I Think I Can, I Think I Can

I've been chugging away with new word count on the novel, as I noted my revised/expanded outline is complete, and as of today a new word count of 6,633 has been reached (so about 3,000 words each of the last two weeks). So that's about 10% give or take toward my first draft goal, and while it seems crazy to think I'll reach my self imposed deadline of March 9th, I'm feeling okay. This weekend includes 6 or so hours of secluded coffee shop writing time and next week includes a business trip that will provide several hours of nothing-to-do-but-write time in the the evening. My hope is that by Friday of next week I'll be sitting somewhere around the 15,000+ mark.

Granted, this is all for the first draft (begun anew). After that 3/9 date begins the hard part (and the fun one perhaps) of revising, editing, killing off my darlings and injecting awesomeness where required. After that draft (numero dos) is completed -- let's just say this Spring -- I'll be shipping it off to my workshop group and some other beta readers who will be tasked with telling me how awful it is, where to cut, where to add, and otherwise provide commentaries 'o helpfulness.

And for the visual amongst you, here's a word count meter (beginning 1/24/10) of my progress to date*:



* The previous incarnation of the novel was up to about 125 pages, that's all been set aside and I'm in essence starting from scratch, only this time with a solid idea of how to get from point A to point B.