life beyond the 8-ball

I’ve complained bitterly enough in the past about having a hard time writing and exercising (or writing and ANYTHING, for that matter), so in a fit of celebration at being out from behind the 8-ball (I apparently need an 8-ball icon…) I got up and went swimming this morning. That plan was nearly thwarted by me being an *idiot* and leaving my goggles, swim cap, shampoo and water bottle at the pool *last* time I went swimming, which was what, a week ago? However, in a fit of “they don’t clean up here very often, do they?”, my gear was still all in the locker I’d left it in. So I’m equal parts appalled and grateful about that. I swam a thousand yard^H^H^H^Hmeters (I will *never* get used to that) and my shoulder is…okay. I really do need about a week’s worth of massages.

Today I’m cleaning house and printing out the DH manuscript during word wars (but I’ll be there, logged in!), because our landlord’s coming over tomorrow and I thought it’d be good to present to him a tidy home. And I realized today that my plan to have the book in by next Friday may be thwarted by the fact that I need to re-read the first 3 books and Kate’s visit this weekend. So maybe it’ll be slightly later than the 15th. No big.

The word wars are going so well that for the first time in, well, forever, I don’t want to take a break. I expect I’ll be doing revisions and whatnot for the remainder of the month during word war time, but I’m really not quite sure what I’ll do when I have actual theoretical time *for* down time.

My thought right now is probably to keep writing, but just during the wars. They’re running from (about) 2-5pm my time and I’m getting 1500-2000 words done during them every day. That rate of production alone will finish a book in ten weeks. That *schedule* would also theoretically allow me to exercise and run errands in the morning before joining the war for social writing. It sounds ideal. I don’t know if it would be–one day last week I got *really* grumpy because I hadn’t written in the morning, but I was still behind the 8-ball, so possibly the sheer amazingness of not having the next book due for five full months would alleviate the “I have wasted half the day” mindset. I don’t know. If not, if it turns out I’m really much happier psychologically if I do some work in the morning, well, I won’t be in the position of *needing* 1500-2K before noon in order to get the necessary wordcount for the day. A thousand words would put me well ahead of the game, and I could still exercise and do errands without any kind of time crunch. (It is, for example, 10:44am as I’m typing this, and I’ve done both and have been home an hour already too, so I could easily go write for a while and my morning would not be in any way squashed.)

I’ve also just realized I’m on the down side of the Walker Papers. DEMON HUNTS is #5. There are only four more to go. That kind of blows my mind.

It also, inevitably, makes me start thinking about what’s next, at which point I have to try to put the reins on my ZOMG I HAVE FREE TIME MUST DO NEW PROJECTS! tendencies. The illustrious , as well as my entire family, has strict orders to not let me sign contracts for more than two books a year from here on out, and I’m trying really, *really* hard to keep that in mind. I expect the odds of me *writing* only two books a year are incredibly slim, but i don’t want to go under contract for more than two. Anything beyond that I’ll write on spec and sell after the fact, either as stand-alones or by writing an entire trilogy to hand over to a publisher all at once.

Right now the only non-contracted-for project I intend to work on is the second Chance graphic novel, which I’ll be pitching to Del Rey as soon as everything’s sorted out with the first one. I have another GN project vaguely in the works, but I think the ball’s in the artist’s court right now (am I right, Lanny? Did I send you all those character sketch writeups and stuff?), so I’m content to let that move along at its own pace.

Beyond that, I still want to talk to Fred about yet another GN idea, and I would dearly like to write a screenplay, and revise RIGHT ANGLES TO FAIRYLAND. And I still have some thought of trying a subscription novel, with my inclination being to write CENTENARIAN to that end. I’m trying to figure out how many subscribers, at $15/pop, I’d need to make it seem worth the time. An absolute minimum of 100, I think. A thousand would obviously be better. :) Anyway, it’s not something on the books (as it were) until at least the second half of the year, but it’s still percolating in my little haid.

See? New projects galore, and that’s really a very restrained list. That’s within the bounds of possibility. It’s…not shrieking at me to get done, which is an improvement over my usual madness. Being beyond the 8-ball makes me feel like I can get to all of those things in reasonable time, without any of it hanging over my head like I’m somehow wasting time by not managing to work on them.

BTW–thank you, Anonymous Person who gave me a gold star for my LJ profile yesterday after I finished DEMON HUNTS. That made me laugh. Thanks. :) However, all of you people who said, “Congratulations! When’s the next one going to be finished?” are horrible and I do not forgive you. >.<

ytd km swum: 40.2
miles to Minas Tirith: 235.5

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