Ohhh-ohh, we're halfway there...

I did it. Pant...pant...

I made a list of goals last week and posted them to my new writing group, and while I didn't meet all of them, not completely, I did get to 50K on my word count.

YAY!!! Pat Julie on the back!

In a comment from Sara Lewis a week or two ago, she reminded me not to obsess too much on word count--she is huge on allowing your intuition to guide you in your writing. While I think this is wonderful advice, and I am trying so hard to follow this in my story--letting the characters tell their stories, being patient with them while they figure out where they're going and what they're doing--I also know I am a procrastinator often, and a little bit lazy sometimes.

I will do anything I can some days to put off showing up at the page, so I've been setting myself goals lately and trying hard to accomplish them. After all, I took a big plunge a few months ago, and Todd trusted me and put a lot of faith in me when I said I thought I was ready to make this writing thing a nearly full-time venture--money in hand or not.

So, I have taken a big step here. As of tonight (well, this morning, if you wanna get technical), I've passed the word count of other manuscripts I've started or finished before. I'm "halfway" through the average word count of the kind of novel I dream of completing and one day having published. I'm moving into a new phase of this writing life--the downhill slope of a first draft (of I'm sure many drafts) of a full-length novel for adults--and it feels pretty good!

The only goal I didn't meet this week, by the way, was taking a full Artist's date. While I took several opportunities to go outside and take pictures of flowers, and wandered in a bookstore one day for a while, I didn't watch the movie I planned to watch by myself last week. Why is it so hard for us to take intentional time to feed our creativity? (I guess it is summer vacation, and the words "by myself" have little meaning most days, but still.) Gonna do it this week. EDIT: Reading back over my goals from last week, I realized I not only didn't accomplish another one of them--I completely forgot about it! It's on the list for this week again. Heh.

And now...I'm going to go to sleep!