One Week of Marathon Writing

Some of you know that, a week ago, I decided to do a bit of a writing “marathon.” I often “sprint,” writing at top speed for an hour or so at any given time, but the idea of the marathon was, at first, to write a book in a few days. Well, I discovered quite a few things (for instance, I found that it is difficult for me to sustain that pace, particularly because I have a life outside writing; that said, I found that I can actually write 12,000 words in one day–and good words too!), and I didn’t reach my four-day goal–hell, I didn’t even reach that goal in seven days–but I consider this marathon a smashing success!

When I started out, I had a very loose plot for the next Nicki book (Lies)…which is all I ever have for a book.  I can’t work with detailed outlines, but loose notes are good.  In fact, by that point, I had (have, I should say) the loose plot for the remainder of the series (the next four books, including number ten).  I know where we’re going and I have a decent idea of how we’re going to get there, although we might take a detour or two along the way.  The idea starting out was that I know my characters and I know the story–so I hoped to remove any writing snags.  I still had a little research I had to do and when there were spots where I wasn’t positive about something (for instance, I couldn’t remember for certain if the woman who now owns Napoli Pizzeria is named Linda–she is, by the way!), I flagged them so I could keep writing instead of getting bogged down verifying info.  But I wrote as fast as I could.

My original plan was to write 12,000 words the first day (and I did–I stayed up later than planned so I could finish), and then 10,000 words the next three–but I couldn’t maintain that pace.  Still, during those four days, I wrote an average of 6600-plus words each day.  That’s more than I usually write.  Depending on what I’m working on, I might be lucky to write a few hundred words in a day, but most often I will write a couple thousand.  I can definitely say this was a kick in the butt for me–which was what I wanted–and I have a great start on this Nicki book.  What floors me about the weekly amount I wrote (over 35,000 words) was that, if I could do that every week, I could write a decent, full-sized novel in two or three weeks.  I’ve often written shorter novels in a month, but this.  Wow!

So this is the start for reaching my writing goals for 2016.  Here’s what I’m hoping for (although some of you know my plans change based on what my muse decides to do):

• Publish Locked and Loaded (the final Bullet book), goal date February 1
• Write and publish the remainder of the Nicki books (starting with Lies, which I’m hoping to publish February 29, and then publish the other three every three months thereafter)
• Try out Wattpad by writing a tame romance that I will then publish the way I usually do (but with added spice!)
• I have a few standalones I want to write, and I also need to write book 2 in the Wishes series and book 4 in the Tangled Web series, but we’ll see where the muse leads me!

Anyway…in case you want a taste of Lies and you missed the teaser I posted on Facebook last week, here you go!  Don’t forget to add it to your Goodreads TBR (if you haven’t already): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16102430-lies

So far in my writing spree, there have been notable appearances from Sean, Jesse, Will (Nicki’s brother), Jillian, Brandy, Neal, and—finally—Detective Wright!

Without further ado, the excerpt from Nicki Sosebee #10, Lies:

“Maybe today I should just get my nose pierced.”

What? She’d lost her mind.