Back to Lulu’s, Back to Work

I was too busy at the beginning of the year to set any writing goals for 2010, so I gave myself a simple one: by the end of the month, set a writing goal. Well, it’s February and after soliciting some friendly advice and considering all the options — novels, screenplays, TV scripts, and so forth, some just for fun, others more career-minded — I’ve finally decided.

In 2010, I’m going to finish my novel Subnetworks. This project (a near-future spy novel)  dropped off my radar several months ago, after a strong start and over 200 pages. Ultimately it got buried under other activities, projects, and stresses; I’m a writer who works on momentum, and letting momentum die can really stop a project in its tracks. But I’ve decided that, since I can’t even remotely handle all the projects that have been bubbling around in my brain, I needed to focus on one. Not finishing Subnetworks would have irritated me to no end, ultimately, so I’ve decided to focus my writing efforts in 2010 to completing it.

At least partially as a symbolic kick-off of this decision, Jenn and I ventured down to Lulu’s for the first time in months yesterday, and I spent a couple of hours reviewing early chapters to try and work myself back into the book’s headspace. I was pleasantly surprised: the writing didn’t horrify me! In fact, I kind of enjoyed reading it, and that’s the idea, right? My plan is to work on it a little bit every day, first working through the 12-plus chapters I’ve already done, then picking up where I left off. If I manage to write a couple of chapters a month, I should have a finished first draft by the end of the year.

So, now I’ve made the plan public, so that I can’t wheedle out of it! Wish me luck!