This is a quick update. It’s November—time for NaNoWriMo, time for ambitious goals, audacious writing, even if the words themselves at the end will be ever contingent. The words end up being imperfect. Often, in many cases, so imperfect as to be nearly useless. But the aim is to get something done.
On Friday, my task was a “Finishing Friday.” I sent an article that I’ve been fiddling with for a long time. Is it good? No. Is it perfect? No. Am I happy with it? Not really. But I sent it off to a journal. It will get reviewed, sent back, and then I’ll try again. Finishing Friday.
I think this month is going to be something similar: Finishing November. Or, of course, NaNoWriMo. My goal this year? “Finish the Goddamn Book Writing Month.”
I have a small writing group with some friends. One of them, along with me, is adopting some goals. She’s going to write the first three chapters of the book she’s working on.
My goal? I will revise and reorder and magpie my way into a complete draft of the book by the end of the month.
What does that mean? At first blush, that means 90,000 words.
90,000 words is a good-sized academic book. Mien will be ordered, broken into scenes, with narrative and argument woven together, in support of a makeshift way of proceeding.
I don’t mean 90,000 words, perfect. I don’t mean done, for good. I don’t mean tight as I can get it.
But, I do mean that I want to take forward momentum, stop revising, and weave together a book of about 90,000 new words, organized, put into a temporary, contingent, place, lightly polished enough that I can get a feel for the whole things.
That’s the task.
What are the milestones?
Let’s see. First, a word budget can help.
90,000 words is a good-sized academic book, at least according to William Germano (2009, Getting It Published). Let’s break that down: take out 5,000 words for references and another 10,000 words for notes. That gets us to maybe 80,000. Add in some padding both ways. Say, 75,000 words. So, we’re left with getting a draft of about 75,000 words.
I’ve already got 5,000 words polished. So, that means my task for the November is 70,000 words.
I have 10,000 words from finishing Friday. So, that leaves 60,000 words.
60,000 words is the goal. It’s November 3rd today. Lets break 60,000 into 27 days. My goal is to write, revise, or reorder 2,500 words or so each day. Seems audacious. But, it’s doable. I’ve done it before. Quite a few times actually.
Crucially, my task right now is not write 2,500 words. Or at least, not most of the time. Rather, it’s to code, reorganize, gather, bring together, cut up.
The model is more like making a patchwork quilt, than knitting something from scratch.
But, the method is like a magpie. Taking shiny things, bringing them together, attacking them, seeing how they work.
Crucially, at this stage of the game, it’s not much thinking. It’s a manual work. Craft like. Physical labour.
Wish me luck.
I’ll do updates, daily.