Speculation, Fact and Fiction

As regular readers will know, I'm not a writer for posting metrics or detailed wordcounts and stuff like that. Call me lazy, superstitious, paranoid if you like - and you may well be at least partly right. But I do have targets.

Specifically, I have a year planner on the back of the study door currently showing many colours of marker, indicating blocks of time like
- the school holidays and family holidays within them,
- sons' and husband's trips away for school, scouts, work etc,
- conventions I'm going to,
- The Write Fantastic and teaching/lecturing gigs,
- reviewing and short story deadlines,
- monthly slots for doing admin and accounts
- aikido and other domestic commitments, like say, my sister's wedding and my younger brother's graduation.

If this sounds insanely organised, please remember I have a husband who works full-time, long hours, and two teenage sons. And yes, okay, I was the swot at school who did her homework on Friday nights and was the bride who arrived early for her own wedding. I really do hate being late with/for things.

Way on down there in November is my current book deadline. Ten years and more at this game means I know how long it takes me to write a book of given length, from first note-taking to final draft. So counting back from that deadline and taking into account all the multicoloured marker, are weekly waymarks for me to measure my progress against - in a schedule including some leeway for potential domestic chaos to erupt. Because it does.

Anyway, I've been really cracking on these past few weeks since the next week will be an entirely non-writing but teaching week. And as at close of play yesterday, I am 6826 words ahead of where I want to be at present. This is extremely pleasing.

I will now go and review my slides/handouts for next week's teaching sessions. And then do the ironing while husband and sons do their share of the housework and other such tedium. And then we shall all enjoy Doctor Who!