 than 75.
I identified the chapters that needed the work and took them on, one at a time. Chapters one through twelve are effectively finished. Thirteen through seventeen need about 40-50 pages added, I think. The manuscript is going to come in at about 300 pages.
I think I can finish it by this weekend, which is only a few days later than my May 31 deadline. Then the hard work of line editing begins, then I send it off to my friend the copy editor, then I revise it again and send it to the proofreader. After that, it’s time to take care of the business end of things, like completely revising this website. I think I’ve finally figured out what I want to do: The blog will become a writing blog, and I will also post on Jewish and Israeli issues when the feeling arises. Or maybe I’ll run two blogs on the site. Okay, I haven’t figured out what I’m going to do. Darn it.
You know, today I realized that only about six weeks ago, I started my 50,000 word challenge. I was at exactly 41,702 words then, and wanted to see if I could hit 50k by April 30th. I did. And 29 days later, I have another 20k words. That’s without writing on April 30th, because I hit my goal and took a break.
In other words: Things are going very well. I’ll be sending the manuscript off to beta readers in about a month or so. Do I have any readers who are also editors or writers and want to be beta readers? Email me or post a comment here. (Of course, that doesn’t let you off the hook for getting a copy of the e-book when it’s published. We have got to get this puppy up the Amazon lists!)
Things are going very well, indeed.