It's been a bit over a week now since I started writing The Departure Protocol. I have to admit, it's been slow going, as I mentioned last week as well. It's June 12th today. To keep up the pace of about 500 words/day, I should be at about 6,000 words today. I have 4,600.

Why? What happened?

Partially, it's been a busy couple of weeks. My writing on this project began just as another project around my house started picking up steam. I've been more tired, really.

I've also made an interesting observation about my writing. As I've been writing the first couple of chapters, I see where the time I spent prepping helped but I also see areas where I wish I would have spent more time preparing. In some ways, that has slowed my writing down to some extent as I've had to fill in the blanks as best I can.

But, I'm moving ahead. Despite the slow process, it's extremely exciting to see this story begin to come alive, to finally see the light of day, to get into the heads of the characters and see how they react when put in certain situations. So, I'll keep pushing forward for at least another week before I decide whether my timeline is realistic.

Again, the timeline is important. If my pace doesn't pick up, I'll be a week behind by this time next week. I'm already pushing the end of August to complete this story, which leaves precious little time for any editing. That's really what concerns me at this point.

So, we'll see how it goes, where I'm at this time next week. Regardless though, The Departure Protocol is being written. There's no changing that. If you've read my earlier entries, you know it's a story I've had on my mind for a while and it's a story that wants to come out. We'll just see more about the "when" as I move forward.

Until next week, keep up the writing!