Tomorrow is kick off for a lot of people who will be attempting to write 50,000 words in 30 days. This is an entirely achievable goal and I salute every person assault that mountain but I myself will not be taking part.

I have my system of writing and I find it works very well for me. I writer Monday thru Friday and take the weekends off. This keeps me engaged and I avoid burn out.

I will however be starting on a new novel in November. Just yesterday I completed the first draft of my outline for a new SF book. The outline clocked in at 8700 words, not my longest and not my shortest, and I discovered quite a few things about my plot, my characters, and their relationship along the way. I think it is during the outlining phase that I experience the same sort of discovery process that ‘pantsers’ having while writing their first drafts. It is also where the gaps in logic and plot holes first appear to me and I can fix them before doing the pick and shovel work of actually writing the scenes.

Now to draft a synopsis and run that past my potential editor.