Carpe Diem

It's been awhile since I last updated.

School is over for the year, and I have two blissfully empty months stretching out before me. No crabby teachers trying to tell me how to do my job, no yelling "Alek, sit down and eat your sandwich" 72 times per lunch hour, and an expected drop in the number of times per day I get hit in the groin (though I can't say that for certain until I see how my girlfriend reacts to me being home every day.) In September, I won't be returning to the school I've been working at the past two and a half years. I have a new location lined up at a program just the street from my place. I am feeling conflicting emotions about that choice, but now is not the time to dwell on that.

The Canada-Day long weekend is almost over. Tomorrow, when I wake up, I will be a professional novel writer. Not that I'm getting paid for my story just yet, but for the first time I can ever recall, I will not be battling with conflicting identities. I will not be "John the writer who is actually a student, and should probably get back to working on that thesis." I will not be "John the writer who is actually a childcare provider, and had better squeeze in another two hundred words before the monsters invade the Y-Room." I will simply be "John the Writer."

I have lofty ambitions as to how I am going to make use of this window of mental clarity. I am determined that I will be finished the first book in the current series I am working on by the end of July. I am already done the rough draft, and have edited over a hundred pages. I want to take things at a methodical pace so that I can produce something approaching my best work, and I think I can manage that in a month devoted to nothing but the first book.

For August, I would love nothing more than to complete the rough draft of my second book. The outline for book two is becoming clearer by the day, and I think it is not unreasonable to expect 2,000 words per day from myself over a month when I ought to have little else to distract me (except promoting my first book, of course!)

These are the goals I am setting out now. Ambitious, I know, but I feel like this summer is one of those 'now or never' junctions where I must throw everything I have into chasing this dream. Stephen King was 26 when he sold Carrie.  I know I may be in for a rough ride if I plan on using that particular idol as a measuring stick, but I can't help it. This is the summer where I produce something I'm proud enough to stand behind and encourage others drop hard earned cash on.

Having said all of that, I'm going to bed. I plan on getting an early start tomorrow.

Onwards, to victory!