Because as deadlines approach, sanity lies in the numbers.
Okay. I have 92 days between tomorrow and Nov 30th. 13 weeks. That’s including weekends, which … ah … I may be working again.
I have 24 remaining paperclipped segments of Hawkspar — those were supposed to be completed at a rate of one per day, but that’s not going to work. I don’t have that much time, and this book has to be finished first. Must be. Figure two segments a day (about sixty pages of revision), and that will take me down to 12 days to finish hand-writing revisions. So now I’m facing the fact that I’m going to have to get my ass in gear. And I’m down to 80 days.
Another 12 to type in revisions, because I have seen the amount of work I am giving myself, and I’m an optimist — but not that much of one. I’m going to need that much time.
Down to 68 days.
Two birthdays. 66.
Days in which I will not be able to work because something will go wrong, I’ll be sick, someone else will be sick, or I’ll have to take a sanity break just to stay focused — figure one per week, which may be more generous than I can afford to be. 13 days, taking me down to 43.
100,000 words in first draft to complete.
2325 words per day to make the first draft deadline.
Okay. That wasn’t quite as friendly a number as I’d been hoping for, but I’ve done that much. I’ve done more than that much. Hitting the deadline depends on me starting now, running hard, and not missing a stride. But the goals aren’t insurmountable. Just hard.
But, yep, I’ll be working weekends.
