Thoughts about My Upcoming July Writing Project

So…tomorrow is the first day of July. My first panicked thought is: Ah! How did half of the year escape on me already? What am I doing with my life? Which is then promptly followed by my second panicked thought: Ah! Tomorrow is when my month-long writing project will start! What am I going to spend that time writing?

I can’t do anything about the first panicked thought (unless you happen to know someone who can freeze time), but I have been pondering the second one for the past week and a half.

I’ve decided that I’m going to try and write at least 1000 words a day (sum total: 31,000). It worked well for me last July, despite my delay due to world-building brainstorms. One thousand words is a nice medium – it’s not an overwhelming amount like what I do in November, but it’s not giving me an excuse to write only really short pieces.

I also have a couple of playlists lined up for me to listen to while I’m writing. Because – like many writers I know – we like to have music in the background. It’s especially useful to have when trying to get inside a particular character’s head.

As for what I’m planning on writing for the entire month? Even I don’t have an exact answer for that.

For now, I’m just going to pick and choose certain stories, write them as much as I can, and see where it leads. My biggest problem is that I’m experiencing “story idea” overload. It should be considered a good problem to have, having multiple plots/scenes in my head, but how do I choose which one to work on? Which one will unlock doors and keep me writing?

Answer: I won’t know until I actually sit down and try to form them into being onto a Word document.

Basically, my writing strategy follows my current life mantra: I don’t know what I’m doing, but I’ll figure it out.

Mainly, I’m just hoping that I can succeed where I failed back in the spring. I’ll let you know the outcome in thirty-one days.



P.S. Two days ago, I officially finished reading my tenth novel of the year. I need to kick my game up if I plan on reading more than nineteen books before 2018.

Anyway, A TORCH AGAINST THE NIGHT by Sabaa Tahir is now sitting in my bookshelf instead of on my dresser. I enjoyed it greatly. However, I was tricked into thinking that the series was going to end with this book. But - oh no! - there are two more novels lined up. Of course, I’ll buy them all once they are published, but I was just frustrated at how Helene’s story arc was left off. You go get your revenge, girl! Destroy the Commandant!