Down to the wire

 Circuit Magician (the tentative title of the sequel to Thirteenth Child) has been giving me fits for months…years, if the truth be told. Many of the problems have been external (I didn’t have any control over when Mom had her stroke), but it’s also just a tough book to do. The middle of a story is always tough for me, and this is the middle book of a trilogy, which means the whole book is middle.

Even so, I swear this book is cursed. Every time I start to really get going, the car breaks down, the stove goes whonky, one of the cats needs a vet visit, the lawyer calls with questions about Mom’s estate, there’s more bad news about the family business, one of my teeth goes and I need a crown… Every time. As a result, I’ve already missed two deadlines, and the third is fast approaching.

June first.

I still have two major plot points to get through, one of which has just turned sharp left and headed out into the unknown. I’m hoping desperately that it doesn’t drag the whole book along with it, or it’ll be 2050 before I get this sucker finished.

This is when a writer needs friends. I have them, and they are good ones. They all listen to my plot woes, ask insightful questions, and poke and prod me to get more words done. Rosemary hauls me out to Sunday brunch every few weeks, takes me shopping for things I hadn’t remembered I needed, then sends me home with good ideas and an urge to get the next bit going. Lois passes on industry news and gossip, watches my cats when I’m out of town, and makes me go out to dinner at least once a week (some weeks, that’s the only time I leave the house besides exercising). Caroline feeds me tea and the best ginger scones in the world, sympathizes for half an hour, then tells me sternly to go write.

And Beth is on the same practical wavelength as I am. We’ve been exercise buddies for five or six years now, and we always go early so she can get to her job by 9 a.m. Yesterday, I asked if she’d be willing to go after work so that I can use my most productive time (right after I get up) for writing without having to get up even earlier (which would be, like, 4 a.m., and that is just not on). She thought about it for a minute and then said, “I’ll do it for a month, if you’ll double your daily wordcount quota.”

That is exactly the sort of deal I would make with somebody, if I knew anybody else who works the way I do. (Though I would probably just ask for an increase, and let the writer pick how much of one…but Beth knows me well enough both to know that I can hit her target and that I would probably try to sandbag if she gave me a choice. So she didn’t.)

And I agreed.

And after thinking about it, I decided to put a weekly update here, for extra accountability.

So that’s the plan. Watch this space to find out how it goes…