Talking Shop: Eric's Writing Challenge Update 14

So, I missed last's week update entirely (more on that below). Let's jump right in with the writing challenge update.

To date, I've written approximately 68650 word toward the 87500 word goal. That puts me about 76% of the way toward the finish line. I wrote about 6250 words over the last two week. I'm not sure what the week by week breakdown was, but it works out to about 450 words per day. 

Now, for the Rinn's Run Update

Total Words Written: 75000 words (approximately)

Total Chapters completed: 35 and change

Percentage completed: Around 94% (theoretical out of 80,000)

Okay, so why did I miss last week's update and why is my word count low? I've been pushing myself pretty hard the last 5 or 6 months. There were a lot of 14-16 hour days in there, which translates to 18 hour days when you add in all the non-work stuff we all need to do. I don't take many days off, unless you count the days that migraines keep me from doing anything. Long story short, I hit a fatigue wall. Obviously, I didn't go comatose since I made progress on the book, but my body had had enough.

I spent most of last week sleeping 12, 14, sometimes 16 hours a day. As you might imagine, that pretty effectively obliterated my routines. I was operating at about 40 percent of the productivity level I was before that. This week, it was better. I'm hoping that next week will get back to something resembling normal. I'm generally of the mindset that you can power through most days with enough willpower and caffeine. That's usually true in my experience, as far as it goes. That said, there are limits to how long and hard you can push the body in the wake of a growing sleep deficit. For me, it seems that number is five or six months. Lesson learned.

On the good news front, though, I think there's a good chance I'll finish the first draft of the space opera this week. 

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Eric Dontigney is the author of the highly regarded novel, THE MIDNIGHT GROUND, as well as the Samuel Branch urban fantasy series and the short story collection, Contingency Jones: The Complete Season One. Raised in Western New York, he currently resides near Dayton, OH. You can find him haunting obscure sections of libraries, in Chinese restaurants or occasionally online at ericdontigney.com.

Categories: space opera, talking shop, writing advice, Writing Challenge