Vince’s Daily Journal – Day 15
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**Breaking down my goal to complete the first draft of my novel by 4/29/25**
In my last post, I stated that one of my goals is to have the first draft of my first novel completed by my 33rd birthday. In this, I’m going to break that down into steps. The key for me is going to be consistency, and sticking to this plan. This is far from my first writing project, though none have ever made it to completion, so I already know what my average page output can be, the ways that work best for me to keep track of scenes, characters, and story arcs, as well as some basic world-building (though this one, a fantasy novel set in a fictional world that draws heavily from old Gael and Norse mythos and cultures, is requiring significantly more world-building beforehand). So, here’s the plan to put all that in to practice:
– I will consider writing this book as an actual job. I be ‘at work’ for 6 hours each day, 5 days per week, (from 08.00-13.00 [an hour’s break for lunch and such], as much as I the situation here will allow – I can shift those hours as needed for callouts, Mass, or other things come up, so long as I’m working 6 hours)
– The first phase of this (which I’ve already begun) consists of background research on the Goidelic(Irish-Celtic/Gaelic) and Norse cultures and mythology, world-building, creating notecards for characters/places/things as well as for each scene in the story.
– The second phase is the actual narrative writing. While the first and second phase will overlap quite a bit in the beginning, I will start the second phase by 9/1/24, and by Halloween I will have shifted completely from first to second, and will be putting out a weekly average of 15-20 pages (3 pages a day may not sound like much, but trust me, that’s my output when I’m writing at my best – it can be drastically faster from time to time, but this is a good average) by Halloween.
– At least once a month, specifically on the first of each month, I will post something from the story. It can be an excerpt of a scene, a character study, a tidbit about one of the places or item, it can be anything, as long as it can show that I’m making progress for accountability and (hopefully) get a potential audience excited to read it, increasing demand for the completed book.
– Once the first draft is complete (which will be on or before 4-29-25), I will make copies for my beta readers, and mail them out, as well as post on here that I’ve finished.
By following this plan, I will be able to keep on task and give myself the best chance for success.
