I’ve torn out all the pages in the weekly calendar that come before and after my writing period and numbered the weeks I’ve got: 17. I’ve 38 chapters to write in that time—roughly 2 1/4 chapters a week. Although my chapters tend to be short, that’s a lot of ground to cover.

I’m starting off slowly, not expecting more than 100 words a day (and easily doubling that), but looking at this schedule now, I’ll need to start pushing myself harder soon.

So I’ve two targets to keep in mind: the daily word count forward, as well as chapter completion. I’ll start by putting date labels on my splendidly beautiful files, recalling as I do so that that every writing schedule I’ve ever made has proven to be laughably unrealistic. Perhaps this time it will be different? Truth is, I should aim for 3 chapters a week, knowing that there will be times when I only get through 2—or even 1.