While the third draft of Camp Follower is out with readers,
I'm engaged in the Chocolate Challenge during the month of February to assist
me in starting the first draft of the fourth book and then moving it forward.
The Chocolate Challenge is a sub-group of the Guppies, who
are, in turn, an online chapter of Sisters in Crime. From the description off
the Guppies Sub-Groups page:
Twice a year, the [Chocolate Challenge] group sets a
month-long writing/editing goal and the members cheer each other on. It's
motivation to get past the dreaded middle of your manuscript. Or a way to
kickstart a brand new project. Plus the most prolific Chocolate Challenger
could walk away with, what else, Chocolate!
The Chocolate Challenge is similar to National Novel Writing
Month, held in November each year, except that instead of a goal of 50,000
words, the Chocolate Challenge goal is usually 30,000 words for the month.
Editing counts as 300 words per hour. However, one of the goals of this
exercise is ditch your inner editor and just let the Muse rip loose on the
page, so I keep editing at a minimum.
In October 2005, I participated in the Chocolate Challenge,
contributed more than 40,000 words to the first draft of Camp Follower, and won
the Challenge. I received so much chocolate from all over the world that I ate
it for months afterwards, even taking into consideration that I shared it with
my family. I also participated in the February 2006 Challenge and added more
than 40,000 more words to Camp Follower. Another challenger took the chocolate
that time, and boy, was I glad, because I hadn't finished the October
chocolate.
I've never been a chocoholic, but I do enjoy a little dark
chocolate (in excess of 70% cocoa content) every now and then. Winning
chocolate isn't my motivation for entering this competition. I receive online
camaraderie in this solitary business of writing, a reason to keep slugging
away at a first draft. And I have an
even greater motivator now than I did back in late 2005, because I have a
publisher. What I accomplish this month puts me that much closer to another publishing contract. To me, that's far better than chocolate!
Total words written on book four as of Thursday night, 7
February: 15,340.