First Draft Time

I started the first draft of my latest project on Monday. 

Right now it's kind of a mess because I had a false start (and actually, this makes false start #5 or so because this project is a rewrite of something I abandoned.)  The false start I wrote Monday is just chilling behind the one I thought up last night, waiting to make its way into the narrative eventually and looking all sloppy and misplaced.

It's like the ice scraper in the back seat of my car.  What's it doing there?  Nothing.  Taking up space.  When I give people rides, they have to nudge it to one side with their shoe.  I guess I could take in inside and store it in a closet until winter.  I guess I could throw it out and get a new one when I need it, because--let's face it--this guy's seen better days.  But then again, I could also leave it right where it is and have it ready when there's a freak snowfall next week.


The other thing that's disconcerting me is that I'm not moving as fast as I usually do.

I think there's two reasons for this.  First, I'm much busier this week than I have been when I've written first drafts in the past.  I have an article due Friday, my students are getting ready for finals and I'm meeting multiple times a week with some of them, and then a bunch of people told me that I need to watch Supernatural.  Next week, things should open up and I can sit in this coffee shop until they kick me out. 

The other part of it is that I've been in edit mode for so long, that it's taking me longer than I expected to get back into gear for filling a blank page.

So!  This week, I'm setting myself the assignment of 500 words a day.  Next week, I will go up to 1,000 words a day.  Then the week after, I'm kicking it up to NaNo levels of 1,666 words a day.  And, hey!  What a coincidence!  Camp NaNo starts next week. You can follow me/be friends with me here.

Edit: I was wrong, Camp NaNo starts in July.  Oh well.