I know there are books out there that tell you how to write the first draft of your novel in 30 days. What you’ll usually find with those is that the novels of which they speak are between 40,000 to 60,000 words. Well, my contractual length requirements are 100k for the contemporaries and 105k for the historicals. And while I did write two-thirds of Menu for Romance in about five or six weeks, it was basically my full-time job and I wore myself out doing it (about 60,000 words, when all was said and done).

Last night, I spent a couple of hours writing all of the dates for when I’m trying to have things accomplished on my wall-calendar and in my day-planner, and then started putting them into Outlook (but was so knackered that I had to give it up and go to bed). As I started putting everything into the calendar, I added some additional details to #7 on the list (the Matchmakers series), which is to write the first draft of Love Remains by October 31. (October is my local writing group’s month-long writing marathon month, like NaNo.) If I can accomplish everything I’ve put on my calendar, it means I will have written three novels in one year, for the very first time in my life. But, as I mentioned yesterday, that’s now my livelihood, so I’d better be able to produce! One of the reasons I feel like I can accomplish this gargantuan feat is because Love Remains is partially written already. It was my third manuscript (the one I wrote prior to Stand-In Groom), though it will be almost completely overhauled. In a way, it’ll be more like a major revision than composing something from scratch. And as I’ve come to find out in the last couple of years, I actually enjoy the revision process more than the composing process!

So how am I going to write three manuscripts in less than 365 days? Well, I’m beginning by setting my goal at writing 1,000 words per day on whichever manuscript is the main focus at the time (right now, it’s A Case for Love). Do the math: 1,000 x 100 = 100,000 words! One hundred days is 14 weeks (plus 2 days), or three and a half months. And there are going to be many days when I’ll write more than 1,000 words, which means it’ll put me that much closer to the goal. And when I’m really in the zone, I can knock out 1,000 words in about an hour.

I discovered in graduate school that I could be in the revision process on one novel (Stand-In Groom) while actively writing another (Ransome’s Honor). In fact, I found it quite invigorating creatively to be working on two projects at the same time.

Now, the only thing I really haven’t been able to calculate into these timetables are the manuscripts that are already with my editors (MFR and RH). So there may be times when the 1,000 words a day is put on hold in favor of working on copy edits or galleys. But the one thing I did that I think will be most helpful to me is that in my day planner, at the top of the column for each day of the week, I wrote in the number of words I should have written by the end of that day. For example, by the end of the day today, ACFL should be at 9,000 words. As you can see by the widget to the right, I’m about 6,000 words off that goal (well, less, because I have about 1,000–1,500 hand-written words to be typed in). But that’s what I’ll be doing the rest of the afternoon today: getting that word count where it should be.

I’m looking at this as a career challenge for me. Can I be one of those prolific authors who seems to have a new book out every few months? Can I earn that “promotion” this year?

How will you challenge yourself this year to take your writing career to the next level?