My writing goal last year was to finish the “zero draft” of my WIP fantasy novel. (A zero draft, as defined by N.K. Jemisin, is: “ugly, but the gist of the narrative and dialogue as it came out of your head, with (hopefully) a complete beginning, a middle, and ending”).

And I accomplished that goal (99k words). Huzzah. Now for the hard part:

Finishing the first draft.

That means, a draft that can be read from start to finish without missing chapters, fluctuating character names, or notes to myself such as “make this part better” or “(something interesting happens)”.

To achieve this, I’m aiming for a daily word count of 500 words, either written or rewritten (i.e. editing the raw material of the zero draft). After years of trial and error, I’ve discovered this to be the most realistic goal I can currently manage while working a full-time job (not to mention the rest of general life stuff).

Although the spirit is willing, trying to write 1k words (or beyond) a day ultimately ends in significant burnout every single time for me. This process has been working so far, keeping me engaged on a daily basis but never leaving me feeling so drained I crash and burn.

Here’s a Legend to explain my calendar color coding:

Blue - 500 words, WIP/book

Orange - 1,000 words, WIP/book

Green - 500-1,000 words, other writing (comic scripts, newsletters such as this one, etc.)

Totals:

11,500 words, WIP/book

2,500 words, other

That’s 14,000 words finished this month.

At this rate, I should be finished with my first draft by… August? September? It’s hard to say, because, so far, the chapters are expanding quite a bit. The two main chapters I worked on this month both nearly doubled in size.

I’m keeping myself accountable with these updates. Let’s see how I do!

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My friends Breddy Tidgewater and Helio Novell have started a podcast.

Every episode, they use a random number generator to pick an album from the NME’s 2013 list of the 500 greatest albums of all-time to talk about and analyze. Their first episode was about Patti Smith’s commercial breakthrough, Easter (no. 435 on the list). The next episode is on Laura Marling’s I Speak Because I Can (no. 263 on the list).

They have graciously accepted (and/or are tolerating) me sending them notes, ephemera, and even pre-recorded segments to include. I’ve earmarked roughly 50 episodes where I’ve insisted that I be the guest. Give it a listen!

Issue 3 of SPECTRUM comes out February 19th. We’re going back, baby. Back in time.

Watch the “trailer” below (click on the full frame button so it fills your screen and turn up the volume). The song featured is Robin Verlaine’s cover of Josephine Starr’s “The Pages of Revelation” (you may remember Robin from his appearance in one of issue 1’s historical interludes). You can listen to the full track here.