Monday, January 05, 2009

Yet Another Extension

A week ago Monday, on Dec 29, I chanced to look at a calendar, which I had consciously not been doing, and realized there was no way apart from a miracle that I was going to finish The Enclave by Jan 15. So I emailed my editor to see if she was in the office. She was. I explained that no matter what I tried, I couldn't get things to flow any faster than about 2 chapters a week, and sometimes 3. I figured I had loosely 18 chapters worth of material left to go through. At my past and present rate of progress, that would take me 9 more weeks. I could just bull my way through, I said, and let it be bad, illogical, inconsistent, etc. At least then it would be done and maybe no one but me would notice.

She said she wanted it to be the best story it could be and so has given me yet another extension for this book that will not end. Or maybe it's just that from the beginning I underestimated the amount of time I'd need to write it. Because I've been writing for 30 years, and during all that time 2 chapters a week is probably a good average rate for me. Anyway, bottom line she gave me 6 weeks because that worked out well for the schedule. It's now due February 9 and if I make that, it should slide right into their plans for a summer release.

And if I don't? Then I guess God has another plan.

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