Sweating With Sven - Update #1

Just because I've never been all that good at doing things by the book, I'm completing Sven's challenge a little differently than everyone else.

For a variety of reasons, I don't write on the weekend. So instead of writing for 77 days straight as Sven demands, my goal is to write 2,500 words a day, Monday to Friday -- OR to write a total of 10,000 words a week. (Yes, I know the math doesn't add up -- I'm giving myself permission to let life interfere if it must, otherwise I'll go mad).

My challenge total is 100,000 words on a variety of projects by May 16. (Yes, I know the math doesn't add up yet again, but I'm also giving myself time to plot and edit. So I guess I'm completely messing up Sven's challenge. Sorry, Sven! I gotta do what works best for me.)

Since today was my first official day as a Svenanite (hey, I kinda like that!), I'm happy to report I wrote 2,586 words on a contemporary short novella, newly titled DON'T LOOK DOWN.



My nifty little gadget above says the book is 24% done. I like the sound of that already. :-)

I'm letting Sven kick my butt!

As I was telling a couple of friends earlier today, I've been severely unmotivated lately. Last year really messed with my routine. Between my company being taken over by another, having to quit that job, having to find another, then learning we'd be moving to Austin and subsequently selling our house and going through stacks of immigration paperwork -- and then finally moving -- things were nutty, to say the least. My productivity plummeted. My self-esteem plummeted (though none of the things that happened were particularly bad for me as a person -- quite the opposite, in fact). The bottom line is that I've been struggling to get back to my happily productive self ever since March of last year. I guess that makes it almost a full year now.

As it happens, we're now settled in, I've finally gotten over feeling homesick... and I find myself out of excuses. The problem is, even with all those excuses gone, I'm still just as unmotivated as ever.

So I'm doing something about it. I'm going to let Sven kick my butt.

I'm sure some of you have heard of "Seventy Days of Sweat with Sven". For those of you who haven't, here's a brief rundown from the official blog:


"70 Days of Sweat is designed to challenge (naturally), support, and encourage those of us crazy enough to write a book in 70 days. At the end, we’re looking for a word count between 60-100K. We’ve built an extra week into this round, so technically you have 77 days to sweat meaning . . . Round 3 will run from March 1 to May 16.

The rules are simple. You agree to write 4 - 6 pages a day (depending on the length of your book) every day between the dates listed above. If you need to take off a day, you make up the pages another. If you don’t like to write 7 days a week, too bad. This challenge lasts for only 10 weeks, and if you have to get up early on the weekends to get the pages done, you do it. (Hey, we all do it! You can, too!)"

*deep breath* I'm ready. What's even better, I have the perfect project. I'll be working on a brand spankin' new, erotic contemporary novel titled BREAKING EVERY RULE. I'm aiming for 90k, though knowing me, it'll likely run closer to 100k.

So why am I telling you this? Because, as Sven says, "Going public with your commitment is about owning it." I guess that means I now officially own it.