As of today, I am officially in fisticuffs with my novel again. I just finished the outline for the FIFTH draft (which includes a lot of major rewrites… sigh) so now I’ll be working steadily (daily!) towards finishing all that work.

I use a charming, home-made progress-tracking calendar to keep me going. I made my new one yesterday, and here’s what it looks like:

How It Works

For every day that I do an hour, I get to fill in a square. If I do an extra hour, I get a star sticker! It may seem silly, but it works. This is what I used to help me finish my second, third, and fourth drafts. Here’s what that calendar looked like:

Look at all that awesome work done! The idea is to make this new, empty calendar as full as the old one. I’m allowed to skip two days a week without freaking out. If I miss three days, it’s time to panic, because that means I’m on the slippery slope that only leads to procrastination, more procrastination, and the inevitable abandonment of my novel that procrastination brings. Yikes! I don’t want that, so I’ll do my five days a week. EVEN IF IT SUCKS.

This hour-a-day strategy saw me through the last three drafts. It’ll see me through this one, too. So here goes! I don’t know how long it’ll take, but I’m going to fill in my calendar until this sucker is done. (You hear me, novel?! Prepare to be owned! Muahahaha!)

Wish me luck!