In my last update (How two months got lost) I ended on the cautiously optimistic note of ‘My next goal is the 14th of February, two months after I began my break. We’ll see if I make it.’

I did!

On precisely the 14th of February, I returned to writing my total rewrite project of the novel currently known as The Shadow of the Ruin (more on that later — I’m considering a name change). Over the remaining half month, I made pretty decent progress, clocking up:

• 11 writing days with 3 off days
• 20 productive hours resulting in 16,747 words written
• 6 completed chapters and one partial chapter

For my personal writing speed, that’s all pretty good for a half month’s work. It extrapolates out to over 30,000 words in a full month, which is my soft target for a given month of writing (not that I usually hit that target…)

The project now stands at 67,595 words written of an estimated 120-130k; over half complete. Luck willing, nothing horrible will happen in my life during the next 2-3 months, and I am currently aiming to have the first draft of this new version complete by the month of June. That should give me time to polish and refine over the summer, and hopefully begin a new round of queries and submissions before the end of the year.

For now, I’m enjoying this fragile energy that comes with actually being a productive writer again.