I’m going to spoil it for you: This has a happy ending.
And there’s a twist: There wasn’t a deadline.
At least, no deadline set in stone. Let me write you the prologue, set before the main events. I have been taking last looks at The 30-Day Engagement, which will come out on Valentine’s Day. In that book, there’s a group chat, and I had an idea for a novella involving one of the characters in it. And I had the easiest set of expectations ever: write it when you can, and we’ll figure out the rest of the schedule from there. Of course, my idea for Girl Gets Ghosted was perfect for fall, so I had my heart set on it coming out late September or early October, and I dreamed of it being a fun way for people to find me, for it to have an excerpt of The 30-Day Engagement at the end…
Well, as you have noticed, it is–let me check my calendar–October 19, and I’m only halfway through the draft.
How do I recover after missing a deadline when drafting a book?
Late summer and fall knocked me down. I was sick; I was juggling too many things; copyedits on 30DE took longer than I expected to review; stuff kept coming up every time I cleared my schedule. The story I thought I’d be done with by early August still has a long way to go, though as a novella, not too long.
Here’s what I have to remember: first, things happen. Boy, did things happen! And missing this self-imposed deadline may even be for the best, because as amused as I am by the story of Girl Gets Ghosted, it’s (so far) turning out to be a little more chaste than I normally would write, as well as a little more paranormal. That is to say, if I used this story as an enticement to a new reader, they might well be disappointed that my first full-length novel is contemporary and more steamy, and I think that someone coming from the novel might more easily see the novella as a sweet autumn treat. Additionally, the novella is set at Halloween, and it would just be weird to try to do the initial promotion in the off-season. (For more weird? Halloween stories are typically published in July, so they can take advantage of all the run-up and promotions.)
I’ve finally gotten back into the swing of things, and while I’m always analyzing and re-analyzing my progress toward things I want to finish, and that analysis keeps changing, I should have the draft done this month, clearing my slate for November, the traditional month of spewing a novel draft into being. I’ll set the novella aside during that time, and spruce it up in December with fresh eyes before it’s ready for rounds of feedback and copyedits. From there, the rest of the schedule will be expected.
But that’s not really the point. The point, or the advice that I wanted to share, is to build in time for disaster. I know, I know–that wouldn’t have helped this time, as the disaster level was too high. Normally, though, for drafting, I have found that I can estimate a reasonable number of words per day, a number low enough that all I really have to do is blather on about what happens next…and then I have to add another 25% for time-out days.
Yep. My body, my brain, my life requires a 25% cushion. Subject to change.
I calculate it like this:
I can write 1,000 words a day.* I am writing a 100,000-word book. Therefore, I need to schedule 100 work days (1000 words x 100=100,000 words), right? Nope. I need to schedule about 125 work days to allow for the days when nothing gets done. The extra 25 days are for when I get sick, for when I’m stuck in traffic, for surprise visitors and unexpected appointments. Personally, I also schedule vacations and weekends, or two days off spaced apart each week, to get ahead of burnout. And I’m thinking about making the add-25%-of-expectations turn into add-30 to 33%-of-expectations for at least the next year, and seeing how that works with the next couple of projects in the pipeline.
This, of course, doesn’t allow for reviews and additional drafts and everything that comes after–I’m still working on those metrics, plus I super-outline and I write pretty clean to start with. But for me, the draft is really the toughest push, and its completion is the deadline to beat all deadlines; this is the part where I need to know that I can meet the date so that all the other pieces of the book can fall into place, so that everyone else involved in the book’s production can plan and manage their workload and we can all be the most successful. Your mileage may vary–everybody creates differently!
The epilogue to the story: and all was well.
THE END
*Not a real reflection of my daily word count! Tracking and goal-setting is a topic for another day.