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I did eight pages of Merry today, and seventeen of Anita. Yeah, you read that right. Seventeen pages and I just cleared a hundred pages. It’s unusual to hit that kind of stride before I’ve got about half way through a book, and I know that this is not a short book. Merry is over three hundred pages, but though I know where I’m going with it, I have a lot of choices in this section so I’m going a little slower to pick and choose among the choices. I find when there’s a lot of different things that could happen in a section that unless the book is very sure of itself that I’m better off going slow, then speeding through. It saves rewriting later. Of course, if the book is sure then full steam ahead.
So the writing is going great guns, and of course, we leave on vacation tomorrow. It’s not that I’m not looking forward to a trip with my family to some place warm. But, seventeen pages, and I’ve averaged ten pages a day for Merry for the last six days. It’s the longest stretch of that much production on SWALLOWING DARKNESS to date. I’ve hit my stride with the book, and now I have to leave?
It is wrenching to leave a book when it’s at that white heat. So, I’m not leaving the book, just home. The idea is that I’ll write in the morning, except for the morning we go deep sea fishing (early start), and we’ll do vacationy things in the afternoon. But that schedule will only allow me to work on Merry, which is what’s due, not Anita. Unless I hit an incredible streak of production in the morning I can’t make everyone wait on me to work on two books. I’ll feel blessed if I can keep up the momentum on DARKNESS.
But as Sherry pointed out this week there is never a good time for me to take a break from the writing. She’s right. But, dear God, seventeen pages, and I’ve been averaging over ten pages on most days that I sit down and work on this new Anita book. Even for me, the two books are going amazingly well. And now, I’m leaving my lovely office behind. I’m going to be working in a hotel room, or trying to. Yes, I’ll have my computer with me, and my keyboard, and stuff, but it’s not the same.
I’m hoping this will be a successful experiment, though. Since I never stop working, but I want to take more down time, I’m going to try and combine it. Just as the research/vacation earlier this year worked better because I had goals and was working rather than just trying to suddenly relax, maybe working a little on a ‘vacation’ will be the answer to taking more of them. Maybe.
We’ll see starting tomorrow. Wish me luck on the plane ride. Damn phobia.