Between doing the rewrite for LGD and the copyedit for TALYN, I’ve lost about a month and a half of time I’d figured for SEAFOX.
I have to acknowledge, too, that I’ll have to do requested editorial revisions for LGD soon, though I don’t know when I’ll have to do them or how long those will take. I may also have to rewrite the proposal I just sent off, or even write an extended outline, or sample chapters.
And then there’s the upcoming holiday season. I can count on subtracting a minimum of fourteen workdays for holiday-related activity.
Words remaining to write on the book — about 210,000.
Figure:
14 days for editor-requested revisions
14 days for holiday stuff
3 days for additional proposal work (this could telescope horribly if I have to do a full outline or sample pages)
27 days.
Take out another 1 day a week as padding, against getting the flu or something. 19 days.
An estimated 46 non-work days.
Deadline currently stands at March 1st. 127 days between now and March 1st, total. Subtracting my buffer, that gives me 81 work days.
2593 words per day. That’s not good.
If I lose no days at all and work seven days a week between now and March 1st, I have a much more doable 1653 words per day, which could be rounded up to 2000 wpd to provide me with a buffer.
How much buffer? 210,000 divided by 2000 equals 105 days.
A 22-day buffer.
In all honesty, that’s probably enough. I could probably get by on 2000 words a day and be fine. But I’d worry myself sick if I tried it, I think.
I may just go with 2500 wpd, and see how that runs for a while. I’ll build a little extra buffer, can ramp up to 3000 a day if I have to, and if I don’t have to, could have a few 2000-word days without having a heart attack.
Okay, then. That’s the plan. For now, 2500 words a day, mostly working seven days a week, and allowing myself to enjoy some Christmas time with my family, and hoping for light revisions on LGD.
On to SEAFOX, then. (Which, btw, is still awaiting a better title.)
