At the Half-way Point...

Yesterday was the last day of the five-day writing marathon over on the CompuServe Books And Writers Community. I wrote 1000 words per day and 1590 words yesterday – a one-day record for the Austin and Kedi story! My total hovers at 40,000 words; it’s hard to achieve an exact count because the WIP is interlarded (Hi Claire! ) with research notes and quotes.
I’m considering joining National Novel Writing Month in November (http://www.nanowrimo.org/). The rules stipulate that you must begin a new novel; if I consider the Ephesus scenes as Act I (Hi Jenny! ), then I can start a brand new “novel” with Austin’s arrival in Rome. Since I always need some sort of outside willpower and enforced deadline, this may help me achieve the 80,000 word-goal for the finished novel. Although 50,000 words in one month is a bit of a stretch, given that I’m on the last week of the 70-Day challenge (Sven says sweat!) (http://70daysofsweat.com/wordpress/) and barely squeaked together 900 words per day.
And yet, all these challenges and monthly exercises have resuted in a lot more writing than if I had been left to my own devices – at that rate the novel might have floundered and come ashore only years from now...