The 100-Day Project

I have spent a lot of time complaining about my inability to write lately. It's time to come up with a practical solution. What am I doing? Well, I'm going to give myself one hundred days to finish the first draft of a novel. That's plenty of time. It's approximately 800 words a day (assuming the novel is 80 000 words).

I need to get back to the basics. Making small contributions to the project every day until they build up into a complete whole. I am not going to start the hundred days straight away. I need time to actually plan the novel first. Let's say I start on Friday 5th June. That gives me a week to come up with something. I can dream and plot and plan. I can read well-crafted fiction.

What if I don't come up with a novel idea at the end of that time? I'm not actually worried about that. I will come up with a novel idea by the end of a week. Ideas are not my problem. It's actually sitting down to write out the novel. I am giving myself the luxury of a week so that I don't rush into the wrong idea too quickly.

The purpose of this blog post is for accountability. Even if I don't stick to the one hundred-day project, I'll at least write about why I failed at it. It will give me a chance to reflect. But why start with that kind of negativity? Let's assume I do stick to the project.

What do I hope to get out of it? Well, first, I hope to have a first draft. Something complete that I can teach myself to edit. I also want a sense that I have finished something, that I can finish something. It's been a long time since I've had that feeling. It's a long time since I've felt sure.

So, wish me luck on my week of dreaming. I'll get back to you when I have a solid idea to write about. That should be in one week's time.