So…..

This last week, I’ve been doing an unplanned writing marathon. It’s been fun.

Particularly when what I really had thought would be a 40K novel turned out to be a 55K novel.

A friend needed a novel for a project, in a hurry. It had to fit a particular theme.

I didn’t have a novel. What I had was a short story that was *perfect*. In addition, I’d always wanted to turn that short story into a novel. So I had a good start to the story as well as to the world.

When I’d plotted out my week, I’d figured I could write 5K per day, which was totally manageable and doable, and finish the novel on time. Maybe even early.

Writer brain did let me know early on that the book was longer than 40K. I believed I had come up with a way of making it shorter, so I would be fine.

Then I reached 28K words, and I realized I was only halfway through.

Damn.

I changed my schedule. For two days, I did 10K a day. The last day was only 7K or so.

I finished on time, which, yay. Blaze is reading it now, and I’ll fix it tomorrow and it will be ready for the deadline.

What did I learn? That it’s possible for me to do even an unplanned marathon. It just takes more patience. I can fit in the words wherever. I still prefer having chunks of time, but I can write in small pieces if I need to.

It wasn’t always pleasant to push myself getting everything done that needed doing. I was pretty tired, and I’m still a little tired.

Not being addicted to caffeine, but being able to use it only when I needed it was essential.

I can write even when I’m really tired.

I’m going to do a long Medium post about this, going through every day. I kept notes this time about what I was doing, as I was doing it.

So, I’m kind of back after being gone for a week. What exciting things are happening in your life?