Step on it, man!
I’m not panicking — just aware that I’m slightly off pace. What with the reading and traveling and all this week, and a little fussy wordsmithing, I only pushed out about 5,000 words. That’s 3,400 behind the weekly average I need to hit the mark. And if there’s one thing the publisher has made clear, it’s that marks are meant to be hit.
The first quarter of the manuscript (about 36,000 words) is due on August 13, nine days away, and I’ve got maybe 22 grand in the hopper. So that’s…okay, not so bad. I just need to bump up from 1,200 a day to about 1,600. That’s not excessive.
This week I learned (by sending my editor a chapter with a $100 swear in it) that the book can’t include $100 swears. It was in a quote, from the 14th century no less, but also translated from Late Old French, so there’s some wiggle room there. I’ll paraphrase to “fornication.”
See how easy I am to work with? Oh and ding.