A week ago, my plan was to start writing this past Monday. Lo and behold, I did. Finally.This week, The Departure Protocol began to come alive in the form of the first 1,000 words.

Only 49,000 words to go (at least).

That's the good news. The not so good news: for my schedule to work, I need to write 500 words per day or, since I do most of my writing during the weekdays, enough to make up for what I don't write on the weekends. It doesn't take a math genious to figure out that 1,000 words only represents two days of complete writing.

So, I'm already off schedule.

That's ok though. The first chapter is always the hardest and although I had hoped this story with be different considering all the time I spent on the outline, it was not meant to be. The first 1,000 words was a bit of a grind spread out over three days. Then, other writing needs took over the other two days.

Still, I can't complain. The journey has begun and it's only jus the beginning. The story is coming alive and that in itself is exciting. For the next few weeks, I'm going to plow ahead and see how far I can get. My goal for the month is at least 15,000 words, although 20,000 would be ideal.

The next big question: when will I start posting chapters? I think it's unlikely that'll happen before July 1. As I mentioned last week, I want to make sure that my writing timeline is realistic and the only way to really determine whether it is or not is by getting as much writing done as possible this month. If I think it'll work out, I'll start posting chapters. If not, I'll hold them back and take a bit more time with the story.

We'll see how it goes.