The next book as inspiration

As I posted a couple weeks ago, I have some lovely new ideas that were just haunting my brain despite the fact that I was hard at work on my other book. I made a promise to myself not to write on them because I didn't want to distract myself from the work I was trying to finish the first draft of.

What I was, however, doing was using the idea as inspiration to get me through the other work. I wanted so badly to start writing it (and, I confess, I'd done some planning of it before I wrapped up the first Taggert Twins draft) that I was making myself focus harder on getting my current one done. And it worked. I wrote about 10,000 words a week the last couple weeks (and that's ignoring that 10k+ words in a single day on Monday). I was writing faster, spending more time at it, and writing more consistently. (Out of the last three weeks there have been three days I didn't write, and only one day when I wrote and didn't make my quota.) And I don't think the writing suffered with the pace.

Part of this is due, no doubt, to the fact that things had really started happening in the book -- the mystery had reached the point where the characters had real suspects and were searching for the evidence and a way to prove it. So I wasn't setting up the story anymore; it's was unfolding. And that was the fun part. It really was. Because when things get going it's so much easier for me to really get pulled into the book. My brain works faster; I type faster. I just get really drawn into the story and it's wonderful.

But the idea hanging over my head for the next book -- an adult mystery -- was definitely encouraging me to focus on the twins. And now that I'm done, I can write it, dammit. Go me!

The end is in sight

I have less than 3,000 words to go to hit my goal. Now, I realize that this goal is pretty arbitrary. (1) This is a rough draft and (2) The story will not necessarily end end at the 55,000 word goal that I've set for myself. It could end sooner; probably will. But it is a way of measuring my progress and I need that to keep myself going.

Just like at the gym. I track how many reps, how many sets, what weight I'm using. It keeps me motivated to see my progress, especially during those times when it doesn't feel like I'm actually getting anywhere.

Anyway, I'm 95% of the way to my goal and I wrote over 10,000 words just yesterday. (That, my friends, is a personal best which I may never manage to repeat.) I could have this draft finished in as little as a week. As little as a few days if I really work at it.

This is a huge deal for me because I've never really, really finished a work. I've technically got three long fanfics I've finished, at least one of which was longer than this book. But they were parts of series and I didn't wrap up the loose ends because there was another part yet to be written (that, incidentally, I haven't gotten to). Plus, they were just ... bad.

But this ... this is entirely my own work and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Not to say that writing this has been some dark tunnel with no end in sight but ... you know what I mean.