So, this past week, I was on spring break, and also on writing deadline, and I wrote 9000 words of pretty solid fiction in a week. Publishable quality. It was plotted earlier, which was key, and in a well-developed world, which also helped. But I only actually wrote for maybe 3-4 hours / day.
Which makes me think, yet again, that a novel is 80,000 words, and if I were writing full-time, I ought to be able to draft a novel in two months without too much trouble. And I wonder, yet again, if we should try to work finances so I could give myself a sabbatical, essentially — take a year off to really concentrate on writing full-time, trying to write oh, 3000 words or so daily, and see what happens.
But I do love teaching too. It’s hard. I guess for now, I just keep on writing around the teaching and the parenting, taking advantage of spring break and summers off to get the big chunks of writing done, like academics the world over. More discipline, I think is what I need. Must develop more solid writing habits.
You’d think after doing this for twenty years, I’d have figured this out, but it feels like a constantly moving target, esp. with having small kids / illness. Sigh.