Inappropriate Words

A Schedule for the WIP

My recent mini-success has prompted me to tackle the serious issue of a schedule (including self-imposed deadlines) for the current Work In Progress.

Last night I finished the first draft of the first story of what I'm calling The Jenny Ash Collection. It's to be a kind-of-episodic novel comprising vaguely linked stories about the same character, which I'm aiming to finish around the summer, and pitch to e-book publishers.

There'll be a dozen or so stories, each around 6,000 words, and I'm aiming at a total length of about 75,000.

At 1,000 words per day (fairly high for a spare-time writer, but I've done it before), that's about one story per week, so twelve stories in twelve weeks, plus a month for rewrites, takes me up to the second week in June. But I'll probably start querying publishers when I've completed just three stories.

I already have rough outlines for a third of the stories, and sets of ideas for the rest, and will probably end up with more stories than I need. The 'surplus' stories can be put towards the sequel (!)

So, starting my new schedule now, I shall be writing every day until June.

I still want to submit stories to contests as they may appear, but if I'm to keep to my schedule, contest entries will have to be written outside my set quota. Putting it like that makes it all seem arduous and a bit restricting, but writing (especially writing seriously and commercially) must be treated like a job -- because that's what it is.

posted by J. @ 20:55