Writing Progress Report: Bridging the Spheres: 67K and Counting

Back on May 1, I decided it was time to stop procrastinating and start working toward finishing my novel from last year’s NaNoWriMo, Bridging the Spheres. I made a commitment to work on it a little (defined as “write at least 100 words, or do some editing and rewriting”) every day for the next 100 days. I was inspired to commit to this by the Novel in 100 Days website, but I haven’t been following the instructions there. On day 39, when I realized I had added 10,000 words to my novel’s total word count, I felt pretty good about myself.

And then…

(click here to see this picture on Flickr and access more sizes)

Yesterday, I spent the whole day goofing around and doing such fun things as making a mix CD. Then some friends took me out to Disney’s California Adventure for the evening. I never did get around to writing yesterday, but I was having so much fun that I didn’t feel too bad about it.

Today, I have a choice. I can either make today day 41 and keep counting, or start over from 1. As you can see from the above screenshot of the spreadsheet I’ve been using to track my progress, I had initially decided to keep counting from 41. Now that I write this though, I think I may want to start over, so that I can actually follow the instructions on the Novel in 100 Days website.

I think I’ll compromise. I’ll keep counting from 41, but start over with the instructions on the website, actually following a few of them per day until I get caught up. After all, the important thing isn’t what method I use to keep track of my progress. The important thing is that I make it a habit to keep writing every day. I really admire Mur Lafferty’s courage and commitment to come up with a new idea every day for 365 days (this project, called The News from Poughkeepsie, can be found at her blog), and I would like to be doing something every day too, in solidarity and because having someone else in the same boat as me motivates me. (That’s what I like so much about Office of Letters and Light events, as I’ve said before.)

The other thing motivating me to finish this novel is that word is starting to spread about it. Not only did I mention it on the World Fantasy 2008 Podcast, but it’s mentioned in my bio on the cast bio page for MOREVI: Remastered. I think that getting the word out that the novel is in progress is like making a promise that it will be finished someday, and I am determined not to break that promise.