Weekly Writing Intentions: February, 11, 2023

Daily Diary, Day 893:

Again, despite some obstacles, like continued problems with my eye, a fair number of phone calls, and some time rewriting a scene that had pacing problems, I still felt is was a productive week. I wrote 4952 words….so close to the 5000 word goal, and totaled 540 minutes of exercise (which meant an average of 77 minutes a day.)

However, for the first time, I can honestly say my intention for this coming week is to finish this first draft of the science fiction novel. I can’t promise I will succeed, but it is in reach. At this point I have the main action climax, which may take about 2 chapters of multiple scenes to complete, then the final or epilog chapter. If I can at least get to that that last chapter by next weekend I will be happy.

Normally, at this stage I would give myself about 2 weeks for the first pass-through editing, before sending out to my first readers. However, before I get to that, I need to stop and put together all the material to submit for taxes, which could take a few days. And I am probably going to give myself more like 3-4 weeks for editing because I anticipate a fair amount of actual rewriting (cutting, shifting some plot threads to the next book, etc.)

But again, that is jumping ahead. What I need to do is concentrate on writing for now.

Today, I’ve done major cleaning of upstairs, and because of not feeling quite up to par, I will skip a walk. I’ve written slightly under 200 words this morning. Then, if all goes well, maybe I can hit 1000 goal by dinner time.

I put a photo up of this particular kind of tree earlier, but in the past week, these trees have really come into their own. I looked it up on line and I am pretty sure it is a tree called Evergreen Pear (ornamental tree, without any pears). Evidently it is a tree that stands out because it flowers in the winter when the rest of flowering trees in San Diego aren’t in bloom.