Fast Draft or Why I Need Crazy Deadlines to Keep My Tush in the Chair

Before I had Nyx, I was that writer who would dick around for a week or two and then realize I had a major deadline coming up and spend an entire week chained to my desk as I pounded out chapter after chapter while guzzling massive amounts of caffeine and consuming ridiculously unhealthy amounts of junk food.

 

Now that I have a kidda that style of procrastination and insane write-til-I-drop pace doesn't work. I've had to learn how to, you know, schedule and stuff. I bought a planner and dry erase 7-day calendar and post-its and colored pens and I map out one month at a time.  I choose the projects I need to finish. I decide on a ballpark word count for each one and use my math skills to figure out how much writing I need to complete every day to stay on track. It works well for the most part but I tend to get easily distracted by mega blocks and Facebook and making pretend brownies and checking out Twitter and practicing my ABCs and kicking big purple bouncy balls around the living room.

 

Lately, I've been on the lookout for group support. I did a RoDiWriMo in May, a take on NaNoWriMO at Romance Divas. It worked beautifully and kept  me accountable. Instead of wasting those precious minutes while Nyx napped to screw around on Facebook, I worked hard and hit my goals.

 

This months, I'm doing a Fast Draft with a group of fellow Romance Divas. We're taking the usual 20 pages a day for 14 days and extending it to a full month (all of August.) So far so good for me. We'll see if my enthusiasm holds!